The Grammar Doctor's Tip Archive

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TIPS FOR SEPTEMBER 1998

"And" and "as well as" aren't interchangeable. Use "as well as" to show that the material following is less important. Never use "as well as" in place of "and" in a series, and NEVER begin a sentence with "as well as."

Sick Sentence: Horses, cows, as well as sheep have been affected by the drought. (No, no, no!) It should be written this way: Horses, cows, and sheep have been affected by the drought.

Healthy Sentence: The toddler was frightened by ghosts as well as real things such as spiders.

One of the newer types of grammatical mistakes—in both writing and speaking–is using a singular verb with a plural subject that includes two singular words joined by "and." A now-abandoned on-screen promo at United Artists theaters featured this mistake: Your comfort and entertainment is our concern. Seeing this sentence always made The Grammar Doctor crazy! "Comfort" and "entertainment" are clearly the subjects, so the verb should be "are." Always check your writing for this new way to be wrong.
Use "toward" rather than "towards." Why? Simple: "toward" is the preferred form. Why? As The Grammar Doctor's book title says, "That's just the way it is."
Learn to spot pairs of words that may be confused, and check the spellings of unfamiliar words. The comic strip "Mother Goose and Grimm" included the phrase "to reek havoc and chaos on civilization" in the last panel on June 8, 1998. Can you spot the problem? "Reek" means "to stink." The correct word is "wreak," a word that is used infrequently, usually with "havoc" or a similar word. Another word not often used is "rubric," which was spelled "rulebrick" (not a word) in materials disseminated by a national nonprofit organization. Always check words like this to save you and your organization embarrassment!
Have you noticed that the preferred number of spaces between sentences is one, not two? Computers have most likely brought about this change.

TIPS FOR OCTOBER 1998

When all parts of a hyphenated expression are grammatically equivalent (e.g., contain no prefixes or suffixes), all parts of the expression are capitalized. Examples: "Off-road Vehicles Prove Dangerous"; "Up-to-Date Information Available Online." (In the latter example, "up" is capped because it begins the title, but "to" is not because it’s not a key word like "date," which is a noun.) Very tricky.

Also regarding titles and headings, remember that the first and last words are always capitalized, as are all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Prepositions of four or more letters (or five, depending on the style guide you use) are also capitalized. "A," "an," and "the" are not capitalized unless they are the first word or follow a colon. The coordinating conjunctions: "and," "or," "nor," "but," "for," "so," and "yet" are not capitalized unless they are the first word or follow a colon, but other "little" words, like "it," "be," and "is," are capitalized.

Be careful when using words that have more than one meaning. "While" is a good example. It's best to use "while" only when it refers to time. When it means "though," use "though," "although," or "even though."

Notice the difference between hyphens and dashes. Hyphens are used within compound words ("one-way street") or to separate syllables at the end of a typed line. The "en" dash (which is longer than the hyphen and located above the hyphen on most keyboards) is the choice for use between words of equal rank ("Taft–Hartley Act," "1998–99 school year").

The "em" dash, which is longer than the "en" dash, is not on keyboards. Each word processing program has a different way of creating this dash, which is used between words to show an abrupt change in thought, to introduce a list, or to set off a group of words containing internal commas. The problem for e-mail and online writing is that these distinctions can't always be made unless they are part of an attached file. For example:"Regardless of the type of document—letter, report, or proposal—your writing should be organized to guide your reader easily through your thought process."
The problem for e-mail and online writing is that these distinctions between hyphens and the two types of dashes can't always be made unless they are part of an attached file.

TIPS FOR NOVEMBER 1998

There is a lot of confusion about using acronyms in sentences. Acronyms are always capitalized, but the words they stand for are capitalized only when they are proper nouns, such as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). If an acronym stands for a description, it isn't capitalized. The acronym MDA (which stands for "mechanical design automation," among other things), is a good example. The words that MDA stands for are simply descriptive of a capability; there is no reason to capitalize them.

The word "headquarters" looks like a plural and is labeled in dictionaries as plural, but it can take either a singular or plural verb. We don't have the luxury of such a choice with most nouns. Rats!

The transitional phrase "most important" is incorrectly written "most importantly" most of the time. "Important" does not modify a verb; it functions as an adjective in a phrase that could be called a sentence modifier. How do I know this? I just do.

Most people likewise do not realize that "-ly" adverbs are not hyphenated in phrases such as "newly discovered plant." If you write "well-dressed gentleman," the phrase "well-dressed" is hyphenated, but a similar phrase, such as "sharply dressed gentleman," is not.

Be careful with abstract terms. Refrain from saying or writing a phrase such as "cuisine served on fine china." "Cuisine" is not tangible and cannot be served. Food is served on fine china. I know which one you'd prefer to dig your fork into.

TIPS FOR DECEMBER 1998

A major style change in recent years is the elimination of apostrophes in plurals of numbers and acronyms. It's now correct to write "CPAs" and "1990s."

It is permissible to place a preposition at the end of a sentence. This "rule" was cooked up in the eighteenth century, when Latin was considered the perfect language and thus the standard by which English grammar should be judged. It is impossible to end a Latin sentence with a preposition, so the rule was artificially applied to English for some two hundred years.

Remember that when "each" is used as a subject or to modify a subject, the verb will always be singular. Examples: Each of the plants is expected to bloom vigorously for many years. Each plant is expected to bloom vigorously for many years.

Which dictionary is the "right" one for you? Answer: no dictionary is an absolute authority. Dictionaries agree on all but a few spelling choices and commentaries on grammar, anyway, so there are very few significant differences for the average person. Of course, the larger the dictionary, the more entries it will have.

It is permissible to begin a sentence with "and" or "but" occasionally–no matter what you've been taught. (I once taught students not to do so.) All the great writers do it, so it can't be all wrong.

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