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TIPS FOR JANUARY 2000

• Use "-self" pronouns ONLY when they refer to an earlier word in the sentence. One type intensifies the word it refers to, e.g., "He himself is responsible for the damage." (It is not essential, and the sentence would make sense without it.) The reflexive pronoun is essential to the sentence structure, serving as an object. For example, "She cut herself accidentally" (direct object).
  
  

• Following up on the above rule, I want to warn you NEVER to use "myself" as a subject, as in a sentence such as "Myself and my buddies are planning a Super Bowl bash." "Myself" has no previous word to refer to, and it doesn't fit the definition of either type of "-self" pronoun.
  
  

• The suspending hyphen rule offers a way to eliminate clutter. Instead of writing "knowledge-oriented and service-oriented positions," you can write "knowledge- and service-oriented positions," omitting the first "oriented." The first hyphen is the suspending hyphen. This technique also works when the repeated word is the first word, as in the phrase "woman-owned and -operated."
  
  

• "Database" is one word, but "data processing" is two words. English is sometimes (maybe usually) unpredictable and illogical.
  
  

• "Onset" and "outset" may seem like synonyms, but they are used in different contexts. "Onset" is most commonly used to refer to the first signs of a disease or symptoms, whereas "outset" is more general, meaning "at the beginning." (e.g., "At the outset, we thought it would be easy to finish the project in three weeks.")

TIPS FOR FEBRUARY 2000

• Use "who/whom" to refer to people but "which" to refer to nonhumans. By the way, companies, teams, and other organizations are NOT humans! (e.g., "The company that/which," not "who/whom") If a pronoun refers to both people and things, you can use "that." (e.g., "The people and places THAT the book covers. . .") You CAN use "that" if the reference is only to people, but this usage is not preferred.
  
  

• Distinguish between "few" and "a few." "Few" is negative, implying "not many." By contrast, "a few" is neutral, meaning "some." If you say "The company has few options," that's not good news for the company. But if you say "The company has a few options," that's much better.
  
  

• Omitting articles like "a" in the first sentence above can obviously change the meaning. Some people tend to omit articles ("a," "an," and "the") in letters, proposals, lists, etc., to save space or out of habit. This practice, called telescoping, should be done consistently—if done at all—and should be done ONLY for space reasons. Example: Boy saves child in backyard swimming pool. If this is a headline, this is OK. In a sentence, however, the sentence should read, "The boy saved the child in her (the, his) backyard swimming pool."
  
  

• CD-ROM (all caps and hyphen) is the proper way to write this term. If you don't have an up-to-date dictionary, you may not be able to determine the correct form for this or other technology-related words and phrases. (No, I'm not getting a kickback for recommending that people buy a new dictionary.)
  
  

• Even though they come from the same Latin root, "service" and "servitude" are NOT synonyms, as one of my friends thought. She wanted to use "servitude" in an article about serving on the board of a nonprofit group—because she was tired of the word "service," which she thought had been overused in the article. I reminded her that it's better to repeat a word than to use a word that doesn't fit the context.

 TIPS FOR MARCH 2000

• Distinguish between "competing" and "competitive." If you say, "Internet-capability is critical for competing companies," you're referring to two or more companies that are competing with each other. However, if you say, "Internet capability is critical for competitive companies," you imply that all companies that want to be profitable (competitive) need to be connected to the Internet.
  
  

• The adjectives "selected" and "select" are used in different contexts. As an adjective, "selected" is a form of the verb "select," which means "to choose." It would be appropriate in a sentence such as "The selected items were set aside by the manager." The adjective "select" means "excellent," "outstanding," or "exclusive." For example, "This choice is available on select flights" (here the meaning is "exclusive" or "certain").
  
  

• "Classic" and "classical" are sometimes confused. "Classic" generally means "standard," "excellent," or "authoritative," as in the sentence "This is a classic example of putting the cart before the horse" or the phrase "classic car."
  
  "Classical" has several definitions, most of which refer to Greek and Roman art, literature, and culture or to music of a certain style or era. One definition, however, is similar to that of "classic": "designating or of a specified area or course of study that is or has been standard or traditionally authoritative; not new, recent, and experimental." Example: "classical political theory" or "classical management science." There is a fine line between using "classic" and "classical" in these last examples, but most of the time the distinction
  is clear.
  
  

• "Optimum" and "optimal" are synonyms, but there is one slight difference. "Optimum" can be both a noun and an adjective, but "optimal" is only an adjective (meaning "most favorable or desirable"). Therefore the best practice, in my view, is to use "optimum" only when a noun is called for, as in "The optimum would be to have everyone work at 100 percent efficiency."
  
  

• "Conflict" and "conflicts" are obviously two forms of the same word. The plural form of the noun, "conflicts," should be used to refer to more than one specific conflict, e.g., "There were several conflicts on this issue in city council meetings over a two-year period." As a singular word, "conflict" can refer to a specific identifiable conflict, or it can be used to refer to the more abstract term, e.g., "Conflict is to be expected when difficult issues are discussed." In this case, the plural form would be incorrect. A subtle difference, perhaps, but still important.

TIPS FOR APRIL 2000

• For reasons of logic, pluralize words to agree with other words in a sentence. For example, if you were to say, "All the dogs have their own run," the singular noun "run" is not logical. If there is more than one dog, the sentence implies that there is more than one run. So the sentence should read, "All the dogs have their own RUNS."
  
  

• Use "an" before an abbreviation such as "MBA" because this term begins with an "em" sound (i.e., a vowel sound) rather than a consonant sound. If you say "master's degree in business administration," you would use "a" before it because the term begins with the consonant sound "m."
  
  

• Generally, periods and commas go inside quotation marks; other punctuation marks go outside quotation marks. Example: She talked about "the perpetrators"; however, I thought there was only one in "The Tell-Tale Heart," which is one of my favorite short stories by Poe. (This rule does not refer to direct quotations. More on that next month.)
  
  

• How do you spell "dotcom"? I've seen it four ways: "dot com," "dot-com," "dot.com," and "dotcom." Though there is no standard, you'll have to pick one if you have occasion to write this term. My gut feeling is that it will eventually be spelled "dotcom."
  
  

• Do not say or write "these kind of people" or "those type of trees" or variations thereof. Since "these" and "those" are plural, you should use "kinds" and "types" with them. For singular words, say "this kind" or "that type."

TIPS FOR MAY 2000

• When writing direct quotations, place final punctuation marks inside the quotation marks. For example: "Where do you want to put the sofa, Mother?" (Otherwise, question marks go outside quotation marks. See April 2000 tips.)
  
  

• Use double quotation marks, not single quotation marks, unless you have quotation marks within quotation marks. In the latter case, single quotation marks always go within double quotation marks. For example: He said, "Let's have an 'in your face' attitude about this challenge."
  
  

• When writing the title of a book or other literary work, report, etc., omit the initial "the" or "a" if the title is modified by one or more words. For example: Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" (not Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath").
  
  

• Distinguish between "onto" and "on to." For example: Businessmen have managed to hold on to a prestigious position in American society. "Hold on" is really the verb in this sentence. "Onto" means "on top of," as in the sentence "The child climbed onto the bed."
  
  

• Italicize words or phrases discussed as words. For example: "The word dog is not related to any other word in any other language. It appeared in the English language from who knows where hundreds of years ago." To be certain you're talking about the word rather than what the word represents, add "the word" or "the term" or "the phrase" before the word or phrase if it isn't already present.

TIPS FOR JUNE 2000

• A clause modifying a date is always set off by a comma. For example, "In March 1990, when she assumed her new position. . . ."
  
  

• Something that is very irritating to me is the capability of creating an ellipsis (three periods showing omitted words) with one keystroke rather than by typing the periods individually. The problem I have is that this computer-generated ellipsis does not include spaces between the periods, which should be there (see above tip). This ellipsis looks particularly strange when there is a space before and after it but not between the periods (e.g., "she assumed her new position ... and").
  
  

• One of my pet peeves is the omission of one of the hyphens in constructions like "50-year old man." As this phrase is now written, "50-year" modifies "man," and "old" modifies "man." In other words, he was a 50-year man, and he was also an old man. Of course this is ludicrous–everyone knows that a 50-year-old person is not old!
  
  

• Redundancies continue to be part of our vocabulary: "unexpected surprise," for example. Isn't a surprise always unexpected? And then there's "false pretenses." Could there be such a thing as "true pretenses"?
  
  

• An expression which isn't technically a redundancy but is nonetheless irritating is "senseless violence." In the contexts in which this expression is used, the violence would never be thought of as sensible.