Table Of Content

⑥ m m m d r 唯鳶宍影凸℃ 墨自ﾛゴ L n Q"ickS"7/eso/城o"s 加戸"o伽卿SMe,@DOI 3〃〃”α耐加eOr" α"α〃” VolumelintheEve"y"αyQ'ammarSeries Grammar Despair Quick, Simple Solutions to Problems Like "Do I Say Him and Me, or He and I?" By CarolynHenderson Copyright2012 by CarolynHenderson All Rights Reserved Also by CarolynHenderson LifeIs a Gift (e-book) TheJaneAusten DrivingSchool (e-book) Coming in 2013 PunctuationProblems —Let'sSolve Them Contents Introduction 1 WORDS THAT SOUND THE SAMEBUTARE SPELLED (AND USED) DIFFERENTLY 6 It's and Its 9 You're and Your 12 They're, Their, There 14 Well and Will 19 Thenand Than 23 Two, To, Too 27 Are and Our 34 WRITING MECHANICS 36 Who, That, and Which 37 Who and Whom 41 Formalversus Informal Writing 46 Varying Your Sentence Structure 51 WhatIsa Sentence? 56 Paragraphs Matter 68 Capitalizethe Word "I" 75 HowDo You Capitalize a Title? 76 General Rules for Capitalizing 79 IsIta SintoEnda Sentencewitha Preposition? 82 IsItaSintoBegina Sentencewitha Conjunction?86 Overuse ofWould, Can, and Could 88 Must, Should, and Ought 90 Passive Construction -- a Powerful Tool 92 THINGS WE DIDN'T WORRY ABOUT 150 YEARS AGO 97 "MovingForwardwithIntention"andOtherNon- CommunicativePhrases 99 GenderIssues 101 Do I Use Mrs., Miss, or Ms.? 107 OnlineWritingandKeyWords(SearchEngine Optimization) 110 OnlineWriting- SimpleGraphicDesignIdeas 114 Blogging 116 Howto Write a DecentE-mail 118 Howto Write a Thank YouNote 127 DoISay"HimandMe"or"HeandI"? 130 ThankYou 136 ToMyMother, ThedaughterofPolish immigrants who never, ever letmegetawaywithsaying, "Herand meare going to the movies." Thanks, Mom. Thisisyourlegacy. 0 Introduction This is sort ofa grammarbook. I say"sort of becauseit's moreimportanttomethat yougetyourquestionansweredquicklyandgetback toyourwriting,thanthatyoubeassaultedby restrictiveclauses, prepositionalphrases, andthe accusative versus the subjective case. Forthis reason, I have done my bestto keep grammar terms to aminimum, and to explainthemin sucha waythatyoudon't havetobeanaviddiagrammerof sentences in order to grasp what we're talking about. In otherwords, this is a bookfor people who want to write - and sovmdreasonably intelligent doing so- as opposedtostudygrammar. Mostofusmanage to speakwithsomedegree ofeducated awareness, and as long as you don'tmakenopractice to use no double negativesorparticipate inasimilarbutchering ofour verbal heritage, you should be able to answer manyofyourdilemmas bysimply asking yourself, "Does it soundright?" Themoreyouread- wellwritten,decently edited material - and the more you surrovindyourselfby people whospeakconventionally respectable English, themoresuccessyouwillhaveinexpressingyourself verbally. Thepurposeofgrammar, pimctuation, andspellingis notto makepeoplefeeldumbbecause they don't 1 know whata danglingparticiple is,much less whetherornottheywanttouseone.Norisittokeep Englishteachers employed. Grammar,punctuation, and spelling are toolsthatenableus to understandone another better,becausethere isaconsistency ofhow thingsaredone.Likethissentence,purportedlyset beforeagroupofstudentsbyanamelessEnglish teacher, who told them to punctuate it: Womanwithoutherman isnothing. As the story goes, most ofthe men wrote this: Woman, without her man, is nothing. While mostofthe womenwrotethis: Woman: withouther, man isnothing. Whetherornot the demographicbreakdownofthis is true,thesentenceillustrates apoint:whereyouput punctuationis important, and somethingassmallasa commacanchange theentire meaningofa sentence. Spelling,likewise,ismoreusefulthanitisfrustrating: Ycantwealspelstuffoneticly? It woodbezer. Whilethis plaintive questionseemslogical, ina perfectworldwherephonetic spellingruled, we wouldstillstumbleupondifferences,necessitating rules. The aforementioned sentence could also be spelled, phonetically, likethis: fVi kantwee olspelstuffonetuMe? Itwud be eseur. Grammar, while itseems picky and pedantic (and it is, sometimes; grammarians are as renowned for arguingwitheachotherastheyarepointingoutthe syntacticfoiblesofothers),servesa similarfunction- itprovidesa senseofcontinuityandorderthat enablesus to collectively understandcertainrules, withtheultimate goalofmaking communication easier. I have chosen to focus on issues that come up again andagain,inthe interestsofkeepingthingsshort, sweet, andeasy to understand,and I'm surethat I've missedsomething,somewhere.Ifthat's the case, and thereisawritingquestionthatrepeatedlyassaults you,pleaseletmeknow.Youcanreachmeviathe ContactFormat Steve HendersonFine Artonline (www.stevehendersonfineart.com), whichIco-own with myhusband, SteveHenderson,the one responsibleforthefineart. I have looselyorderedthis bookinto sections: Words ThatSound the Same butAre Spelled (and Used) Differently- whenyoumentiontheconceptof "grammarissues,"theseparticularproblemwords comehurlingtowardyou from alldirections.They aregenerallyaccompaniedbygroansofmental anguish. WritingMechanics- arandomassortmentof writingissues,rangingfromabstractconceptssuchas how to vary your sentence structure to the more concrete,asinwhether ornot youwill get introuble forendingyoursentenceswithapreposition. Things We Didn't Worry about 150Years Ago ~ blogging, e-mailing, offendingpeoplebycallingthem Mrs.insteadofMs.We'll lookatcontemporary writing issues thatJane Austendidn'thave to dream ofworrying about. TheHim and Me and He and I Dilemma- This deservestobe ina categoryall itsown. Youprobablynoticedthatthere's nothingabout punctuationin the table ofcontents, for the excellent reason that this is a separate book ofits own. When I've gotitdone,I'lldomybesttoletyouknow.(If youfollowus on the Steve HendersonFineArt Facebookorsignupforovirfreeweeklye-mail newsletter,Start Your WeekwithSteve at www.SteveHendersonFineArt.com, youwon'tmiss out.Iposteverything ofinterestinthesetwoplaces.) Again, thepurpose ofthisbookistoansweryour questionasquickly aspossiblewithoutinundating ourselves inthedensity ofgrammar. Feelfreetojump through chapters andreadwhatinterests orperplexes you;ifIfeelthatyouneedtoreadonechapterbefore understandinganotherone,I'll letyou know. Keep this in mind: Itispossibletowritewellwithoutknowingthe nuances ofgrammar. It isalsopossibletoknowallofthe nuancesof grammar andbe unableto writewell. Ofthe two, I'll take Option 1. With thatin mind, let's get started.