Grammar tips: perplexed by punctuation of possessives

While I was on vacation, The Fort Pierce Tribune ran another edition of James J. Kilpatrick’s column, “The Writer’s Art.” He tackled a subject with which I struggle every day: the punctuation of possessives.

An example from The New York Times:

“When Mr. Stewart tried to joke about Mr. Obama changing his position on campaign finance, he met with such obvious resistance…”

He explained that changing is a noun in this sense, just as if you were to replace it with ears or smile.

“When Mr. Stewart tried to joke about Mr. Obama’s changing his position on campaign finance…”

An example from The Washington Post:

“Gumbinger was quoted in Stephens’s story as saying…”

He argued to drop the ‘s.’

“Gumbinger was quoted in Stephens’ story as saying…”

Another example from The Washington Post:

“Everyone seemed to believe Raffaello, including Ron Burkle, the supermarket heavyweight and friend of Bill Clinton’s…”

He said to get rid of the double possessive because it’s not referring to another noun.

“Everyone seemed to believe Raffaello, including Ron Burkle, the supermarket heavyweight and friend of Bill Clinton…”

 

Grammar tips: who v. whom

Even though it seems that James J. Kilpatrick’s weekly column, “The Writer’s Art,” is no longer published in The Fort Pierce Tribune, I will continue with my own grammar tips.

Most people aren’t geeks for grammar like me, but it’s always important to learn, even if you don’t like it. The more you read, the smarter you are. Deal with it.

I’ll keep it simple for this week’s grammar tip – differentiating between who and whom. Here’s an example:

“We want to know on who/whom the prank was pulled.”

My former editing professor suggested rewriting the sentence to see if you would put in he (who) or him (whom). Always use the second part of the sentence.

“…the prank was pulled on him (whom).”

Another example:

“We all know who/whom pulled the prank.”

And rewritten:

“We all know he (who) pulled the prank.”

 

Grammar tips: my lesson on conjunctions, commas

The fact that the local newspaper didn’t print James J. Kilpatrick’s weekly column, “The Writer’s Art,” isn’t going to stop me from giving you a weekly grammar dosage. I will give you the brief lesson I gave on the drive down to Palm Beach today.

I’ll start with a simple rule: because never takes a comma. For example: I went to the store because I needed milk.

Because is not a conjunction. You can remember the conjunctions by remembering FANBOYS – for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.

They take commas when they’re between two independent clauses, which has a subject and verb. For example: I went to the store, and I got milk.

Conjunctions don’t take commas if there is a dependent clause. For example: I went to the store and got milk.

Lastly, neither requires nor, and either requires or. For example: Neither milk nor eggs will work. Either milk or egg will work.

Note previous grammar tips from “The Writer’s Art:” “Grammar tips: avoiding redundant tautologies,” “Grammar tips: sentence basics, not so basic,” “Grammar tips: concision editing, often misused words,” and “Grammar tips: referent pronouns made easy.”

 

Grammar tips: avoiding redundant tautologies

In James J. Kilpatrick’s weekly column today in The Fort Pierce Tribune, “The Writer’s Art,” he focused on one of my favorite topics: redundancy.

Some phrases need an extra word because it “helps the cadence of a sentence or clarifies an unfamiliar usage.” For example, instead of using a couple versions, you should instead use a couple of versions. However, Kilpatrick agrees with me that less is more.

He gave the example of a headline that mentioned great masterpieces. “Surely all masterpieces are great by definition,” he said. Therefore, great is unnecessary and gets in the way of us getting to the necessary word – masterpieces.

My editing professor taught us common redundancies, also called tautologies. Here are several: free gift, PIN number, ATM machine, final destination, brief summary.

Note previous grammar tips from “The Writer’s Art:” “Grammar tips: sentence basics, not so basic,” “Grammar tips: concision editing, often misused words,” and “Grammar tips: referent pronouns made easy.”

 

Grammar tips: sentence basics, not so basic

In James J. Kilpatrick’s weekly column in The Fort Pierce Tribune, “The Writer’s Art,” he discussed the placement of parts in sentences. He said to keep the elements of active verbs close together.

Read the following two sentences he used as examples from an English-language newspaper in China:

“Sichuan sends annually about 10 million tons of pork to other provinces.”

“Sichuan sends about 10 million tons of pork to other provinces annually.”

The first sentence sounds wrong, and the second sentence is wrong.

Here’s Kilpatrick’s version:

“Sichuan annually sends about 10 million tons of pork to other provinces.”

He said the elements of this sentence are the subject (Sichuan), the verb (sends) and the direct object (tons). Within the SVO sentence, he keeps all the parts of each element grouped together – providing clarity for the reader.

It seems the correct way to me.

Oh, Kilpatrick briefly mentioned at the end that using “seems like” is redundant, so drop the “like.”

Note previous grammar tips from “The Writer’s Art:” “Grammar tips: concision editing, often misused words,” and “Grammar tips: referent pronouns made easy.”

 

Grammar tips: concision editing, often misused words

If you read the post “Journalists unite, lend extra eyes” from a couple days ago, you know I compared concision editing to trimming a plant to clean it up. Today in James L. Kilpatrick’s column in The Fort Pierce Tribune, “The Writer’s Art,” he said we should “trim our shrubbery” when revising sentences.

The following are examples he cited from The New York Times:

“There is a lot of talk that Sen. Hilary Clinton is now fated…”

“There is a lot that Senators Clinton and Obama need to be talking about…”

And this is how he showed to concisely edit sentences and get rid of the “introductory there:”

“Some observers contend that Sen. Hilary Clinton…”

“Senators Clinton and Obama need to talk about…”

He also taught me something new: “a graduate doesn’t graduate.” The school graduates, therefore:

“…She was graduated from college last year.”

“…Girls have been graduated at a higher rate.”

And he featured something I learned from studying for one of my many AP Style quizzes in my journalism classes: emigrants leave their country for another, while immigrants have come to a country from their native land.

Note previous grammar tips from “The Writer’s Art:” “Grammar tip: referent pronouns made easy.”

 

Grammar tip: referent pronouns made easy

I’m a geek for grammar, so my mom often shows me James L. Kilpatrick’s weekly column in The Fort Pierce Tribune called “The Writer’s Art.” His last one disccussed referent pronouns.

The New York Times printed the following sentences in different issues:

“Nobody wants some sicko drilling in their locker room.”

“The new report is not an argument for anyone to let down their guard when it comes to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”

Although some argue that the rules have changed, I don’t agree it’s acceptable. Anybody, anyone, everybody, everyone, no one and someone are singular and require singular pronouns. Instead of using ‘they,’ the correct pronoun is ‘he or she.’

But ‘he or she’ is just awkward language to me. The way I learned to solve the problem is to make those -ones and -bodys plural words in context, in turn requiring plural pronouns. This is one way to concisely rewrite the sentences from the Times:

“People don’t want some sicko drilling in their locker rooms.”

“The new report is not an argument for people to let down their guard when it comes to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”