Guide to Grammar and Style -- E
From the Guide to Grammar and Style by Jack Lynch.
Comments are welcome.
E-Prime (or E') -- the
"E" stands for "English," and the "prime" means "a slight
variation" in mathematical notation -- designates English with
all the verbs of being removed. Some writers try to avoid
all verbs of being, favoring the more forceful action verbs in their place. So a book
written in E-Prime includes no occurrences of to be in any
of its forms.
Overuse of verbs of being makes writing lifeless, and no one
should object to more action verbs. In fact, beginning writers
may profit from the exercise of removing all the verbs of being
from their writing, since it forces them to find more forceful
means of expression. Inflexibly applying any rule,
though, savors of pedantry, and your fear of bugbears should never lead you into gracelessness. I've written this entry
in E-Prime, and its occasional clumsiness reveals the dangers of
riding any hobbyhorse too seriously. See Action Verbs, Exists, and Passive Voice.
A singular noun, which
requires a singular verb. Do not write "Each of the chapters
have a title"; use "Each of the chapters has a
title" or (better) "Each chapter has a title." See also
Every.
The ellipsis (plural
ellipses) is the mark that indicates the omission of
quoted material, as in "Brevity is . . . wit" (stolen
shamelessly from an episode of "The Simpsons").
Note two things: first, most typing manuals and house styles prefer the periods to be
spaced, thus:
Brevity is . . . wit.
(In electronic communication it's sometimes convenient, even
necessary, to run them together, since line-wrap can be
unpredictable.) Second, and more important, is the number
of periods. The ellipsis itself is three periods
(always); it can appear next to other punctuation, including an
end-of-sentence period (resulting in four periods). Use
four only when the words on either side of the ellipsis make full
sentences. You should never use fewer than three or more
than four periods, with only a single exception: when entire
lines of poetry are omitted in a block quotation, it's a common
practice to replace them with a full line of spaced periods.
One of the
distinguishing marks of clear and forceful writing is
economy of style -- using no more words than necessary.
Bureaucratic writing of every stripe (including academic writing)
pads every sentence with It should continuously be remembered
thats and Moreover, it has been previously indicateds,
and it makes for slow reading. After you write a sentence, look
it over and ask if the sense is damaged by removing a few words
or phrases. Become friendly with the "Delete Word" option on
your word processor. See Wasted
Words.
Effect versus Affect.
See Affect versus Effect.
The
abbreviation e.g. is for the Latin exempli gratia,
"for example." I.e., Latin id est, means "that is."
They're not interchangeable. Both abbreviations should be
followed by a comma.
A tip: the strongest
position in a sentence is often the end, followed by the
beginning. Don't waste the beginning or the end of a sentence --
the most important parts -- with minor words such as
however, additionally, moreover, and so on.
Instead of "However, the paper was finished on time" or
"The paper was finished on time, however," save the
beginning and end of your sentences for more important stuff like
nouns and verbs. Try "The paper, however, was finished on
time."
Dan White
gives an example of the power of the close of a sentence:
"I got hit by a car as I was walking to school this morning."
After the sentence's initial impact you don't hear a single word.
But "As I was walking to school this morning I got hit by a car"
carries me out of my apartment, over the bridge, and onto the
hood in a sequence that sustains my audience's engagement with
today's dent in my morning routine.
Save the end of the sentence for your most important words.
Don't. Something can
be equally important, or it can be as important,
but it can't be equally as important.
Essentially.
See Wasted
Words.
Every requires a
singular verb and singular pronouns. Do not write "Every one of
the papers have been graded"; use "Every one of the papers
has been graded" or (better) "Every paper has been
graded." Ditto everyone: "Everyone must sign his or
her name," not "their name." See also Each and Sexist
Language.
Keep 'em straight: everyday (one word) is an adjective, and means "normal,
quotidian, occurring every day, not out of the ordinary." Other
senses should be two words. So: an everyday event happens every
day.
Unless you're a
professional phenomenologist, you can live quite comfortably
without the word exists in your vocabulary. Instead of
saying "A problem exists with the system," say "There
is a problem with the system" (or, maybe even better, "The
system doesn't work").
Extracts.
See Block
Quotations.