Guide to Grammar and Style -- S
From the Guide to Grammar and Style by Jack Lynch.
Comments are welcome.
Saxon Words.
See Latinate
versus Germanic Diction.
Second Person.
See First
Person.
In this century, at
least, the semicolon has only two common uses: to separate the
items in a list after a colon (as in "The following books will be
covered on the midterm: the Odyssey, through book 12;
passages from Ovid's Metamorphoses; and the selections
from Chaucer"), and to separate two independent clauses in one
sentence (as in "Shakespeare's comedies seem natural; his
tragedies seem forced"). The first is obvious enough. For the
second use, a simple test is this: if you can use a period and a
new sentence, you can use a semicolon. In this second use, the
semicolon can always be replaced by a period and a new
sentence. In the example, "Shakespeare's comedies seem natural.
His tragedies seem forced" is correct, so a semicolon can be
used. It's unsafe to use a semicolon anywhere else.
A sentence should
contain one idea, though that can be a complex or compound
idea. The most obscure sentences in academic writing are
sentences filled to bursting. If your writing lacks clarity, check to see if a long, bad
sentence might make two short, good ones.
This isn't to say that all sentences should be short. Long
sentences add variety, and some ideas are too complicated to fit
into seven words. But don't turn your simple ideas into
monstrous sentences, devouring line after line without mercy.
One idea, one sentence.
A sentence
fragment is a group of words passing itself off as a sentence
without having a subject and a verb. Like this. Which is a bad
habit. Picked up from advertising. Not for formal writing.
Serial Comma.
See Commas.
The movement away from potentially sexist
language has been a mixed blessing. It has replaced the
obviously exclusionary Workman's Compensation with
Worker's Compensation, but it has also produced
abominations such as waitperson instead of waiter
or waitress. Most of the time it requires only a little
sensitivity. But perhaps the most confusing issue is the use of
the third person indefinite pronoun,
as in "Each student is responsible for revising
his/her/their/one's papers." Which pronoun is correct?
This is a delicate question, and there is no one solution.
Each student is singular -- the is instead of
are proves it -- so the colloquial their (a plural)
doesn't agree with the verb, and
is not grammatically correct. We use this often in speaking --
"A friend of mine called me." "What did they say?" -- but,
although many writers have used it (see examples from Jane
Austen), it often makes for bad formal writing today.
English once had an indefinite third person pronoun, one,
that helped out in certain situations; but "One should do this"
sounds too much like British royalty for informal writing, and
the word has fallen out of general American use.
Some people now advocate a new set of gender-neutral personal
pronouns: favorite sets are sie, hir, and
hirs; zie, zir, and zirs; and
ey, em, eir, and eirs. I find such
neologisms merely irritating. Besides, readers who haven't yet
been taught the code will have no idea what zirs means.
. . . Leaving his and her, or some
combination of the two. "Each student is responsible for
revising his papers" is the traditional usage, and assumes
the masculine pronoun stands for everyone, but to some readers it
suggests male chauvinism. "Each student is responsible for
revising her papers" is another possibility, though it can
sound patronizing (matronizing?) and seem to beat the reader over
the head. "Each student is responsible for revising his
or her papers" or "his/her papers" are grammatical and
nonsexist, but become positively clumsy after fifteen or twenty
appearances.
There are several ways out. One is to mix the occasional his
or her together with his's and her's
separately; this cuts down on suggestions of sexism without
making your writing clumsy. Another is to use his
sometimes, her at other times, although this doesn't feel
natural to most writers (yet). Finally, you can avoid the
problem altogether and make your subject plural whenever
possible: "All students are responsible for
revising their papers." (There's nothing wrong with
recasting a sentence to dodge a
problem.)
Ol' Doc Jack's advice: avoid their with singular subjects
in writing, and shy away from his/her (see Slashes). His or her is
probably the best solution, although you should work to avoid
very clumsy sentences.
See Each and Every for singular nouns that require
attention, and see a short piece by Carolyn
Jacobson on Gender-Neutral
Language. There's also a Web page devoted to Gender-Neutral Pronoun
Frequently Asked Questions (GNP FAQ).
There is
an old distinction, more common in British than in American English, but
which comes up from time to time. To wit: will is usually
the simple future indicative: "this will happen," "you
will be surprised." Shall is related to the
subjunctive, and means "let it be so," which you might see in
legal or business writing: "The employee shall produce all
required documentation," "A committee shall be appointed,"
and so forth. (They're not just predicting that the employee's
going to do it or the committee is going to form; they're
declaring that they must, or at least should,
happen.) But this rule works only for the second person (you) and
the third person (he, she, it, they). The first person -- I and
we -- reverses the rule, so "I shall do it" means I'm
going to get around to it, while "I will do it" shows your
mustering your resolve (let it be so).
A favorite example to clarify the two: "I shall drown, no
one will save me!" is a cry of despair, simply predicting
imminent death -- both are simple futures. "I will drown,
no one shall save me!" is a suicide vow, a declaration
that no one had better try to stop me.
I know, it's confusing, but it's nothing to worry about. Just
don't throw shall around unless you know what you're
doing.
Slashes are far too
common, and almost always betray a lazy thinker: by yoking two
words together with a slash, the writer tells us the words are
related, but he doesn't know how. Replace the slash with
and or or. In a phrase such as "Gulliver
encounters people much bigger/smaller than he is," write
"Gulliver encounters people much bigger or smaller than he
is." Instead of his/her, write his or her. See And/Or.
Avoid using "so" as an intensifier,
as in "It's so hot," unless there's a that clause
(though the word "that" needn't appear in less formal writing):
"It's so hot that the asphalt is melting," "It's so hot I'm
thinking of moving to Siberia." "So" on its own, where "very"
belongs, is a no-no. [Entry added 11 July
1999]
Often the word "to"
alone will do the trick.
The spelling
checkers built into most word processors leave a lot to be
desired, but they're not all bad. Whereas grammar checkers tend to give at
least as much bad advice as good, spelling checkers are usually
right when they tell you a word is misspelled (only names and
rare words are likely to be stopped incorrectly). The problem,
though, isn't false positives, but false negatives
-- when the spelling checker tells you something is right when it
isn't. If you type to instead of too, the spelling
checker will let it slip right through, since both are legitimate
words. Typos are merely venial sins, but if you have any question
about the meaning or usage of a word, use a real dictionary, not
a spelling checker.
So there's nothing wrong with using a spelling checker to spot
slips of the fingers. Just remember that a computerized spelling
checker doesn't absolve you from the need to proofread everything carefully.
An infinitive is
the form of a verb that comes after to, as in to
support or to write. A split infinitive -- a favorite
bugbear of the traditionalists --
occurs when another word comes between the to and the
verb. Some people prefer to keep the to next to the verb
at all times, and though grammar experts are divided over this
rule, it's probably better to avoid split infinitives whenever
possible. Instead of "Matt seems to always do it that
way," try "Matt always seems to do it that way."
Adverbs often insinuate themselves
between the to and the verb, as in "To boldly go
where no man has gone before," or "To always keep a watch
on your bag."
Don't let split infinitives become an obsession; there are times
when split infinitives are clearer or more graceful than their ostensibly more
grammatical cousins.
Anyone who's
studied a foreign language will be glad that English has almost
entirely lost the subjunctive it once had. Grammarians have a
hard time defining subjunctive; don't worry if you don't
follow.
Unlike the indicative, which indicates that
something is true, the subjunctive expresses a wish, a command,
or a condition contrary to fact. Archaic English is full of
subjunctives, as in "Would that it were" and "Thou shalt not."
The English subjunctive still shows up in a few places, most
often in conditions contrary to fact, where we use were
instead of is: "If this were any heavier [but it's
not -- a condition contrary to fact], I couldn't lift it"; "If
she were to say that [but she's not], I'd leave."
Some also classify shall as a subjunctive (see Shall versus Will).