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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.
