Grammar refresher for copy editors

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Grammar refresher for copy editors

• Knight Summer Institute
• Pam Nelson
• July 10, 2006

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What well cover

• Best practices.
• Grammar myths.
• Tricky issues.
• Subject-verb agreement.
• Pronouns
• Who and whom
• Antecedents.
• Hodgepodge of grammar and usage points
• Sources for grammar knowledge

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First rule of grammarfor copy editors

• Do not distractthe reader.

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Best practices

• Be sure you know what you think you know.
• Keep your knowledge fresh.
• Consult your best references.
• Stand your ground when its important.
• Bend when you find a good reason.

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Grammar myths

• We dont even need to talk about these
• Splitting infinitives.
• Putting adverbs between parts of a verb.
• Ending a sentence with a preposition.
• Using incomplete sentences.
• Starting a sentence with and, but or any
  other coordinating conjunction.

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Coordinating conjunctions

• For
• And
• Nor
• But
• Or
• Yet
• So

FANBOYS
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Tricky rules of agreement

• Subject-verb

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Rules of agreement

• If the subject consists of two or more singular
  words connected by or, either or, neither nor
  or not only but also, use a singular verb.
• Either Shana or Joanne is going with John to the
  fair.
• Not only a movie review but also a record review
  needs to be copy-edited for AE.

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Rules of agreement

• If the subject consists of two or more plural
  words connected by or, either or, neither nor
  or not only but also, use a plural verb.
• Neither the boys nor the girls have any idea what
  to do at the cotillion.
• Not only the book reviews but also the record
  reviews are missing for Sundays paper.

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Rules of agreement

• If the subject is made up of singular and plural
  words joined by or, either or, neither nor or
  not only but also, the verb should agree with
  the nearer subject.
• Either Joey or his sisters have taken care of
  their mother day to day.
• The Johnsons or their older son drives to the
  airport to pick up the out-of-town wedding
  guests.

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Rules of agreement

• If one subject is singular and the other is
  plural, the sentence sounds better if you put the
  plural subject nearer the verb.
• Either the Johnsons older son or his parents
  drive to the airport to pick up the out-of-town
  wedding guests.

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Two words but one concept

• If two words joined by and represent one concept
  or one action, use a singular verb.
• Jerry Smiths pride and joy is his shiny 1965
  Mustang convertible.
• The size and scope of the flooding after Katrina
  continues to overwhelm Americans.
• The care and maintenance of an antique auto takes
  many hours of the hobbyists time.

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Intervening words

• Look for the true subject of the verb. Dont be
  led astray by phrases and clauses that appear
  between the subject and the verb.
• The budget for bonuses has been depleted.
• The dinosaur skeleton, in addition to other
  fossils, has been moved to a new room.
• The study, along with many others, has led the
  government to restrict the drugs use.

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Intervening phrasesCommon ones that dont affect
the number of the subject

• Along with
• Together with
• And not
• As well as
• In addition to
• Accompanied by

• Plus
• Besides
• Including
• Except
• Rather than
• Not even

These phrases should be set off with commas.
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One of

• Use a singular verb after the phrases one of or
  one of the.
• One of my children has the flu.
• One of the reviews for this week is missing.

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One of

• Use a plural verb after phrases one of those who
  or one of the things that.
• She is one of the senators who want the bill to
  pass this session. (Of the senators who want the
  bill to pass, she is one.)
• I bought one of the copiers that were advertised
  in the flier in Sundays paper. (Several copiers
  were advertised in Sundays paper. I bought one.)

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The one and only

• Use a singular verb after a phrase that includes
  the only.
• Adam is the only one of my children who does not
  have the flu.
• Sara Howe acts as if she is the only copy editor
  who knows what she is doing.

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Indefinite pronouns

• Each, every, either, neither, one, another and
  much are always singular.
• Each has been given the resources he needs to
  complete the task.
• Neither boy wants to play on the team this year.
• Much of what we discussed today was not helpful
  in trying to make the decision.

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Indefinite pronouns

• Other words that are always singular and require
  singular verbs.
• Anybody, anything, anyone, everybody, everything,
  everyone, somebody, something, someone, nobody,
  nothing, no one.
• Anyone who wants the Mustangs to win is going to
  be disappointed.
• Somebody moves my chair every night.

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NONE but the brave

• None can be singular.
• The children are old enough, but none goes to
  school. (not one)
• None of the equipment was stolen in the break-in.
• Or it can be plural.
• None of the experts agree about oil prices. (no
  two)

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THE number or A number

• If the number is the subject, use a singular
  verb, regardless of the noun in the prepositional
  phrase.
• The number of voters rises when parties conduct
  get-out-the-vote drives.
• If a number is the subject, use a plural verb.
• A number of voters find getting to the polls
  difficult.

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Special cases

• Money, time, organizations, food distances and
  diseases often require singular verbs.
• In the 1960s, 3,000 was enough to live on for
  months.
• Three months in prison is a long time. (as a
  unit)
• The United Auto Workers has decided to strike.
• Measles spreads quickly in a dormitory.

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Phrases and clauses

• When the subject of a sentence is a phrase or a
  clause, use a singular verb almost always.
• That the incumbent will be re-elected is far from
  certain.
• Editing entertainment calendars is tedious work.
• Whoever wins the election is likely to face a
  tough adjustment period in the job.

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Find the subject

• In some sentences, the subject appears after the
  verb. Make sure that the agrees with the true
  subject.
• What page are the record reviews on?
• Enclosed are two copies of the disputed memo.
• There are three steps each person must follow.

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Here, there and

• If a sentence begins with here or there, the
  subject is after the verb.
• Here is the problem with teaching grammar.
• Here is the problem with teaching grammar.
• There are 20 students in the class.
• There are 20 students in the class.
• Here is 20 to pay for a haircut.
• Here is 20 to pay for a haircut.

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Plural-looking words

• Words that are plural in form but (perhaps)
  singular in meaning.
• Politics is a difficult business for families.
• The fugitives whereabouts is unknown.
• The news from the front is not good.
• We took a course in statistics.

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Plural-looking words

• But some can be plural.
• The politics of city government are often
  dominated by special interests. (many aspects)
• The mechanics of English are hard to teach.
• The species found at the arboretum include many
  non-native plants.
• The statistics the city manager cited in her
  report were staggering.

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More plural-looking words

• Some words are plural even if they refer to a
  single thing.
• These scissors need sharpening.
• BUT This pair of scissors needs sharpening.
• The odds of success are not very good.

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Latin is alive!

• Nouns with plural Latin endings take plural
  verbs.
• The news media are responsible for spreading the
  false report. (singular is medium)
• The alumni are not going to support tearing down
  the old stadium. (singular is alumnus or alumna)
• The data have been carefully collected. (singular
  is datum)

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The rise of the collective

• Collective nouns that denote a unit take singular
  verbs.
• The jury continues to deliberate.
• The commission approves rules that will govern
  the debate.
• But if the members of the collective body act
  individually
• A herd of cows meander through the canyon on
  their way to their favorite grazing ground.

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Fractional thinking

• Fractions and percentages are singular or plural
  depending on the noun or pronoun following them.
• One-third of the book is a flashback.
• One-third of the customers are Spanish-speaking
  immigrants.
• Half of the cake is gone.
• Half of the voters fail to show up on Election
  Day.

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Were with the band

• Publications may choose follow the form of a
  bands name to determine whether to use a
  singular or a plural verb.
• Outkast performs Friday at the RBC Center.
• The Black-Eyed Peas are moving up the chart.
• But if we are using the word band, we consider it
  singular.
• The band plays its hit at the end of every
  concert.

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Be a pronoun pro
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Cool things about pronouns
How they are like alligators

• Pronouns retain the inflections that were common
  in Old English. That is, they change form to
  indicate their grammatical function.
• So, like alligators, pronouns are evolutionary
  throwbacks.

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Cool things about pronouns

• Pronouns have gender.
• They are masculine (he, him, himself), feminine
  (she, her, hers, herself) or neuter (it).
• They can be classified by person.
• First (I, we) second (you) third (he, she,
  they).

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Cool things about pronouns

• They have number.
• They are singular (I, he, she) or plural (we,
  they).
• They also have case.
• They are nominative (also referred to as
  subjective), objective or possessive.

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Pronoun problems

• Case
• This is the who-whom-whose deal.
• Who is nominative (used as the subject).
• Whom is objective (used as the object).
• Whose is possessive (used as, uh, the
  possessive).
• Antecedent
• This is a number failure.
• We use a plural pronoun to refer to a singular
  noun.
• Or a clarity failure.
• Its just unclear what the pronoun refers to.

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Pronoun problems

• Punctuation
• The dreadful apostrophe mistake!
• Its is the possessive form of it.
• Its is the contraction for it is.
• Whose is the possessive form of who.
• Whos is the contraction for who is.
• -Self abuse
• This is the irritating misuse of the reflexive
  form myself, himself, themselves, etc.

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Who or whom?

• Who/whoever is the subject of a clause.
• Who is responsible for making English so
  complicated?
• Please tell whoever needs to know that I have
  updated the file.

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Who or whom?

• Whom/whomever is the object of a verb or a
  preposition or the subject of an infinitive.
• To whom do you wish to speak?
• We are interested to see whom the voters choose
  Nov. 2.
• We didnt know whom to call when we found the
  dead cat lying in the middle of our cul-de-sac.

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Complication

• If the pronoun is the subject of the infinitive
  to be, the choice is trickier.
• Who does the rock star want to be when he takes
  the stage? (The rock star wants to be who.)
• Who was the intruder thought to be? (The intruder
  was thought to be who.)
• Think of the pronoun as a subject complement and
  use the nominative.

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The -m trick

• If you can substitute the pronoun him or them
  in the construction, use whom.
• Or you can turn the sentence structure around to
  find the right case.
• You wish to speak to HIM use whom.
• The voters choose HIM use whom.
• We could not persuade THEM use whom.

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And another thing

• People are who, not that, most of the time.
• The pollsters try to find voters who are
  undecided.
• But if the person is part of a class of people,
  you can use that.
• She is the kind of reporter that always
  pencil-checks copy carefully.

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Figuring it out

• Isolate the phrase or clause.
• Rearrange the words.
• Substitute he/him or they/them.
• Figure out how the phrase or clause is
  functioning in the sentence.

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Up the antecedent

• Make sure that the pronoun agrees in number,
  person and gender with the noun or pronoun that
  it refers to.
• The sophomore class elects its officers today.
• The couple left their troubles behind and flew to
  Maui.
• The teacher asked everyone to get out his or her
  pencil for the test.

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Up the antecedent

• Make sure that the pronouns antecedent is clear.
• When Gloria set the pitcher on the glass-topped
  table, it broke. (what broke?)
• The pitcher broke when Gloria set it on the
  glass-topped table.

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Up the antecedent

• Make sure that the pronoun HAS an antecedent.
• After braiding Anns hair, Sue decorated them
  with ribbons. (What is the antecedent of them?)
• After braiding Anns hair, Sue decorated the
  braids with ribbons.

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Up the antecedent

• Watch out for a pronoun that appears to have a
  possessive noun for an antecedent.
• Lottie Maes mother died when she was 30. (Who
  was 30?)
• When Lottie Mae was 30, her mother died.
• OR
• Lottie Maes mother died at 30.

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Indefinite problems

• Sometimes, the number of indefinite pronouns
  confuses us
• These are singular anybody, anyone, anything,
  each, either, everybody, everyone, everything,
  neither, nobody, no one, somebody, someone,
  something.
• These are plural all (mostly), both, few, most,
  several, some.

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Gerund weirdness

• Use the possessive form of a pronoun before a
  gerund (a verbal that ends in ing and acts as a
  noun.)
• The mayor couldnt understand why his taking a
  vacation with a city contractor was a problem.
• The chance of your being hit by a rock is very
  slim, but wear a hard hat anyway.

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Hodgepodge Issues that only copy editors care
about
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At our discretion(matters of style)

• Since when we mean because.
• Between, instead of among, for more than two.
• While when we mean although.
• There at the beginning of a sentence.

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Due to/Because of

• Due to is used in this construction
• The flood was due to a break in the dam. (Due
  to is adjectival use it as a subject
  complement.)
• Because of is used in this construction.
• The town was flooded because of a break in the
  dam. (Because of is adverbial and tells why.)
• See Malcolm Gibsons explanation at
  www.ku.edu/edit/because.html.

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Hopefully

• Writers have used hopefully as a sentence
  adverb for years, but the word fell into disfavor
  in the 1960s.
• Purists insist that the word means in a hopeful
  manner, not it is to be hoped.
• Best advice Avoid this word and change it when
  you see it, just to head off the purists wrath.

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Irony/ironic/ironically

• Writers sometimes use ironic or ironically to
  describe something that is merely an odd
  juxtaposition or a coincidence.
• Ironically, the sisters funeral was in the same
  chapel where they were baptized five years
  before. (Is it truly an outcome that might be
  different from what is expected?)

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There, you go

• Sentences that begin with there can often be
  changed, but you dont have to change every one.
• There is a tide in the affairs of men that taken
  at the flood

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Each other/one another

• The Associated Press Stylebook doesnt allow much
  leeway on this. It is not a matter of grammar as
  much as a matter of style.
• Use each other for two people or things one
  another for three or more. But use either for
  indefinite number.

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May/Might

• May and might express different degrees of
  likelihood.
• I may go to the party suggests that I probably
  will go.
• I might go to the party suggests that I am less
  likely.
• I might have to go to the party if I am unable to
  come up with a good excuse suggests a
  hypothetical.

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May or Can?

• The rule we learned in third grade still applies.
• May implies permission.
• Can implies ability.
• The junior may take the 500 level course.
• The junior can pass the 500 level course.

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Like/As

• Like is a preposition. Use it before a noun or
  pronoun.
• We should hire another copy editor like Caroline.
• Use as or as if before a clause.
• As I told you earlier, we should hire another
  copy editor.
• The editor looked at me as if I had two heads.

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Hyphens

• Compound verbs can be hyphenated or solid.
• Air-condition, home-school.
• Downshift, downsize, hitchhike.
• The only advice is to check the Associated Press
  Style or a dictionary and hyphenate if the word
  is not listed.

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Hyphens

• Verb-preposition combinations are not hyphenated.
  
• Break up, cross over, drive in, make up, mix up,
  push up.
• But the corresponding nouns often are not
  hyphenated.
• Breakup, crossover, drive-in, makeup, mixup,
  pushup.

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Hyphens

• Compound modifiers used in front of a noun are
  hyphenated.
• Well-known people seek privacy at the isolated
  lodge.
• Sherry applied for a full-time job.

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Hyphens

• Compound modifiers used after the noun are
  hyphenated if they are a subject complement with
  the verb to be.
• People who are well-known seek privacy at the
  isolated lodge.

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Other land mines in copy

• Homonym confusion principal-principle,
  peak-peek, hoard-horde, etc.
• Wrong word choice enormity to mean big.
• Misplaced modifiers Walking through the windy
  city, my hat flew off and into the gutter.

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What grammar book addiction looks like
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Sources

• The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin,
  McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Tenth edition, 2004.

• Garners Modern American Usage by Bryan A.
  Garner. Oxford University Press, 2003.

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Sources

• Paul Brians Common Errors in English,
  www.wsu.edu/brians/errors/
• Common Errors in English Usage by Paul Brians,
  William, James Co., 2003

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Sources

• Words on Words by John Bremner, Columbia
  University Press, 1980.

• The Careful Writer by Theodore M. Bernstein,
  Atheneum, 1983 (also Free Press, 1995)

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Sources

• Working With Words, A Handbook for Media Writers
  and Editors by Brian S. Brooks, James L. Pinson
  and Jean Gaddy Wilson, Fifth edition, Bedford/St.
  Martins, 2003.

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Sources

• Writers Digest Grammar Desk Reference by Gary
  Lutz and Diane Stevenson, FW Publications, 2005.

• Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker, Bedford/St.
  Martins, 2004.

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Sources

• Capital Community Colleges Guide to Grammar and
  Writing, http//grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/in
  dex.htm
• Jack Lynchs Guide to Grammar and Writing
  http//andromeda.rutgers.edu/jlynch/Writing/

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Sources

• The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University,
  http//owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/
• Grammar Handbook at the Writers' Workshop,
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
  www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/writer_resource
  s/grammar_handbook/grammar_handbook.htm
• The Tongue Untied, A guide to grammar,
  punctuation and style for journalists,
  http//grammar.uoregon.edu.

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Sources

• Malcolm Gibsons Wonderful World of Editing,
  www.ku.edu/edit/
• Daily Grammar, www.dailygrammar.com/
• WebGrammars list of common mistakes,
  www.webgrammar.com/commonmistakes.html
• Dr. Grammar, www.drgrammar.org/

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Sources

• Columbia Guide to Standard American English,
  www.bartleby.com/68/
• American Heritage Book of English Usage,
  www.bartleby.com/64/
• The Kings English by H.W. Fowler,
  www.bartleby.com/116/
• Towson University Online Writing Support,
  wwwnew.towson.edu/ows/