The Word of the Day Is . . .

Every year, Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary adds new words. The addition of words starts with reading by the Merriam-Webster editors, who are looking for words in "their natural habitat for real evidence of the language in use." The new words are selected based on new meanings and on frequency of use. The 2012 words added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary include (and are quoted—with apologies to those with sensitivities to certain words):

aha moment n (1939) : a moment of sudden realization, inspiration, insight, recognition, or comprehension [Oprah Winfrey's signature phrase]

brain cramp n (1982) : an instance of temporary mental confusion resulting in an error or lapse of judgment

bucket list n (2006) : a list of things that one has not done before but wants to do before dying [popularized by the movie title]

cloud computing n (2006) : the practice of storing regularly used computer data on multiple servers that can be accessed through the Internet [technology]

copernicium n (2009) : a short-lived artificially produced radioactive element that has 112 protons

craft beer n (1986) : a specialty beer produced in limited quantities : microbrew

earworm n (1802) 1 : corn earworm 2 : a song or melody that keeps repeating in one’s mind ["this summer's example being the inescapable Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen."]

energy drink n (1904) : a usually carbonated beverage that typically contains caffeine and other ingredients (as taurine and ginseng) intended to increase the drinker’s energy

e-reader n (1999) : a handheld electronic device designed to be used for reading e-books and similar material

f-bomb n (1988) : the word fuck — used metaphorically as a euphemism

flexitarian n (1998) : one whose normally meatless diet occasionally includes meat or fish

game changer n (1993) : a newly introduced element or factor that changes an existing situation or activity in a significant way

gassed adj (1919) ... 2 slang : drained of energy : spent, exhausted

gastropub n (1996) : a pub, bar, or tavern that also offers meals of high quality

geocaching n (2000) : a game in which players are given the geographical coordinates of a cache of items which they search for with a GPS device

life coach n (1986) :  an advisor who helps people make decisions, set and reach goals, or deal with problems

man cave n (1992) : a room or space (as in a basement) designed according to the taste of the man of the house to be used as his personal area for hobbies and leisure activities

mash-up n (1859) : something created by combining elements from two or more sources: as a : a piece of music created by digitally overlaying an instrumental track with a vocal track from a different recording  b : a movie or video having characters or situations from other sources  c : a Web service or application that integrates data and functionalities from various online sources ["Whether it's a politician contradicting him or herself with excerpts from different speeches shown in quick succession or Danger Mouse's Grey Album, mixing Jay-Z with the Beatles, we've come to expect combined and rearranged elements that bring new perspectives and new creativity to our culture with mash-ups," says editor Sokolowski. "It's a recent phenomenon, made possible with digital editing, and it has a fun and descriptive name."]

obesogenic adj (1986) :  promoting excessive weight gain :  producing obesity

sexting n (2007) : the sending of sexually explicit messages or images by cell phone

shovel-ready adj (1998) of a construction project or site : ready for the start of work 

systemic risk n (1982) : the risk that the failure of one financial institution (as a bank) could cause other interconnected institutions to fail and harm the economy as a whole [the global financial crisis]

tipping point n (1959) : the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place

toxic adj  (1664) ... 4 : relating to or being an asset that has lost so much value that it cannot be sold on the market

underwater adj (1672) ... 3 : having, relating to, or being a mortgage loan for which more is owed than the property securing the loan is worth

You will note that many of these are just additional definitions for words that have been used for years (and sometimes centuries). It is comforting to me to know that while our language is constantly changing, Merriam-Webster is making an effort to keep up. Learn them, use them correctly, and prove to everyone just how "current" your language is!

Grammar Giggles - Dashing Through The . . . What?

I stole this from a friend's Facebook page today. I'm VERY glad I live in Arizona.

I Am Anxious . . . Eager . . . Ready for Christmas!

Anxious and eager are two words that are easily confused. There is a difference.

The dictionary.com definition of "anxious" is "full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune." It is derived from the Latin anxius which means "worried, distressed." Anxious comes from the same root as anxiety. That should help you remember that anxious has a bit of a negative connotation.

Eager, on the other hand, means "keen or ardent in desire or feeling; impatiently longing." It is something you are looking forward to doing or having. Something that makes you anxious is something you are dreading.

I am anxious for the final exams because I didn't study and don't feel that I'll do well.

I am eager for the final exams because I studied hard and am ready for the semester to be over.

Since I got my shopping done and everything wrapped two days early, this year, for the first time in many years, I am EAGER for Christmas to get here!

If you want more proofreading fun, there is now a Proof That Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/192879267503552/) where I repost from other grammar and proofreading Facebook Pages and other sites for your entertainment and education. I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. My best present this year is your continued support of this blog and the articles that I've written for the NALS docket. Thank you! 

 

Grammar Giggles - In Honor of the Season

Even other than the whole bills created by Christmas thing that this picture reminds me of, there are so many other things wrong. Errors include my number one pet peeve--an apostrophe used to make a word plural--and a comma that is not only outside the closing quotation mark, but a comma that would be better as a period inside the quotation mark. Here is wishing you and yours a very Merry (and bill-free) Christmas!

Confusing Contractions

Contractions are used to indicate where letters are missing in a word. I think that because there may be apostrophes involved, contractions and possessive pronouns are often confused. If the word shows possession, use an apostrophe as necessary to show that possession. (See Astrophail!) If there are letters missing from a word, the apostrophe shows where those letters are missing. Some of the most confusing examples are:

its (possessive)                       it’s (it is OR: it has)

their (possessive)                     they’re (they are) OR: there’re (there are)

theirs (possessive)                    there’s (there is OR: there has)

your (possessive)                      you’re (you are)

If you're not sure which is correct, test substituting "it is, it has, they are, there are, there is, there has, or you are," whichever is appropriate, in place of the word that is confusing you. If the substitution does not make sense, it is not a contraction, so you should use the appropriate possessive form.

The dog was chewing on its paw. ("Chewing on it is paw" does not make sense.)

 HOWEVER: It's time to get ready to leave for the party. ("It is time" does make sense.)

He said, "Your car is leaking oil." ("You are car" does not make sense.)

HOWEVER: She said, "You're welcome" when he thanked her for the gift. ("You are welcome" is correct.)

Their house was beautifully landscaped. ("They are house" does not work.)

They're in their house with all the lights on. ("They are in their house" is correct.) 

Try the substitution test if you aren't sure if a contraction is appropriate. If it is not, use the proper possessive word. In legal documents, contractions are not used as they are really used for more informal, friendly writing. A legal document is more formal and in an effort to avoid any confusion and keep it more formal, contractions are rarely appropriate. Again, however, this may be a matter of style and preference for a specific attorney. So go out and use contractions at will--except in legal documents and where it isn't a contraction. 

Grammar Giggles - Peas on Earth and Good Meal Toward Men

My son found this for his blog project on Christmas light fails/wins. I love Christmas decorations more than a lot of people, but if you're going to spell something out, you should make sure it is at least spelled correctly. Otherwise, you are displaying your ignorance for all the world to see. 

Em Dashing and En Dashing Through the Snow

I always knew there were differences in dashes and their uses, but I didn't understand the difference and now find that I've been using them wrong. In the interest of educating us all, let's dash right into it!

An em dash is called that because the dash is as wide as the capital letter m. If your word processing program doesn't have the em dash special character, use two hyphens with no space between. Whether you use an em dash or two hyphens, do not use spaces before or after. For instance:

She never tells the truth—ever!

The two-em dash indicates when letters are missing from a word, as in:

          Ms. K—— was the anonymous lottery winner.

An en dash is half the length of an em dash but longer than a hyphen. It means “up to and including” and is used to connect numbers in a range, for example:

          The contract is located at Bates Numbers COR43956–44012.

You should also use an en dash for a minus sign.

Make sure that any dash ends up at the end of a line rather than at the beginning of a line. You would write:

          She has some college—

          a paralegal degree I believe.

NOT:

          She has some college

          —a paralegal degree I believe.

Apparently you are not supposed to use a hyphen for a dash—which I have been doing wrong for a very long time! Hyphens are used for hyphenation and for compound words, but not in place of a dash.

So now we’ve all learned something (or a least I have). You may now dash on knowing you are using your dashes correctly.

Grammar Giggles - Voodoo Doughnuts

During a recent trip to Portland and the infamous Voodoo Doughnuts, I found this sign that, while it is a sweet remembrance of a man who was apparently a good friend of Voodoo, is rife with grammatical errors, including "Consutlant" rather than "Consultant" and the use of the ordinal figures in the date - which is incorrect when the date is complete with the year. I almost felt guilty even taking the picture, but not guilty enough not to share it with you!

Lists, Bullets, and Punctuation

Lawyers love bullets, letters, or numbers in a vertical list. I see those lists capitalized and not, with periods and not, with commas and not. So what is the correct way to show a vertical list? You can use bullets, letters, or numbers - any of those is correct and a matter of personal style preference.

You should capitalize the first word of the list if it is a complete sentence. If it is not a complete sentence, you can choose whether or not to capitalize the first word, but if you make the choice to always capitalize the first word, you won't have to try to decide if it is a complete sentence or not. Capitalizing every time has my vote!

As for whether or not to use a period, if each entry on the list is grammatically complete, or if the list completes the introductory sentence, use a period, exclamation point, or question mark as appropriate. If it is a single word list entry or a sentence fragment, you can choose whether or not to use terminal punctuation.

For example:

Can you give me instructions for:

• Changing the oil in my car.
• Finding the proper air pressure for my car tires.
• Filling the windshield wiper fluid.

If you read each of these separately, it is a complete sentence (i.e., Can you give me instructions for changing the oil in my car), so capitalization and periods are correct. Avoid using commas or semicolons and the word and in these lists.

If, however, you include this group of items together in a sentence, it is treated differently. For example: 

Can you give me instructions for (1) changing the oil in my car, (2) finding the proper air pressure for my car tires, and (3) filling the windshield wiper fluid.

No capitals, the use of commas, and the word and are all appropriate in this case.

When your list is more like a shopping list or an inventory or if the introductory sentence is complete, do not use commas or periods.

 My favorite electronic devices are:

• iPhone
• iPad
• Laptop

The other issue I frequently see with these types of lists is parallel treatment. In my car example above, the words changing, finding, and filing are parallel. This is something to check when proofreading so that your list does NOT read:

Can you give me instructions for:

• Changing the oil in my car.
• The proper air pressure for my car tires.
• Windshield wiper fluid filling.

While each of those list entries is correct by itself, they are not parallel. Lists are useful and probably necessary, as long as they are set up correctly.

Grammar Giggles - Vacuuming

Be careful about vacuuming your water or your music at this car wash. Thanks to my brother Alan for sharing this with me.

Me, myself, and I

In this post I hope to pass on to yourself and others the importance of the proper use of the -self and -selves words. Just writing that sentence made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The -self and -selves words are reflexive pronouns meaning they "reflect" back in the same sentence to the personal pronoun such as me, you, him, her. Think of the reflexive pronoun as reflecting in a mirror and it needs the pronoun to make the reflection. The phrase "me, myself, and I" is correct because myself reflects back on the reference to me. However, the song title "Dancing with Myself" is not correct because there is no pronoun for myself to reflect. If it were "I am dancing with myself," it would be correct because then the myself is reflecting back on I. Using myself in a sentence as the subject of the sentence is wrong. Using myself without a pronoun to reflect back on is wrong. I can't tell you the number of times I see and hear something like "Jane went to the mall with Mary and myself." There is no personal pronoun in that sentence for myself to reflect. If you take Mary out of the mall party, would you really say "Jane went to the mall with myself"? I certainly hope not! So the sentence should be changed to "Jane went to the mall with Mary and me" because Jane would go to the mall with me and not with myself whether Mary was there or not.

Unless your sentence contains a reference to you already, you should not use myself. The same goes for yourself, themselves, himself, herself, etc. Unless you've already mentioned you, them, him, or her, you can't add -self or -selves. Personally I think there are very few instances where any of the -selves fit or are necessary, so just don't use them. Trust me, using myself does not make you sound more intelligent. In fact, just the opposite is true. If you must use it, however, make sure it reflects back to the appropriate pronoun. If the -self in your sentence can't reflect something, just don't use it. You can guarantee that is a way to make yourself very happy!

Grammar Giggles - Drink Sign

I saw this in a little sandwich shop I went into recently.  Yoda must have been in charge of signs that day.

Time For A Quickie

Sometimes I have issues to share, but don't think there is enough information for an entire blog post, so I've gathered a few random topics for this week.

• Towards. I see this all the time and it's a personal pet peeve of mine (along with incorrect use of apostrophes as pluralization - but I digress). While both "toward" and "towards" are correct, "toward" is more common in the US. Grammar Girl's quick tip is to remember that Americans like shortcuts, so we cut the "s" off.

• Punctuation at the end of headings. Where you use headings as standalone headings, they should NOT have a period. If the heading is an exclamation or question, you should use those punctuation marks, but not periods. If the heading is a run-in heading (meaning the paragraph follows immediately after the heading), do use punctuation, including a period.

• Capitalization in headings. Basically it is whatever the author prefers - capitalize each word, capitalize each word including prepositions over three letters long but not prepositions under three letters long, capitalize only the first letter of the first word, or all caps all words. My personal preference is the first letter of each word in the heading, but use whatever style the author prefers. My tip is BE CONSISTENT. Pick a preferred style and stick to it throughout the entire document.

• Centering titles. Something I see a lot is a title that is supposed to centered and appears to be centered except that there is an indent of five spaces set up on that line, so it is not exactly centered in the line. If you put your cursor on that line and check to see if the indent on your ruler is set and change it if it is, you will be centered. Soon you should be able to tell by looking at it whether it is centered or not.

• Emails are documents too. Sometimes we forget that emails are a reflection of us too. We send far more emails to far more people so it is even more important to be grammatically correct than it is in documents. Treat your emails like you do your documents and spell check and grammar check them before hitting send. People WILL judge you based on those kinds of mistakes in your emails.

• Be careful about changes. One of the reasons I redline edits for my attorneys is because I don't want to assume that I know what they want. Sometimes what I think it should be is not what is intended. I had a friend recently who wrote an article and in the editing it ended up to read "tact" rather than "tack" even though her original was correct in context. It is frustrating as an author when something that has your name all over it is edited by someone else and it ends up wrong when your original was correct. Don't ever assume you know more about grammar than your author. You very well may know more technically, but changing words can sometimes change the entire meaning of a sentence. Be very careful and be absolutely sure of your edit before you just make a change without approval.

Those are my quickies for this time. I hope you learned something and are still enjoying the blog! Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Grammar Giggles - Splitting infinitives

I regularly receive information from one of my favorite charities on how I can help through volunteer opportunities and donations. I recently received this in my email and it made ME giggle, so I knew it was destined to be a Grammar Giggle.  

Were you confused too? I just have to wonder how many bras, shapewear garments, and sleepwear items they expect to sell to my charity. Since this week's blog topic was split infinitives, I couldn't resist. The last sentence in the email would have been much clearer if it had said they "will make a $2 donation to Charity for each . . . ."  I have changed the names to protect my charity and the department store because my charity could use the donations . . . and a proofreader (and yes I have volunteered!).

To boldly go splitting infinitives

Infinitives are a type of verb with the word to in front of it. For instance to run or to leave. Although common practice dictates that it is OK to split infinitives, be careful that your sentence makes sense. Using a split infinitive can change the meaning of your entire sentence or leave your reader wondering what you really mean. For example:

Mary decided to quickly leave the party. 

While correct, this sentence is a bit unclear. Try moving the offending adverb (quickly) before or after the infinitive (to leave). 

Mary decided quickly to leave the party.

Now you know that Mary made a quick decision to leave.

Mary decided to leave the party quickly.

Here Mary left the party quickly. Keeping the infinitive phrase together helps both sentences make sense. However, one of the most famous phrases of all time for all my Trekkie friends was a split infinitive - "To boldly go where no man has gone before" - where "boldly" splits the infinitive "to go." Using either "To go boldly" or "Boldly to go" doesn't have the same impact as "To boldly go" for Star Trek purposes. Sometimes it just works. 

It is important to be cognizant of what your sentence will mean to your reader. Watch for Wednesday's Grammar Giggle, which is a perfect example of a split infinitive making a sentence have an entirely different meaning than what is intended.

Grammar Giggles - MARTA

From a friend.  I love that I have friends from around the country noticing errors in signage.  This one was seen on the MARTA train, the Metro Atlanta train system.

Besides the obvious capitalization problems, they've left out a word in the first bullet and have an unnecessary comma in the second.  For all the world to see . . . 

Ellipsis marks . . . spaced or not . . . that is the question

It seems that schools these days are teaching young lawyers to leave out the space between the ellipsis marks or perhaps they are being taught that strategy as a space saving maneuver for the briefs that have page limits. I regularly see the ellipsis marks squished together with no spaces. The ellipsis marks - periods with spaces before and after each period (. . .) - are used where quoted material is not included to show where that material has been left out. Perhaps the new spaceless ellipsis mark is because they are learning the shortcut in Word to insert ellipsis marks, but without spaces. My "go to" grammar reference manual says there should be spaces, so don't get caught up in leaving spaces out because Microsoft says it is OK.

To review when to use ellipsis marks, if the writer is leaving words out of a direct quotation, use ellipsis marks. If the omitted language is at the end of a regular sentence, use the ellipsis marks followed by the punctuation needed to end the sentence. For instance if the complete sentence is a question, you would include the ellipsis marks, with spaces, a space after the last ellipsis mark, and then a question mark. For instance, "Can someone explain the process . . . ?" (The original question was "Can someone explain the process used to solve this problem?")

If the omitted language is between sentences in the quoted paragraph, use the ending punctuation for the first sentence, space and ellipsis marks, and then the next sentence. For example, "The research was done on Black Friday shopping at the mall. . . . The shoppers last year were rude and exhausted." If, however, you are using just a portion of a quote within a sentence, use just quotation marks and not ellipsis marks as long as the quoted section is complete.

Ellipsis marks are a valuable tool for making sure quotations are correct and reflected accurately. Without ellipsis marks, you would have to either include entire quotations or a reader wouldn't know for sure that it is not an exact quotation. Just be sure that the writer is not omitting a critical part of the quotation, ellipsis marks or not. You need to make sure that partial quotations being used don't leave something critical out that might be against the purpose for the quotation in your document. That might give your opponent all the ammunition he needs to ruin your lawyer's reputation with that judge forever.

Grammar Giggles

Thanks to my sister for sharing this one with me. So many things wrong with this sign. 

Some that I notice right away:

• How can a photo be closed? I assume they mean photo DEPARTMENT.  
• The comma is not appropriate.  
• I'm not sure what "prolems" are, but imagine they are not as bad as "problems."  
• I don't know about you, but I was always taught that proper nouns (like names of streets) should be capitalized. Apparently, this person was only taught to capitalize the first word in a sentence. The last sentence isn't even a good sentence with all the words missing. 

Having a sign with these many errors is almost worse than having no sign at all. Maybe I should make up a grammatically correct sign for them to use next time and drop it off. As long as their copier isn't having "prolems."

And starting a sentence with a conjunction might be OK.

Back when I was learning grammar and diagramming sentences, using a coordinating conjunction such as and or but to start a sentence was against all rules. Now I find out that it was probably against the rules because it was an easy way for our English teachers to make sure we didn't have sentence fragments. The use of a conjunction to start a sentence is a good way to draw special attention to that sentence. However, it is very informal and conversational. Because of that, it won't work in a legal brief or other "formal" writing. If you want to use a coordinating conjunction to start a sentence, make sure you are using it for emphasis and be very careful it is not just a sentence fragment. Here are some examples:

Groucho Marx wrote in his thank you note: "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."

Tell her to return my voicemail message. Or else.

These are both very good examples of starting sentences with coordinating conjunctions for emphasis.

Tell him to come to my office. And read the report.

This is a fragment. The sentence starting with the coordinating conjunction doesn't make sense and doesn't need special emphasis. It is more of an afterthought.

The danger of  starting sentences with coordinating conjunctions is that doing it too much quickly loses its effectiveness. I still don't like it and change it in most documents I proofread. Whether the attorney author accepts my changes is quite another thing, but at least I've made my point.

So the basic rule is to use coordinating conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence sparingly for emphasis but not in a formal writing.  And not when I'm proofing your work.

Grammar Giggles

I made my friend Tara turn around during our trip to Seattle so I could get a picture of this one!  The difference between Your and You are (You're) is important!  This would be so much funnier if it was correct!

Font Size Does Matter

At the NALS Annual Education Conference and National Forum I attended in Portland this past week, I learned an unbelievable amount of information, including a name for something I see a lot -- a Frankenbrief.  A Frankenbrief is a brief that has had many people working on parts of it and then it is all put together into one document.  There are many problems with a Frankenbrief, including the flow of the document from so many different styles of writing by different authors, consistency with defined words and capitalization, justification issues, and different font sizes. When working on a Frankenbrief, you should automatically check the big things like the defined terms and consistency issues, but it is also important to check the little things, including justification or non-justification (being consistent with author preference although I personally think it is easier to read non-justified text) for each separate paragraph and font size.  There may be just a slight difference between 12 point and 13 point font, but someone who looks at a lot of typed documents (like a judge or a law clerk) can tell when there are different font sizes.  If you get a judge who is a real stickler who might find some 12 point font mixed in with the 13 point font required by the Court rules, the possibility does exist that he or she would not accept your document as deficient because of the font size.  It is just one more thing that makes a difference and shows the reader that you are paying attention to the details that will make their task of reading your document just a little bit easier.

Grammar Giggles

A real example of how important proofreading is.  This was sent to me by a friend who caught it before the document left her office, but both she and her boss missed it in the first few rounds.  This is a mistake I make a lot.  Can you find the error?

Cap It!

Deciding whether or not to capitalize a word is sometimes confusing.  We know to capitalize proper nouns, which are the official name of a particular person, place, or thing.  Trade names, trademarks, and business names should all be capitalized as the owner of the name prefers (subject to some grammar rules - see below).  If you don't know what they prefer, confirm it by searching for the home page on the Internet and seeing how they treat capitalization.  For example, I see this spelled wrong more frequently than it is spelled correctly:

As you can see from the office.microsoft.com website, Microsoft capitalizes both "P's" in PowerPoint.  Thus, being lazy and only capitalizing the first one is just plain wrong!

Also remember not to expect that your reader knows what the product is that you are describing.  For instance, "The Phoenix pawn shop had 10 stolen Rolexes" is more appropriately stated "The Phoenix pawn shop had 10 stolen Rolex watches" since your reader may not know that Rolex is a watch.  If, however, the product name describes the product, it is not necessary to further describe it, as in "My daughter's favorite Easter candy is a Cadbury Cream Egg."

Where the trademark officially begins with a lowercase letter, it still falls under the "normal" English capitalization rules because, as the "official" name of a thing, it should be written with an initial capital letter.  For example, the official lowercase "craigslist" would be "I found my treadmill on Craigslist."

craigslist

However, where the name begins with a pronounced lowercase separate letter followed by a capitalized letter, it should be the official name unless it starts a sentence or otherwise should be capitalized based on the normal grammar rules.  For example "EBay had the best deal on Mary's iPod." is correct because it starts a sentence, even though it is not the correct trademark.  It would be better reworded to "Mary got the best deal on her iPod on eBay."

Take the time to research proper capitalization.  Companies register trade names and trademarks for a reason and it is important to be correct when using them.  It shows that you are interested in quality work product.

Grammar Giggles

My sister shared this with me.  Remind me not to take this particular walk trail!  In some cases, punctuation makes ALL the difference.

One Space or Two?

Your sentence ends and then what? One space or two? When I learned typing way back in the day it was always two spaces. Apparently, somewhere along the way, the experts forgot to tell me that it changed. The typewriter I used back then was monospaced type (although it WAS electric!). Even with the advent of the IBM Selectric Executive proportional type, it was still double space after the ending punctuation. Now with computer fonts that are nearly all proportional, a single space is preferred. It is a typographer rule that has been in place since the early 20th Century in Europe and in place with American typographers not long after. It is not only the typographers, but also the major style guides (including the Gregg Reference Manual), who use the one space rule.

It is important to use correct rules pursuant to your chosen style guide and to stick to those rules, but it is more important to be consistent. If your writer prefers two spaces, use two spaces and be consistent. If they don't really care (and other than the micromanager, it really shouldn't matter that much), use one space and be consistent with that.

Using only one space is a huge learning curve (or maybe just for me). In fact, in preparation of this post, I had to go back every single time and change the two spaces after every end punctuation to one space. It's hard to let go of things learned over 40 years ago, but it is not impossible. I'm going to spend this week making a concerted effort to use the correct one space rule rather than two spaces. Who's in?

Grammar Giggles

I was originally interested in this Justin Bieber story days ago just because I was actually there (and didn't realize that's what was happening).  But today's headline teaser ... again ... caught my attention for a different reason.  Seriously local Fox News.  "Loosing his lunch"?  As opposed to "tighting his lunch"?  Losing and Loosing are different -- learn it!

You can quote me

Quotation marks and apostrophes are important, but when proofreading, make sure the STYLE of the apostrophe and quotation marks are the same throughout the document.  Either curly or straight marks are fine depending on personal preference and, of course, consistency.  Choose a style and stick with it.  There is a way to set your preferred style of mark in Word so that as you type, that style is used.  However, when you (or the author) cuts and pastes something from another document, it may not adopt the style of your document.  It is a very small thing that can make a huge difference.  Global search and replace for quotation marks and then for apostrophes will fix the consistency issue easily.

Speaking of quotations, one thing you should always try to do is to check the language of the quotation to make sure that what is quoted is exact.  Attorneys who draft their own documents and type information from another document sometimes miss a word, miss a line, or otherwise unintentionally "adjust" a quotation.  When something is quoted, you are saying to your reader that you have taken the exact language from somewhere else and are inserting that exact language into your document.  It is extremely important that language that is quoted is right.  If your reader (and heaven forbid it is a judge) figures out it is not an exact quote, you will lose credibility.  Even worse, if an important quote is not exact, the other side will have a heyday with that and your attorney could lose the entire argument over it.  Find the original document and confirm the quotation.  If you can't access the original document on your own computer system, don't be shy about asking the author for the document.  It is THAT important.

If a short quotation is included, it can be set off by quotation marks within the paragraph.  If, however, the quotation is more than about four lines of text, it should be offset in a separate paragraph that is indented on both sides.  If the quotation is indented, do not use quotation marks.  The reader should understand that the indented language is quoted so quotation marks are unnecessary.

Quotations are a big part of legal matters and it is really important that they are correct.  You can quote me on that!

Grammar Giggles

As promised, this has been going around Facebook and Pinterest for the last several months, but makes my point about serial (or Oxford) commas pretty clearly.

Commas: Serial and transitional and interrupting, oh my!

Commas seem to be a real issue.  Apparently, at some point in elementary or junior high school, teachers mentioned using commas before the word "and."  It appears to me that the students who grew up to be lawyers took that very literally and every time their sentence has and, they want to put a comma.  "She went swimming, and splashed."  Commas are not easy and, again, I don't claim to know all the rules regarding commas.  I read the sentence to myself, taking out nonessential and interrupting phrases, to make sure the sentence still makes sense.  Other than that, I try not to use too many commas as I think they are really overused.  Here are some examples:

Nonessential expressions - commas set off words that are not essential to the meaning of the sentence.  "Brian Smith, the IT manager, was able to fix the computer."  When a you name a specific person, you don't need descriptive information to understand the sentence.  One way to determine if the expression is nonessential is whether your voice rises or falls on that part of the sentence when you read it.  If your voice drops, it is nonessential and should be set off by commas.  "We decided, nevertheless, to make plans to go to Spain."  If you voice rises, it is essential to the sentence and should not be set off.  "We nevertheless decided to make plans to go to Spain."  If, however, you mean only that you decided to make plans to go to Spain without any outside limitations in the rest of your paragraph, the nevertheless should be set off by commas.

Interrupting elements - commas set off words that break the flow of the sentence.  "He worked a long day, one of many lately, and left the office exhausted."

Transitional expressions - commas set off expressions that transition the sentence, such as however, therefore, on the other hand.  "On the other hand, Karen loves sushi as much as I do."

Afterthoughts - use commas to set off unrelated afterthoughts at the end of a sentence.  "He was late to work again that morning, if I remember correctly."

Serial commas - when a series of three or more items and the last item is preceded by and, or, or nor, a comma goes before the conjunction along with between other items.  "She ate steak, baked potato, steamed broccoli, and salad for dinner last night." People will argue forever with me on this one.  It is standard practice for some newspapers and magazines to leave the last comma out.  It can really lead to confusion, particularly in the legal field.  Using only two commas in a series could theoretically end up hurting someone.  Consider this example: 

John left his estate to Jack, Jill and Joe.  When taken literally, the estate would be divided into two parts - half to Jack and half to Jill and Joe to share.  If John had left his estate to Jack, Jill, and Joe, it is clear that the estate goes to three people.  Our business is extremely literal, so serial commas are important.  I will share a funny (although a tiny bit risque) picture going around Facebook recently on this very topic for the Grammar Giggle this week.  

We will share more about commas and move on to semicolons and colons in later issues of this blog.  I have to do much more research to blog intelligently about those topics -- there, I admitted it!  We will all learn through this process and for that I thank you.  It is important to constantly learn and I hope to share something worth learning each week.

Grammar Giggles

I noticed this truck on the freeway the other day.  It took me a few minutes to figure out what was wrong.  Can you find it?

Quick Tip - Essential Check for Nonessential Phrases

A quick tip for this week.  A fairly common error easily caught by good proofreading is where the same word appears both before and after a nonessential phrase.  For example, "We must be sure that, without fail, that we get the timesheets posted by the end of the month."  One thing that I try to do while proofreading is to take out the nonessential phrase to make sure the sentence still makes sense.  In the above example "We must be sure that that we get the timesheets posted by the end of the month."  When you check the sentence that way, you will see the second "that." Reading the sentence without the nonessential phrase will also help to make sure that the phrase being treated as nonessential by being set off by commas actually IS nonessential because the sentence will still make sense without that phrase.  When sentences get long (as lawyers sometimes tend to make them), it is even more important to check for the same word on both sides of a nonessential phrase.  This simple check will help the sentence make sense and help prove that your proofreading skills make everyone look good.

Grammar Giggles

Since the subject was apostrophes this week (or, more appropriately, apostrophe fails), I thought it was timely to share this picture taken and shared by Daddy Doin' Work, a page I follow on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/daddydoinwork) by a guy who talks about his first time daddy experiences and is hard at work achieving happy.  DDW gave me permission to share this with you.  I guess if you think an apostrophe belongs, put it everywhere you can -- except where it really belongs!

Apostrophail!

I think the number one all time grammar fail is the apostrophe.  It is not a punctuation mark for making words plural (more than one of something), it is a mark to show possession (ownership of something) or to show where letters are missing in a contraction (such as "don't").  There is an easy test I found to make it a little easier to determine if something needs an apostrophe for possession:

• Look for the possible possessive phrase:

– the man['s] desk

• Reverse the nouns:

– desk of the man

• Examine the base ownership word to determine who owns the thing (here "man").  The most important thing is not to change the spelling of a singular noun just to make it possessive.  For instance, the man (one man) is still the owner of the desk.  Ownership doesn't magically make the desk belong to more than one man.  It would be the "man's desk" not the "men's desk."

• Does the base word showing ownership end with an s sound?

• If it does not end in an s sound, add an apostrophe and s:

– the man's desk

• If the ownership word does end in an s sound, you usually add only an apostrophe:

– both boys' desks

UNLESS you actually hear the s sound when you say it, then you should add an apostrophe and s

– Phoenix's traffic

– Waitress's tables

That is a really important "unless" and one that is controversial.  Say it out loud if necessary.  Again, however, while it may be correct under one reference source, the person you are working for may not like it that way.  Do it the way they want it so you can stay employed, but keep fighting the fight and sharing your resources so that hopefully one day they will come over to your way of thinking (or just get tired of listening to you go on and on about it - which is what I think happens in my case more than I'd like to admit).

Proper names are sometimes the most difficult.  I once worked with someone with the last name "Andrews" and actually saw (with my own eyes) how people (and more than one) would try to make it possessive by adding the apostrophe before the s - Andrew's.  Never, ever change the spelling of someone's name before you make it plural or possessive.  Start with the name and then do what you need to do to it.  Just remember that is one thing that is sacred to everyone - their own name.

Apostrophes really are not as difficult as they seem to be when you see how often they are used incorrectly.  It is just something that takes thinking about to get right.  Take the time to think about it and you are a step ahead of most people.

I want to take just a minute to thank you all for the terrific response to my first blog posts.  I was really worried about starting this blog because I knew my audience would be at least as crazy about good grammar as I am, so I read, re-read, edited, re-edited, and procrastinated posting because I was worried that I had missed errors and would be publicly called out on it.  I did miss errors, but people were really nice about it, taught me a thing or two I didn’t know, and I was able to correct the errors without public humiliation.  I did tell you I’m not an expert and I’m not.  My hope is that I am able to impart some good tips to help you be just a little bit better.  If that happens, I feel like I have accomplished what I set out to do and actually made a difference – errors and all.