Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

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GRAMMAR should be obvious that you wouldn't say me was hauled off for interrogation. Sentence 4 is trickier: Here, it is less easy to recognize the pronoun as a subject because it is not followed by any verb. This is an example of an elliptical construction (see the discussion on page 85), in that the verb is implied but not stated. Effectively, this sentence is saying My brother can crochet better than I can crochet: Thus, the pronoun is a subject. It is only fair, however, to add that many people would use me in this type of construction, and some authorities state that it is permissible or even preferable to do so. You must determine your own comfort level. In sentences 5, 6 and 7, the pronoun is me because in each case it represents the object: something that is acted on or affected by the subject. An object is not followed by an associated verb, either explicit or implied. In sentence 5, the pronoun is the target of the action gave; in sentence 6, it is the target of the action inviting; in sentence 7, it is the target of the preposition between. In all three cases, no action or description follows the pronoun. When there is more than one object, people often think that I sounds more educated or genteel than me. (Some grammar books are kind enough to call this type of usage "hypercorrectness." A better term for it is "wrong.") If you are ever uncertain, mentally drop any distracting elements. It should be obvious that you wouldn't say The guys gave I or Thank you for inviting I. Finally, in sentence 8, the pronoun is I if what's meant is Sidney wanted the job more than I wanted the job (an elliptical construction, where both Sidney and the pronoun are subjects), and me if what's meant is Sidney wanted the job more than he wanted me (both the job and the pronoun are objects). Because of the likelihood that many readers would not understand this distinction, it would often be better to fill in the implied words. PERSONAL PRONOUNS WITH ELLIPTICAL CONSTRUCTIONS You can apply the same strategies described above to determine when to use she and her, he and him, we and us, and they and them. That is, mentally fill in any elliptical constructions or drop any distracting nouns to help determine whether the pronoun is acting as a subject or an object. 241
GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT Sally's not nearly as persnickety as she. [as she is] Louie can yell louder than he. [than he can yell] We asked the duchess and him to bring the dip. [we asked him] You and she should get a life. [she should get a life] Give the iguana to Max or her. [give the iguana to her] George and he were asked to dance the kazatsky. [he was asked to dance] Those bums have always thought they're better than we. [than we are] The tantrum thrown by the clerk and us had its effect. [the tantrum thrown by us] The space shuttle landing in the backyard excited Abe more than them. [more than it excited them] She wanted to go hang gliding as much as they. [as much as they wanted to go] In everyday speech, many people would say Louie can yell louder than him or they think they're better than us. A third option, if you are concerned about sounding too formal, is to avoid elliptical constructions and fill in the unstated verb: Louie can yell louder than he can; They think they're better than we are. The following examples deal with another scenario: Exercise 1. "Who's that tramping over my bridge?""lt's only (I/ me), the smallest 242 Billy Goat Gruff." 2. The only attendees still awake at the lecture were Miranda and (1/me). 3. "Which one is the author?" "That's (she/her) over there, on the trampoline."
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The WRITER'S ESSENTIAL GUIDE to pun
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C R E D T S American Psychological
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The En Dash 162 2-Em and 3-Em Dashe
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Readers may wish to know when to sa
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P A R T 0 N E Spelling In this age
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Misspellings COMMONLY :MISPELLED WO
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SPELLING Haemorrhage and manoeuvre
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SPELLING may spell these words the
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SPELLING Did you spot the errors in
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The car comes with duel airbags. Th
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SPELLING it doesn't, the ending wil
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SPELLING Philbert knew he would hav
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SPELLING effect these might have on
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SPELLING EIAE, OE For words origina
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SPELLING alternate spellings is the
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Hyphenation I worked with [William
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a dead on guess/a dead pan manner d
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SPELLING If one part of a compound
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SPELLING tively) unique constructio
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SPELLING With a fraction that inclu
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Frequently Misused Words Homonyms (
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PROBLEM WORDS common usages for eac
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PROBLEM WORDS Parents are assured t
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PROBLEM WORDS things that make a re
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PROBLEM WORDS fairness, some words
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ight of way passerby rights of way
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SOME WORDS OF ITALIAN ORIGIN THAT E
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PROBLEM WORDS HEBREW WORDS ADD IM (
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COUNTER- DE- DIS- DYS- E- Opposite
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PROBLEM WORDS construction (uncommu
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P A R T T H R E E Punctuation The w
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Basic Sentence Structure In order t
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The storekeeper/looked at the money
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SENTENCE FRAGl\1ENT PUNCTUATION A s
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PUNCTUATION The commas in the follo
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In Part II of the exam, answer ques
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PUNCTUATION Exception If both the i
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PUNCTUATION If no comma appeared af
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PUNCTUATION She waited impatiently
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PUNCTUATION SETTING OFF PARENTHETIC
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PUNCTUATION Exception If a parenthe
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PUNCTUATION Zelda apparently has on
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For example, compare the following
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PUNCTUATION Ensure that the power s
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PUNCTUATION The panel consisted of
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She wore a pale green dress. [pale
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PUNCTUATION Do not set a quoted ele
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Semicolon (;) It was her prose that
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PUNCTUATION Put semicolons between
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PUNCTUATION USE SEMICOLONS IF COMMA
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PUNCTUATION this disk; and the revi
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PUNCTUATION intentions, but on its
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Colon(:) The colon acts as a signal
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PUNCTUATION Only one thing would sa
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PUNCTUATION reconcile the last sent
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PUNCTUATION Aside from the impact o
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PUNCTUATION • With regard to capi
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DON)T INCLUDE A PERIOD FORA GRAMMAT
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PUNCTUATION If you are not obliged
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PUNCTUATION GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES Opti
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Here are the topics that will be co
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PUNCTUATION Of course St John River
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PUNCTUATION Muriel said, "Once I wa
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INDICATING UNCERTAINTY PUNCTUATION
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'Are you guilty?' said Winston. PUN
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DRAWING ATTENTION TO A POINT PUNCTU
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Hyphen(-) This section looks at the
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No a-do i-vy i-dea tax-i a-bout e-n
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Consider the following sets of word
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PUNCTUATION This sentence is fine i
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PUNCTUATION DO NOT USE A HYPHEN WHE
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The salesman was fast-talking. The
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PUNCTUATION 'So he is, to be sure,'
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Slash(/) The slash (also known as t
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PUNCTUATION The tent offers suitabl
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PUNCTUATION Dalgliesh said: " 'Now
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• Working in digressions • Maki
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PUNCTUATION if you ask me, but that
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PUNCTUATION BETTER: A validity coef
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PUNCTUATION • It is permissible t
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Dashes Dashes come in several sizes
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PUNCTUATION Several of the neighbor
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PUNCTUATION but I am sure that you
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And when I found the door was shut,
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"How was I supposed to-" she sputte
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PUNCTUATION the discussions of the
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PUNCTUATION a quote. Another use is
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PUNCTUATION or editorial comment, i
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PUNCTUATION words italics mine, ita
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PUNCTUATION By Mrs Hurst and Miss B
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"Aces drawn after a deuce are high?
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PUNCTUATION 'Oh, but I think,' said
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PUNCTUATION it would look as if the
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it in quotation marks to alert the
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PUNCTUATION 6s and the closing ones
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PUNCTUATION Perhaps it would be bet
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ORIGINAL QuoTATION: Dear Theo, PUNC
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PUNCTUATION 'No, dear. Not Homer, t
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PUNCTUATION came to his room, inser
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Page 202 and 203: PUNCTUATION In other cases, the con
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Page 206 and 207: Achilles' heel Euripides' plays Gra
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Page 210 and 211: P A R T F 0 U R Grammar The very me
Page 212 and 213: Agreement Between Subject and Verb
Page 214 and 215: Problem Category 1: The Subject, th
Page 216 and 217: GRAMMAR but that would slightly alt
Page 218 and 219: Pat, like the others, was determine
Page 220 and 221: DISTRACTING PREDICATE NOUNS GRAMMAR
Page 222 and 223: the components are included my cous
Page 224 and 225: Headquarters~ waiting for an answer
Page 226 and 227: GRAMMAR A generation ago, no one in
Page 228 and 229: GRAMMAR realize that there is more
Page 230 and 231: GRAMMAR that constitute a multimedi
Page 232 and 233: Achieving Parallel Structure The ve
Page 234 and 235: GRAMMAR The bankruptcy proceedings
Page 236 and 237: GRAMMAR It may be necessary to eith
Page 238 and 239: GRAMMAR action will follow; for exa
Page 240 and 241: GRAMMAR Rebecca seizing life with h
Page 242 and 243: GRAMMAR Dangling modifiers occur wh
Page 244 and 245: GRAMMAR The suspect's condition was
Page 246 and 247: The following sentences contain squ
Page 248 and 249: GRAMMAR that represents the entity
Page 252 and 253: GRAMMAR 4. Old King Cole was a merr
Page 254 and 255: GRAMMAR WHEN DO YOU USE WHO AND WHE
Page 256 and 257: GRAMMAR of spider; hence, it is not
Page 258 and 259: GRAMMAR • Its is the possessive o
Page 260 and 261: GRAMMAR Although the termjree-jorma
Page 262 and 263: AGREEMENT BETWEEN PRONOUN AND ANTEC
Page 264 and 265: GRAMMAR • Collective nouns are th
Page 266 and 267: GRAMMAR person plural. Many readers
Page 268 and 269: Bugbears and Betes Noires: Some Gra
Page 270 and 271: GRAMMAR Virtually every modern styl
Page 272 and 273: GRAMMAR Overdoing this type of sent
Page 274 and 275: P A R Y F I V E Style A sentence or
Page 276 and 277: Ann's Conscience, which up till thi
Page 278 and 279: STYLE • Question marks and exclam
Page 280 and 281: STYLE In some cases, if a person or
Page 282 and 283: STYLE with a consonant sound, prece
Page 284 and 285: ALLCAPSANDSMALLCAPS STYLE If your w
Page 286 and 287: Italics Italic type serves to make
Page 288 and 289: Come the crucial seventh, the Filmm
Page 290 and 291: use, to take them down into the mar
Page 292 and 293: STYLE all. If you are expected to u
Page 294 and 295: STYLE woman with a pretty figure ..
Page 296 and 297: STYLE PASSIVE: The letter received
Page 298 and 299: STYLE car is traded in every jour y
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STYLE not unintentionally distract
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STYLE BETIER: The following are sug
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STYLE Would any writer describe a p
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STYLE Many modern readers would not
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STYLE The clinician can play an imp
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STYLE Obviously you cannot use this
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Writing With Finesse BEN . ... But
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STYLE ensure randorrmess), and calc
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inwardleaning heads, smoking steadi
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STYLE behind altering them can be d
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STYLE of these types of help while
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STYLE First paragraph: Introductory
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STYLE all situations. Therefore, re
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STYLE tation. Although it is prefer
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STYLE the accent phonetically at al
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During my first tournament, my moth
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STYLE jump out at you: illogical co
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sentence with, 262-263; subordinati
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ending in y, 43-44, 197, 199-200; o
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