Tag: reading

Style Manual Wars

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[found on theonion.com]
“NEW YORK—Law enforcement officials confirmed Friday that four more copy editors were killed this week amid ongoing violence between two rival gangs divided by their loyalties to the The Associated Press Stylebook and The Chicago Manual Of Style.
 
“At this time we have reason to believe the killings were gang-related and carried out by adherents of both the AP and Chicago styles, part of a vicious, bloody feud to establish control over the grammar and usage guidelines governing American English,” said FBI spokesman Paul Holstein, showing reporters graffiti tags in which the word “anti-social” had been corrected to read “antisocial.”
 
“The deadly territory dispute between these two organizations, as well as the notorious MLA Handbook gang, has claimed the lives of more than 63 publishing professionals this year alone.” Officials also stated that an innocent 35-year-old passerby who found himself caught up in a long-winded dispute over use of the serial, or Oxford, comma had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
 
*THIS IS FROM A COMEDY NEWS SOURCE, NOT REALITY
[found on http://www.theonion.com/articles/4-copy-editors-killed-in-ongoing-ap-style-chicago,30806]

Me, Myself, and I…No, REALLY.

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[found on adulted.about.com]

Me and Tim, Tim and I

    • Wrong: Me and Tim are going to a movie tonight.
    • Right: Tim and I are going to a movie tonight.

Why?

    • If you take Tim out of the sentence, “you” are the subject.
    • You are going to a movie. When you’re going to a movie, what do you say?
      • “I am going to a movie.”
      • You wouldn’t say, “Me am going to a movie.”
    • When you add Tim, the sentence construction remains the same.
    • You’re simply adding Tim, and it’s correct to say the other person’s name first.
      • “Tim and I are going to a movie.”
[found on http://adulted.about.com/od/howtos/tp/fivegrammartips.htm]

If It’s Passive—Pass it…

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[found on hamilton.edu]
  • Passive voice produces a sentence in which the subject receives an action.
    • In contrast, active voice produces a sentence in which the subject performs an action.
  • Passive voice often produces unclear, wordy sentences,
    • whereas active voice produces generally clearer, more concise sentences.
  • To change a sentence from passive to active voice, determine who or what performs the action,
    • and use that person or thing as the subject of the sentence.
    • PASSIVE voice:
      • “On April 19, 1775, arms were seized at Concord, precipitating the American Revolution.”
    • ACTIVE voice:
      • “On April 19, 1775, British soldiers seized arms at Concord, precipitating the American Revolution.”
[found on http://www.hamilton.edu/tip#Writing%20for%20Clarity]

Pre – Positional Is Where a Preposition Lives

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[found on grammar.about.com]

“Like adjectives and adverbs, prepositional phrases add meaning to the nouns and verbs in our sentences. There are two prepositional phrases in the following sentence:

The steamy air in the kitchen reeked of stale food.

The first prepositional phrase–in the kitchen–modifies the noun air; the second–of stale food–modifies the verb reeked. The two phrases provide information that helps us understand the sentence.

The Two Parts of a Prepositional Phrase
A prepositional phrase has two basic parts: a prepositionplus a noun or a pronoun that serves as the object of the preposition. A preposition is a word that shows howa noun or a pronoun is related to another word in a sentence. The common prepositions are listed in the table at the bottom of this page.

Building Sentences with Prepositional Phrases
Prepositional phrases often do more than just add minor details to a sentence: they may be needed for a sentence to make sense. Consider the vagueness of this sentence without prepositional phrases:

The workers gather a rich variety and distribute it.

Now see how the sentence comes into focus when we add prepositional phrases:

From many sources, the workers at the Community Food Bank gather a rich variety of surplus and unsalable food and distribute it to soup kitchens, day-care centers, and homes for the elderly.

Notice how these added prepositional phrases give us more information about certain nouns and verbs in the sentence:

      • Which workers?
      • The workers at the Community Food Bank.
      • What did they gather?
      • A rich variety of surplus and unsalable food.
      • Where did they gather the food?
      • From many sources.
      • Who did they distribute it to?
      • To soup kitchens, day-care centers, and homes for the elderly.

Like the other simple modifiers, prepositional phrases are not merely ornaments; they add details that can help us understand a sentence.

PRACTICE: Building with Simple Modifiers
Use adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases to expand the sentence below. Add details that answer the questions in parentheses and make the sentence more interesting and informative.

Jenny stood, raised her shotgun, aimed, and fired.
(Where did Jenny stand? How did she aim? What did she fire at?)

There are, of course, no single correct answers to the questions in parentheses. Sentence-expanding exercises such as this one encourage you to use your imagination to build original sentences.”

Common Prepositions

Screen Shot 2013-06-16 at 6.58.48 PM

[found on: http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/prepphrases.htm]

Pronouns — Good Rules & Evil Tips

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[found on grammarbook.com]

“A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Pronouns can be in one of three cases: Subject, Object, or Possessive.

Rule 1

Subject pronouns are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence. You can remember subject pronouns easily by filling in the blank subject space for a simple sentence.

Example:
______ did the job.
I, you, he, she, it, we, and they all fit into the blank and are, therefore, subject pronouns.

Rule 2

Subject pronouns are also used if they rename the subject. They follow to be verbs such as is,are, was, were, am, and will be.

Examples:
It is he.
This is she speaking.
It is we who are responsible for the decision to downsize.

NOTE: In spoken English, most people tend to follow to be verbs with object pronouns. Many English teachers support (or at least have given in to) this distinction between written and spoken English.

Example:
It could have been them.

Better:
It could have been they.

Example:
It is just me at the door.

Better:
It is just I at the door.

Rule 3

Object pronouns are used everywhere else (direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition). Object pronouns are me, you, him, her, it, us, and them.

Examples:
Jean talked to him.
Are you talking to me?

To be able to choose pronouns correctly, you must learn to identify clauses. A clause is a group of words containing a verb and subject.

Rule 4a

A strong clause can stand on its own.

Examples:
She is hungry.
I am feeling well today.

Rule 4b

A weak clause begins with words such as although, since, if, when, and because. Weak clauses cannot stand on their own.

Examples:
Although she is hungry…
If she is hungry…
Since I am feeling well…

Rule 4c

If a sentence contains more than one clause, isolate the clauses so that you can decide which pronoun is correct.

Examples:

Weak

Strong

[Although she is hungry,]

[she will give him some of her food.]

[Although this gift is for him,]

[I would like you to have it too.]

Rule 5

To decide whether to use the subject or object pronoun after the words than or as, mentally complete the sentence.

Examples:
Tranh is as smart as she/her.
If we mentally complete the sentence, we would say, “Tranh is as smart as she is.” Therefore,she is the correct answer.

Zoe is taller than I/me.
Mentally completing the sentence, we have, “Zoe is taller than I am.”

Daniel would rather talk to her than I/me.
We can mentally complete this sentence in two ways: “Daniel would rather talk to her than to me.” OR “Daniel would rather talk to her than I would.” As you can see, the meaning will change depending on the pronoun you choose.

Rule 6

Possessive pronouns show ownership and never need apostrophes.
Possessive pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs

NOTE: The only time it’s has an apostrophe is when it is a contraction for it is or it has.

Examples:
It’s a cold morning.
The thermometer reached its highest reading.

Rule 7

Reflexive pronouns – myself, himself, herself, itself, themselves, ourselves, yourself, yourselves– should be used only when they refer back to another word in the sentence.

Correct:
I worked myself to the bone.

Incorrect:
My brother and myself did it.
The word myself does not refer back to another word.

Correct:
My brother and I did it.

Incorrect:
Please give it to John or myself.

Correct:
Please give it to John or me.”

[found on http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/pronoun.asp]

George Orwell Asks Before Writing…Do You?

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[found on writingclasses.com]

 “A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:

    1. What am I trying to say?
    2. What words will express it?
    3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
    4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And he will probably ask himself two more:

    1. Could I put it more shortly?
    2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

    1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
    2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
    3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
    4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
    5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
    6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”   

[found on http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/300]**

Follow the Yellow Brain Road

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[found on mindmapping.com]
 
“Mind mapping is a highly effective way of getting information in and out of your brain. Mind mapping is a creative and logical means of note-taking and note-making that literally “maps out” your ideas. 
 
All Mind Maps have some things in common. They have a natural organizational structure that radiates from the center and use lines, symbols, words, color and images according to simple, brain-friendly concepts.
 
Mind mapping converts a long list of monotonous information into a colorful, memorable and highly organized diagram that works in line with your brain’s natural way of doing things.
 
One simple way to understand a Mind Map is by comparing it to a map of a city. The city center represents the main idea; the main roads leading from the center represent the key thoughts in your thinking process; the secondary roads or branches represent your secondary thoughts, and so on. Special images or shapes can represent landmarks of interest or particularly relevant ideas.
 
The Mind Map is the external mirror of your own radiant or natural thinking facilitated by a powerful graphic process, which provides the universal key to unlock the dynamic potential of the brain.*
 

The five essential characteristics of Mind Mapping*:

  • The main idea, subject or focus is crystallized in a central image.
  • The main themes radiate from the central image as ‘branches’.
  • The branches comprise a key image or key word drawn or printed on its associated line.
  • Topics of lesser importance are represented as ‘twigs’ of the relevant branch.
  • The branches form a connected nodal structure.*”
 Mind Mapping graphic

[*found on http://www.mindmapping.com]

Jot It, Don’t Thought It

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“The more you write, the more ideas you are going to generate.  It’s inescapable; as your brain gets used to being creative, you’re going to create, and probably many more ideas than you need.  And at some point later, you’ll be able to use those ideas.  But only if you catch them.  It is essential to get your ideas recorded permanently as soon as possible after you think of them.  The longer you wait, the more the idea will fade, and the less will remain when you finally are ready to take it down.  This means you have to be able to take your ideas down wherever you are….
 
However you decide to capture your ideas, you must do so as soon as possible.  Immediately, if you can.  This applies even at night–perhaps even more so at night.  At no time is an idea likely to be more vivid than at night, and at no time is it likely to fade faster.  If you wake up in the middle of the night to a great idea, you really need to write it down.  Get yourself a drink of water, jot the thing down as completely as you can, and go back to sleep.  In the morning you will be in a much better position to judge whether the idea holds any real promise.  This is much better than waking up certain that you had the inspiration for the next Great American Novel last night–and now you can’t remember what it was!”  
-found on http://www.pgtc.com/~slmiller/writing-tips-ideas.htm
 
IDEAS FOR JOTTING YOUR THOUGHTS…while you still have them:
      • Use the technology you have been blessed with today!
        • SmartPhones / iPods / Tablets / Laptops / Desktops…
          • Type Note Apps
          • Hand Writing Apps
          • Voice Recorder Apps
        • Tape Recorder / Micro Recorder
        • Voice Mail
          • Call and leave yourself (or a friend) a message
        • Email / Text / IM / Social Media / Blog
          • Send yourself a quick text
          • Send yourself a quick email
          • Post an idea
        • Any other idea you can think of to use (safely)
      • Use the old-school tools you  have….we all know you still have them:
        • Pen / paper
          • Keep in the car with you
          • Keep in your purse / wallet
          • Keep by your bed
          • Keep in the bathroom (use responsibly!)
          • Keep by the TV
          • Take with you on walks
        • Typewriter (not all have this one, some will need to look it up, it’s in the dictionary)
        • Any other idea you can think of to use (safely)