Arlene Miller's Blog, page 56

A Message from One Hero to Another by Jeff Deck, Typo Hunter

Jeff Deck, Hero

Let me say this up front: you can be a hero. I’d like to play the role of Splinter or Yoda here and kick you in the right direction.

First, though, what does “hero” even mean?

In 2008, Philadelphia Weekly called me an “American hero.” The New Yorker pondered whether I was a “literary folk hero.”

I hadn’t saved anyone from a raging river or fiery car wreck. I hadn’t passed any bold piece of progressive legislation. I’d just driven around the United States with a couple of friends on a quest to fix typos in public signage. (The journey culminated in a book, The Great Typo Hunt.)

Certainly I was playing at being a hero. I’d been writing mock-bombastic blog entries to chronicle my typo-hunting adventures. And in New Mexico, I picked up a cowboy hat that closely resembled the fedora worn by one of my favorite movie heroes, Indiana Jones. 

I had what you might call heroic aspirations. I thought my mission might make a difference. Maybe not as grand a difference as keeping the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail out of the hands of the Nazis. But, you know, a difference. Maybe I could help improve people’s spelling and grammar, and inspire them to proofread their work.

That’s not really being a hero, though, is it?

Or might heroism be easier to reach than we even realize? Let’s turn to a typo-hunter’s most constant friend: the dictionary.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary (and leaving aside definitions regarding mythology, protagonists, and sandwiches), a hero is:

A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life.


A person noted for special achievement in a particular field.

Definition 1 conveys that classic sense of service and sacrifice. But definition 2 is interesting: special achievement in a particular field. That sounds like something any of us could achieve if we worked hard enough at it.

Let’s call striving for that “special achievement” purpose. We don’t want to lose the important idea of service to others in definition 1, though. So let’s combine them.

Here’s a working definition for a hero: someone noted for both extraordinary purpose and service. 

So. You don’t have to dash into a burning building to be a hero. You don’t even have to be able to dash at all. That’s a relief. You just need to dedicate yourself to something great, and to help others as well. All of us can achieve those things. All of us.

What’s your purpose, then? Maybe it’s typo-hunting. If you’re reading this blog, chances are your purpose is something language-related. You’re an English teacher. Or a copy editor. Or a technical writer.

Or maybe your purpose isn’t your day job, after all. You could be fixated on a creative goal: fiction, jazz composition, charcoal drawing. Me, I’ve taken my hero obsession into novel writing, where my fictional counterparts struggle against impossible odds to achieve great things.

Whatever your purpose is, follow it with commitment and persistence. Put in your 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, as Malcolm Gladwell advises. If you’re devoting consistent time and effort to your purpose, you can count yourself a hero.

Just don’t forget about the service side as well. The two sides of heroism should balance out. A hero focused on purpose without service risks becoming a villain. (Conversely, a hero focused on service without purpose risks becoming a martyr instead.)

This is more than just rhetoric. Consider how one side feeds the other. You can be of greater service to others only with greater skills at your disposal. And you can achieve greater things only with a greater network of friends and supporters. 

For example, if you’re a freelance editor, let’s say you offer to clean up the copy on a local nonprofit’s website pro bono. You might just be opening the doors to new clients (friends and colleagues of the people who work at that nonprofit). As your business increases, you become a master of line editing and a virtuoso of typo-hunting. Suddenly you’re asked to join a panel of experts to help shape the next edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. And the heroic cycle continues. 

If you’re a fiction writer, helping other people in the author community (by giving feedback, spreading word about their books, etc.) doesn’t just benefit them. It also benefits you, by increasing your reputation as an author who genuinely cares about other authors. When you eventually need a favor yourself—more reviews of your work, say, or a place to crash in Seattle during your book tour—you’ll be more likely to find the help you need. 

(And that help might not even be from the same people you helped originally. Crowds form around those with a mindset of generosity, as Wharton professor Adam Grant’s research suggests.)

Then, once you’ve reached a higher level of skill and status as an author, your power to help others increases. Your enthusiastic blurb on somebody else’s book cover carries far more influence. Your free local workshop on fiction writing becomes a huge help for all who attend, because you’ve been there and you know what you’re talking about. And the heroic cycle continues.

I mean, Indiana Jones wasn’t in it just for the glory. He wanted to get those artifacts into museums.

So yeah, maybe I wasn’t exactly a hero during the Great Typo Hunt. But I’d like to think I was headed in the right direction.

These days my mission is to become a hero in the world of indie novels. I decided to stop relying on the approval of the traditional publishing establishment and strike out on my own. My sci-fi gaming adventure novel Player Choice came out earlier this year. And starting in September, I’m releasing a serialized horror novel, The Pseudo-Chronicles of Mark Huntley, in four parts.

Both stories feature a main character trying to accomplish something daunting in the face of vast forces of indifference and opposition. The parallels to indie authorship itself have not been lost on me. So far I think you can count my total novel sales on all your fingers and only some of your toes.

But I’ve been learning a lot along the way. I’ve been thinking a lot about purpose and service. I’ve decided that right now is pretty much the best time there is to reach for heroism.

I hope you’ll have the same realization. If you need further inspiration for becoming a hero in your field or area of passion, please drop me a line at jeffdeck@jeffdeck.com. I’d love to hear about your challenges and aspirations.

You can also consider subscribing to my e-newsletter for a weekly dose of heroic musing (not to mention updates about geeky books).

I’ll leave you with this quote from musician and writer Gerard Way: “Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.” Keep at it!

Jeff Deck is a writer and editor who lives in Maine. His speculative fiction includes the sci-fi gaming adventure Player Choice and the forthcoming serialized horror novel The Pseudo-Chronicles of Mark Huntley. He is also the co-author of The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time (with Benjamin D. Herson).

Note from The Grammar Diva: I first heard about the Great Typo Hunt right after it happened and the book came out. I was obviously enthralled with the whole idea! When Jeff and his co-author Benjamin Herson were on their book tour, I went to see them at Borders (boo-boo, miss it) in San Francisco at the Stonestown mall. I wanted to be them! At least they are now my Facebook friends, and I have this wonderful blog post — and Jeff was kind enough to write the blurb that is on the front cover of my new workbook.

Plugs from The Grammar Diva: The Best Little Grammar Book Ever and Correct Me If I’m Wrong are now on sale for back to school on Kindle. They are each $3.99 instead of their usual $8.99 for a limited time. And The Best Grammar Workbook Ever is now available as an ebook from Kindle, Kobo, Smashwords, and very soon ibooks and Nook — and all the others.

 

It’s Back to School Time! (already?)

You can always tell when it’s Back to School time—Target puts out the aisles and aisles of notebooks, markers, pencils, and folders where lawn furniture was the week before. But wait! Summer is only half over. True. We used to go back to school after Labor Day, somewhere at the beginning of September. Now, teachers are returning to work as early as next week! And students return a few days later. So much for that “teachers have three months off in the summer” remark! School gets out at the beginning of June. Most teachers stay a few days to a few weeks after school ends to get things in order. And most are probably back in their classrooms already getting things in order for school to begin. There are copies to be made, lessons to be planned, and furniture to be put back into place after summer floor waxing. So much for the three months, which is pretty much down to two months now. But I do not need to go back this year, so I digress . . .

Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Common Core, Technology . . . what about grammar? Is grammar taught anymore? Oh, sometimes.  I don’t think you find too much grammar being taught in high school (most of the time). What about  elementary school and middle school?? I think it varies with the teacher. Some teachers probably don’t really feel comfortable with their own knowledge of grammar; it tends to be one of those things that you forget and don’t think about unless you use it all the time.  More importantly, some teachers feel their students will be bored with grammar, so they keep it light-handed (I didn’t, of course). There is the school of thought that grammar should be taught along with the literature and not as its own subject. I disagree with that and think that is like hiding the broccoli in the mashed potatoes so the kids will eat it.

The Common Core standards are full of grammar even though, as an English teacher,  I never heard the grammar mentioned. It was always about “critical thinking,” which is important, but so are writing skills, of which grammar is an important part. And the Common Core grammar expectations are very high, much higher than the grammar skills of the students I have seen.

And there is no G (for grammar) in STEM, the new acronym for what is important in education (and the E doesn’t stand for English, either). STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.  Many of us would like to see that changed to STEAM: the A stands for the Arts. No doubt about it: that is where education is heading. It’s all about technology. After all, that is where the jobs are, particularly in my part of the country.

BUT . . .  and there is a big BUT here. Years ago, when I was a technical writer, they liked to hire writers. They said that it was easier to teach the technical things to those who knew how to write than to teach the technical folks how to write. It seems that the tide has turned and more technical people are being hired. This may be because there are more technically trained  people to choose from now. And let’s face it: technical knowledge has always proven to be more lucrative than writing.

However, there have been multiple articles recently on the value of a liberal arts education—yes, even for technical jobs. A liberal education teaches one how to think, how to problem solve, and makes one a well-rounded employee. In  fact, there is a new book (which I own but cannot talk about because I haven’t yet read it) called In Defense of a Liberal Education. Its author, Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post columnist and CNN personality, “expounds on the virtues of a liberal education, ” according to the book jacket.

A couple of years ago I taught a grammar and business writing workshop to a group of accountants. When I asked them how much of their job required writing, they replied “about 90 percent.” Most of us need to write.

Technology is not taking away our need to write either. The content has simply switched from print to online, while it has increased exponentially in volume. Websites, promotional materials, social media . . . online is where a company’s and an employee’s reputation is often built. Writing is a reflection of who you are. We know that people do not like to do business with a website riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. 

Colleges are still complaining about the number of students who enter needing remedial English courses, and companies are still complaining about employees’ lack of writing ability. 

How about STELM: Science, technology, engineering, language, and mathematics. We don’t even care if the L is silent.

If you are a teacher or student returning to school soon, have a good year! 

If you have purchased one of my grammar books, thank you! And, if you like, a review on Amazon is always appreciated!

By the way, The Best Grammar Workbook ever is now available in PDF form from this site and also will be up on Kindle as an interactive e-book hopefully this week! Other e-book readers very soon!

 

 

 

The Meeting in the Mens Room?

 
Before we go any farther, let me say that this is not a post discussing whether or not there should be an apostrophe in mens (in the title of this post) or whether said apostrophe should be before or after the s. No one can seem to decide whether that usage is a singular or plural possessive, or whether it is possessive at all, but there certainly has been a lot of discussion about it. It seems that most people have decided to just leave the apostrophe out. Does that room belong to one man or many men? We’ll let that question hang . . .

On to the topic at hand. If you heard about the meeting in the mens room, we could be confused, especially if you tell someone that or send a memo with that wording. Is the meeting really in the mens room? (Well, that is what the sentence says.) Or did you hear about some meeting while you were in the mens room? (More likely.)

Usually we understand what is being said or read even when the words are a little jumbled, but not always, so it is best to avoid what are generally  known as “misplaced modifiers.”

What are modifiers? Anything — a word, a phrase, or a clause that describes something in the sentence. Adjectives and adverbs are words that are modifiers. Phrases are also sometimes modifiers; they serve as adjectives or adverbs in a sentence, telling what kind, to what extent, how, or how many. 

Most of the time, when we talk about things being “misplaced” in a sentence, we are talking about participial phrases, hence the term dangling participle. We aren’t talking about participles here, though. This post is about misplaced prepositional phrases.  But back to participles for a moment . . .

Participles are called “dangling” when they don’t modify anything at all in the sentence. They are called “misplaced” when they modify something in the sentence, but are placed so that they appear to modify something else. Here are a couple of examples:

Freshly cleaned and pressed, I picked up my shirts from the dry cleaner. Freshly cleaned and pressed is misplaced; it refers to the shirts, but it is placed so that it modifies I. (I was freshly cleaned and pressed?)

While still in diapers, my mother remarried.  While still in diapers is dangling. It looks as if it modifies mother. It obviously isn’t intended to. It modifies something (likely I) that isn’t in the sentence at all.

Now, for this post, back to prepositions. Let’s review. Prepositions always come in little phrases. The phrase always begins with the preposition, is followed often by an article (a, an, the), and ends with a noun or pronoun, which is the object of the preposition. Prepositions tell what kind, when, or where. Here are some prepositional phrases:

in the house

beyond the horizon

out the door

under the table

across the street

with blue stripes (no article in this one, but the object has an adjective before it)

Now if you put this prepositional phrase someplace in the sentence where it is not clear what it modifies or where it seems to modify the wrong word, it is misplaced. Take the example at the beginning of this post:

I heard about the meeting in the men’s room. This sentence would probably be understood, especially if it were said, as opposed to written. However, there are ways to write it more clearly:

While I was in the mens room, I heard about the meeting.

In the mens room, I heard about the meeting (leaving the prepositional phrase intact).

Here are some other sentences with misplaced prepositional phrases:

1. My boss said on Tuesday I was being evaluated. Did he say it on Tuesday, or are you being evaluated on Tuesday? Hard to know. Rewrite the sentence to make it clearer:

My boss said that I was being evaluated on Tuesday. 

On Tuesday my boss told me I was going to be evaluated.

2. I read a book about the killer bees in the library. Were the killer bees in the library? Rewrite the sentence to make it clearer.

In the library I read a book about killer bees.

3. I heard about the hurricane at Starbucks. Unless hurricane is a new coffee drink, you  might want to rewrite this one too!

I heard about the hurricane while I was at Starbucks.

At Starbucks I heard about the hurricane.

Drinking my latte at Starbucks, I heard about the hurricane.

4. Did you find the old baby clothes worn by your little sister in the trunk? Who’s in the trunk? Rewrite to clear this up:

In that trunk did you find the old baby clothes worn by your little sister? (Careful you don’t rewrite it as Did you find the old baby clothes in the trunk worn by your little sister?)

It is very easy to put modifiers someplace in the sentence where they will be either ambiguous or simply misleading. Be careful — and proofread! 

-The Grammar Diva-

p.s.  Thank you for making July my best book sales month ever!

 

Irregular? We’re Talking Verbs Here!

You’ve heard of angry birds. Well, how about angry verbs????

Have you ever heard a perfectly well-educated person say, “I have went . . .” Most likely you have, and so have I. I liken it to the squeaking of chalk on a blackboard (do they even have those anymore?).

Other verbs are similarly misused: I have wrote, we have swam, the bell has rang,  the water has froze, and so on.

The issue here is irregular verb forms. Verbs have three forms: base form, past tense, and past participle. Regular verbs, which the majority of verbs are, add an -ed to the end to form the past tense and part participle forms.  But many, many verbs are not regular.

Here are a few regular verbs:

Base                 Past                   Past Participle

walk                    walked                (have) walked

play                    played                  (have) played

study                  studied                (have) studied

Like the word study, words that end in y generally change the y to an i and add the -ed. These verbs are still considered regular.

What are these forms used for? They are used to make different tenses. This post isn’t about tenses; however, there are six main tenses (and then another six companion tenses, but that is another blog post). However, these three verb forms are the only ones used in making different tenses.

Of course, the present tense is the verb in its base form: I walk

The past tense uses that second form: I walked

The past participle is the form of the verb you would use with have, has or had. These are yet other tenses: He has walked, I have walked, we had walked.

Although this post isn’t technically about tenses, let’s clear up the difference between I walked (past tense) and I have walked (present perfect tense). They are not interchangeable even though they are both in the past.

You wouldn’t say, “I have walked to the store yesterday.” You would say, “I walked to the store yesterday.”

What is the difference? The past tense (walked) is used for something that you did, and now it’s finished. The present perfect tense (have walked) is used for something that began in the past but may be continuing in the present. For example: “I have played tennis for ten years” implies that you are still playing. “I played tennis for ten years” implies you may no longer be playing. 

So back to the forms. Regular verbs are easy. But there are so many verbs that do not follow the regular pattern.

Some verbs do not change at all in the three forms. They are always the same: Burst, cost, and set are three of these verbs. There is no bursted, costed, or setted. Others are put  and let.

Example: I am setting the table. Last night I set the table. Every night this week, I have set the table.

Here are some of the trickiest irregular verbs:

begin, began, have begun

bring, brought, have brought

choose, chose, have chosen

drink, drank, have drunk

freeze, froze, have frozen

go, went, have gone

lend, lent, have lent

ring, rang, have rung

rise, rose, have risen

run, ran, have run

shrink, shrank, have shrunk

speak, spoke, have spoken

steal, stole, have stolen

swim, swam, have swum

take, took, have taken (there is no tooken!)

write, wrote, have written

Then, of course, there are the really crazy ones, the craziest of which are lie and lay.They are two separate verbs. Here are their forms:

Base                Past             Past Participle

lie                       lay                    have lain

lay                     laid                    have laid

So lay is actually pretty regular, as verbs go.

The moral of the story? If you are unsure of a verb form, just look it up! My new workbook does have a section about irregular verbs. You can also find your answer in a dictionary (online or paper), and in some grammar books.

Please share this post with your friends!

 

 

 

From Journalist to Novelist: Guest post by Sheri Graves

 

Sheri Graves

I always knew I would be a writer, even as a child. I didn’t know if I could make a living at it, but I knew it’s what I wanted to do. I felt so strongly about it that, at about age 10, I launched my own newspaper based on interviews of pilots and observations of the day-to-day workings at Reid’s Hillview Airport, which was next door to our ranch in San Jose. It was hand printed on NCR paper and I sold it at the airport for 25 cents per copy.

We moved to Sonoma County in 1959, and I started attending Santa Rosa High School. I took journalism in my junior and senior years, serving two semesters as the editor of the school newspaper. Seven months after graduation, I was a “copy boy” at The Press Democrat and 14 months later was promoted to the position of reporter. After more than 42 years at the newspaper, I retired in 2004.

Just as I always knew I would be a writer, I always knew I’d write a novel someday. But, after so many years of writing and editing nonfiction at a newspaper, making the transition to fiction proved difficult. My first try at novel writ ing was a disaster. When it was finished, I read it through from beginning to end. I could think of only three words to describe my work: stink, stank, stunk.

That first effort had started out with good ideas literally ripped from newspaper headlines and massaged into “what-if” scenarios. I had developed good characters and good plots, but I knew the novel didn’t work. I shoved the project aside.

I wasn’t ready to give up, though I waited a while to try again. In the interim, I must have read 50 novels in the genre I wanted to write. I didn’t want to do anything derivative and vowed to come up with new ideas, new plots, new characters. I ripped more articles from newspapers, did research, and interviewed experts. I was more pragmatic the second time around. I did an outline and kept expanding it until it became an intricate web of different plots.

I like complicated novels, those with a number of interweaving plotlines crisscrossing each other until they come together in a satisfying conclusion that ties up all loose ends. I like novels with colorful characters, crisp dialogue, twists and turns, unexpected events, suspense, and tension. And, my favorite novels have humor and satire— something to make me laugh out loud. Finally,  my idea of a great novel is to leave the reader wanting more.

That’s what I wanted to write. I knew the first draft of my second attempt at novel writing wasn’t good enough, but it had possibilities. For the second draft, I killed two storylines. Then, I reached into stink-stank-stunk and pulled three characters from it. I dropped them into my new novel and threaded them through the existing plots, fleshing them out and giving them purpose. More rewrites followed. I let my novel rest for a while, read it through from beginning to end, and realized it still wasn’t good enough. I killed another storyline that wasn’t working. More rewrites ensued.

Friends and family, highly respected for their literacy and writing skills, gave me critical evaluations. Partial and full rewrites continued to within a week of submitting the manuscript for publication.

I finally self-published through Amazon’s CreateSpace. The paperback version of my novel, Deep Doo-Doo, came out in October 2014. The ebook for Kindle became available in December 2014. A few months later, Deep Doo-Doo won the 2015 National Indie Excellence® Award for Crime Fiction.

The point of my story is this: If you want to write a novel and you have confidence in your writing skill and talent, you should at least give it a shot. And don’t jump off a cliff just because it doesn’t work out right away. Keep at it. There is a learning curve to everything, and your novel-writing learning curves may be much shorter than mine.

I’m now working on the second novel of the trilogy introduced by Deep Doo-Doo. For more information, see my website: www.sherigraves.com.

 

Sheri Graves
Writer, Editor, Writing Coach

Sheri Graves has been writing for publication for more than five decades.
Her 40+ years with The (Santa Rosa, California) Press Democrat
included 29+ as a reporter and 14 as a copy editor. She retired in
December 2004, one month shy of her 43rd anniversary with the paper.

Graves won numerous awards for journalism and writing
excellence, including first place prizes from the Press Club of San
Francisco, the California and National Newspaper Publishers
Associations, and California Medical Association.

In “retirement,” Graves is a freelance writer and editor who has done contract work for Internet companies and nonprofit organizations. Graves also edited two anthologies for Senior Authors of Santa Rosa, an independent memoir writing group that hired her in 2013 to be the class instructor and writing coach.

Her debut novel, Deep Doo-Doo, won the 2015 Crime Fiction prize in
the National Indie Excellence Awards competition. The book is available
 at www.Amazon.com. Graves has three other books in the works:

* You Are the Write Stuff, a how-to on memoir writing.
* Turkey in the Straw, a  follow-up to Deep Doo-Doo.
* Pig in a Poke, a  follow-up to Turkey in the Straw.

The Grammar Diva says: Sheri and I met when we both did a mini book festival at the Sonoma County Library’s main branch in Santa Rosa several months ago. We exchanged books and she asked me to come speak to her senior memoir-writing group. It was a fun experience with a group of people who knew more about grammar than any audience I have spoken to! I then read her book, Deep Doo-Doo and loved it! Great characters, interwoven plots, humor, and crime all rolled into one. I recommend it!

Next week’s post: Let’s talk about those annoying irregular verbs!

 

Apostrophe Catastrophes

Whenever anyone writes a post or article titled “The Five Biggest Grammar Mistakes” or “Three Grammar Mistakes That Will Make You Look Stupid,” apostrophe issues are always included. What makes this little “high comma” so confusing? Let’s take a look at the mighty apostrophe . 

There are two main uses for this little mark: (‘)

Apostrophes are used in contractions to replace the missing letters. (Contractions are words or word combinations in which letters have been omitted: can’t for cannot, we’re for we are, etc.
Apostrophes are used to make nouns possessive: Mary’s hat; my brother’s car, etc.
Apostrophes are OCCASIONALLY used in plurals. Let me repeat: OCCASIONALLY.

Of course the most common apostrophe errors are the its versus it’s and the your versus you’re versus yours. Number 1 above says that apostrophes are used in contractions. It’s is a contraction meaning it is. You’re is a contraction meaning you are. Easy. When it’s and you’re are used as contractions,  you use an apostrophe. 

Notice that Number 2 above says possessive nouns, not possessive pronouns. Possessive pronouns do not have apostrophes! These pronouns include ours, theirs, his, hers, yours, whose, and its. So, none of the possessive pronouns includes an apostrophe including its, when it is used as a possessive.

It’s means it is: it’s raining.  Its is possessive: The cat ate its food.

You’re means you are: You’re coming with us. Your is possessive: I made your lunch. This lunch is yours. Who’s means who is: Who’s this person? Whose is possessive: Whose coat is this?

Remember: Contractions always have apostrophes to stand in for the missing letter or letters. Possessive pronouns do not have apostrophes.

Other things to remember about apostrophes:

Apostrophes are used in possessive nouns. Possessive implies ownership and is not the same as plural, which means more than one. To make a  singular noun possessive, we usually add an apostrophe and an s. For example: the dog’s food. my mom’s shoes.
For plural nouns that don’t end in s, also use an apostrophe and an s for the possessive. For example: the children’s rooms, those women’s hats.
For plural nouns that end in s, just put an apostrophe after the s. For example: the dogs’ food (more than one dog), my sisters’ toys (more than one sister)
For singular nouns that end in s, usually use an apostrophe and an s, going by the way you would say the word. For example: Thomas’s room, my boss’s desk, Frederick Douglass’s speech. But you would probably say Miles’ room, because you might not pronounce it as Miles’s.
Plain old plurals generally DO NOT have an apostrophe! For example: I just posted some new photos (not photo’s). The oranges are on sale (nor orange’s).
Use an apostrophe for plurals of letters, numbers, and abbreviations only of the word is confusing without the apostrophe. For example a‘s, so it isn’t confused with the word as. Same goes for i‘s and u‘s. ABCs does not need an apostrophe, as it is not confusing as it is. Some people like to use an apostrophe with plural numbers, but is isn’t necessary: Your answer contains too many 7s. Note that when you use a word or number or letter as itself (too many 7s, all A‘s, four i’s in this word,  too many ands, etc.) the letter, number, or word is in italics, but the s is not.
Sometimes people, especially in informal speech, will make a noun into a contraction: That photo’s really good. It means photo is , so it is a contraction and you do need an apostrophe; it is not a plural.
When you say 1960s, there is no apostrophe.
When you say the ’60s, there is an apostrophe because you have left out part of the year.

There are no other uses of the apostrophe that I can think of right now. Remember: contractions use apostrophes and possessives nouns use apostrophes. Possessive pronouns do not.

Comments about this post and suggestions for future posts are always welcome!

Announcements:

Come hear 18 local writers discuss their new books at the Redwood Writers book launch this Sunday from 2-5 at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa, CA. Guests are FREE! I will be launching The Best Grammar Workbook Ever!

I will be speaking — about grammar, of course — at the Mill Valley Rotary this coming Tuesday, July 14.

Have a WORDwhile week!

 

 

Salute to Independence

For my annual Fourth of July blog post, I thought I would present some quotes—not about patriotism or freedom—but about independence, since that is the name of the holiday. Although the holiday signifies our country’s independence from Britain, these quotes talk more about individual freedom.  I don’t agree with all of them; I think you know me well enough to spot one I don’t agree with at all, but I wanted to have an interesting sampling of quotes, so please enjoy. I hope one or more quotes resonate with you! And Happy and Safe Fourth of July!

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence.  Eddie Rickenbacker

Solitude is independence.    Hermann Hesse

Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.   David Ben-Gurion

It’s easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when you haven’t got a thing — that’s the Lord’s test.   M ahalia Jackson

Injustice in the end produces independence.   Voltaire

Mickey Mouse is, to me, a symbol of independence. He was a means to an end.   Walt Disney

The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought.   Walter Gilbert

Independence is a heady draught, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more.   Maya Angelou

The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.   Denis Waitley

Self-reliance – that’s a dirty word to Democrats. They want people to believe that self-reliance means you don’t do anything with anybody. They don’t want it thought of as accepting responsibility for one’s life. Enterprise. Imagination. Independence. Entrepreneurism.  Rush Limbaugh (ahem...)

Divorce is a declaration of independence with only two signers.   Gerald F. Lieberman

The toddler craves independence, but he fears desertion. Dorothy Corkille Briggs

When women hold off from marrying men, we call it independence. When men hold off from marrying women, we call it fear of commitment.   Warren Farrell

The Declaration of Independence was always our vision of who we wanted to be, our ideal of freedom and justice, how we were going to be different, and what the American experiment was going to be about. Marian Wright Edelman

Mad, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence. Ambrose Bierce

Announcements:

If you have downloaded The Great Grammar Cheat Sheet during the free promotional days this past week, I hope you find it helpful! A review on Amazon is always appreciated! 

We are back to grammar next week with a discussion about apostrophe problems!

Thank you to 

Brainyquote and Quoteland

 

 

The Grammar Diva Meets Scientology

I met Scientology long before I was The Grammar Diva . . . however, this story does have to do with grammar, or at least writing! If you are a Scientologist, you may not want to read on.

Scientology has been in the news lately because of a recent documentary about the “religion” called Going Clear, which I did watch. It is an exposé of the Church of Scientology.

I won’t go into the details of Scientology here; and I am certainly no expert. Here is what I know; much of it I have forgotten because this story happened in the 70s.

Scientology was founded in the 50s by L. Ron Hubbard, who was a science fiction writer. He has since passed on, and the religion is now led by someone else. I believe that he became quite paranoid in his later years and that he lived on a boat. Because it is a “religion,” the Church pays no taxes. It also makes oodles of money. The basic tenet, as far as I know, is that when something bad happens to you, your reactive mind records it in detail and it comes back to haunt you and ruin your life.  These records are called engrams. Getting rid of the engrams, or “getting clear” is the process Scientologists go through to become happy humans. Hubbard wrote a book called Dianetics, which explains all this in detail. I read the book in the 7os when I had my encounter with Scientology. The book is actually very interesting, and I would recommend reading it. But enough of this.  Let me tell you about my encounter with Scientology.

It was the 70s, and people were experimenting with everything: Drugs, EST, Reverend Moon and his Moonies, the Hari Krishnas  . . . and Scientology which lives on in tall, fancy buildings. I was in college majoring in publications, which at the time was print, rather than online.

I was taking a course called Article Writing, taught by Alden Poole, who was a reporter for the Boston Herald, a daily newspaper. The course involved writing an article for publication (possibly) in the Herald. Because this happened decades ago, I don’t promise to remember everything or even to remember accurately. But, as I recall, this is how it went down . . .

I really don’t recall why I chose to write my article about Scientology. I don’t think I read Dianetics until I was writing the article, so it wasn’t the book that got me interested. I imagine it was just the fact that I was in Boston and whenever I walked through Kenmore Square, the Scientologists were there with the other groups handing out pamphlets. And there was a big Church of Scientology building nearby.

So I did what every good journalist does: I went to the Church of Scientology building to see whom I could interview about this religion. I remember very little. I do remember talking to an older man, rather sinister looking, as I recall, with a beard and dark, piercing eyes. I believe he is the one who had me sign a contract basically saying I wouldn’t talk trash about them. Of course I signed it. (RED flag????) Then I interviewed a young man who made Scientology sound really good. No, I didn’t turn over any money. I remember that he had blue eyes that were glazed, as if he were in a Scientology trance. All the Scientologists I saw looked like that. And although he smiled, the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

Armed with my information, I retreated to my dorm room—or the library—or wherever it was I did my writing, and came up with what I thought was one heck of an article. I handed it in to Professor Poole, one step closer to becoming a Scientologist myself.

I remember what Professor Poole said to me after he had read my article: “Now, go dig up the dirt.” So I did.

I went to the library where I found out that Scientology had taken thousands upon thousands of dollars from people who could ill afford it. I read that the government had confiscated their “e-machines,” which were the devices used to clear engrams from people. I rewrote the article with another side included. But then there was that paper I had signed.

Professor Poole read my new article. “Very good. You found the dirt. However, now, of course, the article is libelous and we would have a big lawsuit on our hands if we printed it.” But now that I think back: Is it libelous if it is true?

Anyhow, I never became a Scientologist. The “dirt” I discovered pretty much turned me off on the topic, where my position remains today. Scientology is obviously still around, still tax exempt, still very wealthy, more famous than ever because of the Hollywood names that ascribe to it. But it has actually lost many, many members since the glory days. The dirt has leaked out and has been documented in Going Clear—and it isn’t pretty.

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If you think the days of teaching grammar, punctuation, and word usage are gone, think again:

 

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bigwords101 publishes grammar books your teachers and students will actually want to use. The books are intended for an audience from age 10 through adult and are perfect for students (and for teachers who want to brush up on their grammar skills).

 

The Best Little Grammar Book Ever covers the most important grammar issues and common mistakes in just about 120 pages with chapter quizzes and a complete index. It has sold thousands of copies and is used by many schools and colleges. Click here for more information. Available in print, PDF, and ebook format.

 

 

 

 

The Best Grammar Workbook Ever is our newest product. Filled with exercises and both summative and formative quizzes, the workbook contains just about everything a student needs to know to write confidently. The workbook begins with basic grammar, and then goes into depth to solve common mistakes. Punctuation is throughly covered, as is capitalization. A chapter on word usage includes all the most commonly confused word pairs. Answers are included in one of the several appendixes, and there is a complete index. Click here for more information.  Available in print, PDF (with internal links), and (coming soon) ebook.

 

 

Correct Me If I’m Wrong is another short book with the most common grammar, punctuation, and word usage issues assembled in an easy-to-use alphabetical format, and many people like it for just that reason. Click here for more information. Available in print, PDF, and ebook forma t.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Great Grammar Cheat Sheet provides a really quick reference for the peskiest of all grammar and writing issues. Click here for more information. Available in Kindle and PDF format only.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond Worksheets is a compilation of some of my grammar lessons for middle schoolers, which can also be used for high schoolers. Click here for more information. Available in Kindle and PDF format only.

 

 

 

About the Author

Arlene Miller, also known as The Grammar Diva, is the author of five grammar books and a novel. 

The Best Little Grammar Book Ever has sold thousands of copies and is being used by schools and colleges.  The purpose of Ms. Miller’s books is to clear up common grammar issues. In addition to writing books, she writes a weekly blog post about grammar. 

Miller has been a featured speaker at the Sonoma County (CA) Book Festival, Bay Area Independent Publishing Association (BAIPA), Sonoma County Library, Redwood Writers, Romance Writers of America, Society of Technical Communications, College of Marin, Copperfield’s book store, and several community groups.

She is a member of Redwood Writers and BAIPA.

B.A. in journalism, M.A. in humanities, California teaching & school administration credentials
11 years as a 7th grade English teacher and English department chair
Continuing education instructor in grammar at local junior colleges
Corporate trainer in grammar and writing
Freelance copyeditor for fiction and nonfiction
15 years as a technical writer, technical editor, and editing supervisor
Former newspaper reporter and editor

Please check out Arlene Miller’s books for more reviews and a look inside on Amazon.com.

 

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It’s Father’s Day!

Most of us have memories about our fathers. Unfortunately, I personally don’t have many good ones. But my maternal grandfather and I were very close. Way up on a shelf in my garage is a very old little rocking chair he gave me for my second or third birthday. I have always treasured it. It has a picture of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer painted on it. It needs a little reconditioning (maybe a lot), but someday I will pass it on to my grandchildren — when I get one or two!

Father
Origin: From the Middle English fader, Old English fæder;  Latin pater, Greek patḗr, Sanskrit pita, Old Irish athir 
 

 

Words from the Latin root pater:

paternal – fatherly
paternity- state of being a father
patron 
patriarch – male head of a family or government
patriarchy – government lead by a male
patricide – killing of one’s father
patriot
patriotic

Other words people use for father: dad, daddy, father, pop, pops, papa, poppa, poppy, pappy

Phrases about fathers: 

Our Father
Father time
Like father, like son
Daddy’s little girl
The sins of the father…
Wait til your father gets home!
You’re just like your father
Daddy Warbucks
Father figure

Some famous TV shows:

Father Knows Best
Make Room for Daddy 
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father
Bachelor Father 
Life with Father 

Some Famous Songs: 

Papa Was A Rolling Stone – Temptations
Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag – James Brown
 Papa Don’t Preach – Madonna
Daddy Sang Bass – Johnny Cash
 Color Him Father – Winstons
 Hello Muddah Hello Faddah – Allen Sherman
Papa, Can You Hear Me – Barbra Streisand
(Down At) Papa Joe’s – Dixiebelles
My Dad – Paul Petersen

And finally some quotes about fathers and fatherhood:

A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. ~Author Unknown

A father carries pictures where his money used to be. ~Author Unknown

Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad. ~Author Unknown

My daddy, he was somewhere between God and John Wayne. ~Hank Williams, Jr.

Being a great father is like shaving. No matter how good you shaved today, you have to do it again tomorrow. ~Reed Markham

My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it. ~Quentin Crisp

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.” “We’re not raising grass,” Dad would reply. “We’re raising boys.” ~Harmon Killebrew

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons. ~Johann Schiller

Dad, you’re someone to look up to no matter how tall I’ve grown. ~Author Unknown

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

Quotes from The Quote Garden

Happy Father’s Day from The Grammar Diva!