Arlene Miller's Blog, page 57
May 17, 2015
A Short History of the English Language
At Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma
I was so busy getting ready for my book launch a couple of days ago that I forgot I had a blog post to write! I have been writing this blog for over two years, a post sometime every weekend, and I haven’t missed a post yet. So, if you added yourself to the mailing list at the book launch, you will be reading some of what you heard, and I apologize. However, if you look back at previous posts, I know you will find some interesting things!
Back to the launch: Usually when I speak before a group, I use a grammar quiz, so it is interactive. This is probably the first time I have given a true 30-40 minute speech, so it did take some time to prepare. I had 13 pages of notes! Of course, they were printed in 16-point type, so I wouldn’t need my reading glasses.
I talked about the state of the English language and then gave some history of how it came to the point it is at now. Then I presented some things that have been in previous blog posts: funny phobias, readers’ pet peeves, and interesting things about the language.
Thank you to everyone who came to the launch, by the way! It was standing room only, with many seats taken by enthusiastic 7th graders! Yes, there were adults there, and even a dog! We had some laughs, we sold some books, we ate some cake . . . it was a good evening.
So where did this crazy language of ours come from, anyway?
English is a hodgepodge of, among other things, Latin, Greek, French, German, and Dutch.
Chaucer was the first person to choose to write in English, but Shakespeare was the most famous. He added many words to the language. Words first seen in Shakespeare’s plays include accommodation, assassination, dexterously, dislocate, indistinguishable, obscene, premeditated, reliance, and submerged.
Many of our common idioms were either coined by Shakespeare himself or were first seen in his plays: it’s Greek to me, salad days, vanished into thin air, refuse to budge an inch, green-eyed jealousy, tongue-tied, fast and loose, tower of strength, in a pickle, knit your brows, slept not a wink, laughed yourself into stitches, had too much of a good thing, have seen better days, lived in a fool’s paradise, the long and short of if, foul play, teeth set on edge, in one fell swoop, without rhyme or reason, give the devil his due, dead as a door nail, eyesore, laughing-stock, and devil incarnate.
Did you know that Shakespeare had one of the largest vocabularies of any English writer — 30,000 words? Estimates of an educated person’s vocabulary today is a mere 15,000 words.
The King James Bible, published in the year Shakespeare began working on his last play, The Tempest, contains only 8,000 different words.
The first English dictionary was published in 1604 with 120 pages, the same page count as my first book, The Best Little Grammar Book Ever! Perhaps it should have been called The Best Little English Dictionary Ever! — but it was called A Table Alphabeticall, written by Robert Cawdray. It contained “hard words for ladies or other unskillful persons.”
In 1806 Webster published his first dictionary, having written some grammar and spelling books prior to writing the dictionary.
And here is how our language became so colorful:
Let’s talk about the Irish for a minute: The word brogue sounds like the Irish word for shoe: the Irishman was said to speak with a shoe on his tongue! Some details of American grammar, syntax, and pronunciation are from the Irish, such as I seen instead of I saw and youse for the plural you.
Black English, for many, represents the disadvantaged past, slavery, something best forgotten, yet we gained some rich language: voodoo, banjo, banana, high-five, jam sessions and nitty-gritty.
Jive talk from the musicians and entertainers in Harlem added to this list: chick, groovy, have a ball, this joint is jumping, square, and yeah, man.
The first pioneers to arrive in this country needed to make up some new words. Some of these first Americanisms are lengthy, calculate, seaboard, bookstore, and presidential, with pretzel, canyon, and wigwam from the native Americans.
New Orleans gave us words like brioche, jambalaya, and praline. (Yum!)
Gold rush words include bonanza (originally meaning fair weather in Spanish), pan out, stake a claim, and strike it rich.
Yiddish words come from the Jewish-Americans, many of whom were in the media, many of them comedians: chutzpah, schlep, shtick, mensch, nebbish, schlemiel, schmooze, meshugunner, and yenta.
I think I will stop here. There are obviously newer additions to the language: surfer talk, Valley Girl words, and now tech words — and emojis, which aren’t words at all!
I would like to thank everyone who supported me by coming to the book launch; Copperfield’s Books for once again hosting me in fine style; and The Story of English by McCrum, MacNeil, and Cran for providing me with much of this information!
Next week: Yes, back to the Seven Deadly Sins of English series!
May 8, 2015
A Mother’s Day Post from The Grammar Diva
We interrupt our series of the 7 Deadly Sins of Writing to present our Mother’s Day post . . . .
This post is dedicated to
~ My mother ~ (angel) Beatrice (Gold) Kelfer
~My grandmother ~ (angel) Etta Gold
and the three young adults who make me proud to be a mother!
~ My son ~ Jake Richard Miller
~ My daughter ~ Shelley Gold (Miller) Bindon
~ My son-in-law Joshua Kristian Bindon
Mother: A female parent
The origin of mother is pre-900 from Middle English moder, Old English mōdor; cognate with Dutch moeder, German Mutter, Old Norse mōthir, Latin māter, Greek mḗtēr, Sanskrit mātar. As in father, th was substituted for d, possibly on the model of brother (from Dictionary.com).
Some of the words that come from the Latin root mater (mother) are common today:
*matrimony – marriage
*matron – a married woman, particularly one with a mature appearance
*matricide – the killing of one’s mother
*matrix – the womb, that from which something originates
*matriarch – female head of family
*matriarchy – organization in which the mother is recognized as the head
*maternal – motherly
*maternity – the state of being a mother
*matrifocal – sociological group having a female leader
*matrilineal – derived from the female line of the family
We know that those words are related to the Latin root word that means mother. But we also use many other “mother” words. Here are some:
*alma mater is the school you graduate from — the mother school.
*mother-in-law
*wicked (or not) stepmother
*motherboard (of a computer)
*motherhood
*Mother Goose
*motherland
*motherlode
*mother of pearl
*mother tongue
*Mother Superior
*Mother Nature
*Mother of God (usually an interjection)
*Fairy Godmother
*mother hen
*housemother
*den mother
*Mothers of Invention
*Earth mother
and of course . . .
*Mother F….
otherwise, simply known as “Mother,” or, alternatively, “Mutha”
*****************************************************************************************************
So, what is a mother? When our human babies leave the nest, many of us adopt fur babies, the dogs and cats that become our new children. (Possibly feather babies, as well.) So we know that not only do we not need to be biologically related to be a mother, but we don’t even need to be of the same species.
We can even be mothers to things that are not living. Many of us have “birthed” books, for example. There are actually people who help other people birth their books, sometimes called book midwives. After you have slaved over a hot computer for months — sometimes years — and have produced a book, you certainly feel as if you have given birth to something.
How clever of me to go from mothers to books! That reminds me to tell you again that I will be launching my new book – The Best Grammar Workbook Ever – on Friday, May 15 (mark your calendars) at 7 p.m. at the Petaluma Copperfield’s Books for those of you who are local. If you reserve a seat, your book (should you choose to purchase one) is 20% off. But don’t feel you have to buy anything! There will be chocolate cake and a giveaway. And I will be talking about something that is related to words and language!
A book launch: A celebration of birth. So is it to be likened to a Christening? Baptism? No, wait… I am Jewish. A bris? Oh, I don’t think so. And the book isn’t old enough for a Bar Mitzvah. Or is the book female, and is it a Bat Mitzvah? I will have to think about this . . .
To close, here are a few quotes about mothers you might enjoy:
Mother’s love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved. -Erich Fromm
Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life. -Sophocles
Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me. -Alice Walker
A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother’s love endures through all. -Washington Irving
My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent. -Ruth Bader Ginsburg
No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother. -Margaret Sange
Happy Mother’s Day to all types of mothers!
May 2, 2015
The 7 Deadly Sins of Writing: No. 4 – Trusting Spell Check
I was recently sending a message on Words with Friends. I was writing the simple word men. Auto correct wrote it as Mennonite. Last week I was attempting to text the word ouch. Auto correct changed it to polychrome. I have had auto correct change innocent words to slut and change lunch to lust. Lesson learned: Either turn the thing off or make sure you look at what you have written before you send it!
Siri (or whatever you might call that imaginary friend you have on your phone) is equally obtuse. If you ask her to send a text, don’t trust her. She apparently has poor hearing. Always check out a text she has written for you before you send it.
I must admit I don’t pay much attention to what I have set on my computer. There is auto correct, and then there is spell check (and grammar check). I guess auto correct can be helpful (?), but you must always proofread anyway!
Which brings us to spell check. Spell check is a wonderful invention. Whenever you write anything, you should run it through whatever spell checker you have available. Certainly, if you have a book manuscript, you should run it through spell check before you submit it to an editor. Whenever I receive a book manuscript to edit, and I can tell it hasn’t been run through spell check, I wonder why the author didn’t bother to do that. If the editor has to make the changes it costs time (and therefore, money). Yes, as an editor, I always do run it through spell check when I am finished with it in case I have missed anything.
If you are writing a book, running it through spell check is enough before you submit it to an editor. The editor should catch what spell check didn’t. However, if you are writing something that will not be edited by anyone else, DON’T RELY ON SPELL CHECK. You probably know this by now:
Spell check will not catch the fact that men has been changed to Mennonite by your autocorrect, since spell check doesn’t care what is being written as long as it is spelled erectly. (There you go . . . autocorrect. You wouldn’t want correctly to go out to the public as erectly now, would you? And while we are on the subject, you would’t want public to go out as pubic either . . . would you?)
Spell check will not find the pesky typos we all make: its versus it’s ; there versus their , your versus you’re . You (or your editor) need to go through the document to make sure none of that stuff exists.
Sometimes spell check is packaged along with a “grammar checker.” Other times, they are separate. There are also some grammar checkers online that you can run your writing through, some free, some for a fee. I am not too familiar with them because I don’t use them. I know that Grammarly has a pretty good one for a fee. I would love to put a grammar checker on my website, but my technical know-how (and likely my wallet) prohibit it at this time.
BUT. . . even if you use a grammar checker, you still need to proof your own work afterwards. Sometimes the grammar checker (like spell check) will stop at each “mistake” and you can decide whether to fix it. Many times they aren’t mistakes at all, but intentional. For example, a grammar checker may point out that you have written something in passive voice. It doesn’t like it. However, there is nothing illegal about passive voice, and you may have done it for a good reason. Same with fragments: grammar checkers don’t like them, and with good reason. However, sometimes people use sentence fragments in their writing for a reason.
I think grammar checkers are fine, especially for the more writing challenged. However, you cannot always listen to them. Why? Because THEY AREN’T HUMAN and they don’t have the same type of brain that humans do.
Lesson learned: Autocorrect is helpful (well, that is debatable). Spell checkers and even grammar checkers are helpful and great inventions for all of us writers. However, the human touch is also necessary, because our brains can discriminate. When you use writing tools, always make sure that you have the last word (and the last look).
The 7 Deadly Sins of Grammar: No. 4 – Trusting Spell Check
I was recently sending a message on Words with Friends. I was writing the simple word men. Auto correct wrote it as Mennonite. Last week I was attempting to text the word ouch. Auto correct changed it to polychrome. I have had auto correct change innocent words to slut and change lunch to lust. Lesson learned: Either turn the thing off or make sure you look at what you have written before you send it!
Siri (or whatever you might call that imaginary friend you have on your phone) is equally obtuse. If you ask her to send a text, don’t trust her. She apparently has poor hearing. Always check out a text she has written for you before you send it.
I must admit I don’t pay much attention to what I have set on my computer. There is auto correct, and then there is spell check (and grammar check). I guess auto correct can be helpful (?), but you must always proofread anyway!
Which brings us to spell check. Spell check is a wonderful invention. Whenever you write anything, you should run it through whatever spell checker you have available. Certainly, if you have a book manuscript, you should run it through spell check before you submit it to an editor. Whenever I receive a book manuscript to edit, and I can tell it hasn’t been run through spell check, I wonder why the author didn’t bother to do that. If the editor has to make the changes it costs time (and therefore, money). Yes, as an editor, I always do run it through spell check when I am finished with it in case I have missed anything.
If you are writing a book, running it through spell check is enough before you submit it to an editor. The editor should catch what spell check didn’t. However, if you are writing something that will not be edited by anyone else, DON’T RELY ON SPELL CHECK. You probably know this by now:
Spell check will not catch the fact that men has been changed to Mennonite by your autocorrect, since spell check doesn’t care what is being written as long as it is spelled erectly. (There you go . . . autocorrect. You wouldn’t want correctly to go out to the public as erectly now, would you? And while we are on the subject, you would’t want public to go out as pubic either . . . would you?)
Spell check will not find the pesky typos we all make: its versus it’s ; there versus their , your versus you’re . You (or your editor) need to go through the document to make sure none of that stuff exists.
Sometimes spell check is packaged along with a “grammar checker.” Other times, they are separate. There are also some grammar checkers online that you can run your writing through, some free, some for a fee. I am not too familiar with them because I don’t use them. I know that Grammarly has a pretty good one for a fee. I would love to put a grammar checker on my website, but my technical know-how (and likely my wallet) prohibit it at this time.
BUT. . . even if you use a grammar checker, you still need to proof your own work afterwards. Sometimes the grammar checker (like spell check) will stop at each “mistake” and you can decide whether to fix it. Many times they aren’t mistakes at all, but intentional. For example, a grammar checker may point out that you have written something in passive voice. It doesn’t like it. However, there is nothing illegal about passive voice, and you may have done it for a good reason. Same with fragments: grammar checkers don’t like them, and with good reason. However, sometimes people use sentence fragments in their writing for a reason.
I think grammar checkers are fine, especially for the more writing challenged. However, you cannot always listen to them. Why? Because THEY AREN’T HUMAN and they don’t have the same type of brain that humans do.
Lesson learned: Autocorrect is helpful (well, that is debatable). Spell checkers and even grammar checkers are helpful and great inventions for all of us writers. However, the human touch is also necessary, because our brains can discriminate. When you use writing tools, always make sure that you have the last word (and the last look).
April 23, 2015
The 7 Deadly Sins of Writing: No. 3 – Verbosity
Verbosity: Superfluity of words; wordinessIn this blog post, we will show three forms or wordiness:
Filler words and phrases
Excess verbiage
Redundancy
1. Some people like to use words to fill space, hold the floor as they are thinking, or make those they are talking to feel smaller than a flea.
The overuse of uh, so, well , and you know can be used to fill space while the speaker thinks of what to say next.
Some people like to add phrases to the end of what they say to make you feel stupid: “Understand?” “Do you know what I mean ?” “Did you get that?” “Right?” and similar things.
2. Excess verbiage can be wordy phrases, larger-than-necessary words, and more words than necessary.
Wordy phrases can start sentences: “What is did is . . . “ or “What this means is . . .” or “The reason is because [yuck!!!]. . .” and even worse, using a double is : “What I did is is . . .” Then there is “The fact that . . .” and “That being said . . .”
Using fancy words doesn’t usually make you sound smart: conversate instead of converse or talk; using words like enormity and orientate. You don’t need to use a twenty-five cent word when you can use a nickel word.
“We will elect a president at the next meeting.” Or you could say, “The election of the president will be held at the next meeting.” The first one is far more direct and has more punch. Using a noun (election) instead of the verb is called nominalization.
If you have ever read your mortgage papers or any other contract, you have seen verbosity in the form of legalese.
3. Redundancy is usually done by mistake or because the writer or speaker doesn’t realize he or she is doing it. Here are some common redundancies:
7 p.m. in the evening (of course p.m. is in the evening!)
At this point in time is just a wordy way to say now.
Completely unanimous is the only type of unanimous there is.
The result is generally at the end, so end result is redundant.
In close proximity to is just a fancy way to say near.
For the purpose of is a puffed up way of saying to.
Each and every? Just each or every alone will do nicely.
Postpone until later? Can we postpone until any other time?
Past history really just means history, since there is no real future history.
Protest against ? Can you protest for something?
We made a decision is a nominalization for we decided.
Small in size? Small should do it.
Due to the fact that this blog post is about redundancy and other excess verbiage, I would like to repeat again, that my personal opinion is that now you know the basic essentials of this difficult dilemma. It should be noted that the final outcome of this blog post is hopefully spelled out in detail to you, my invited guests. Do you understand?
Save the Date!
Book Launch for The Best Grammar Workbook Ever! Friday, May 15 at 7 p.m.
The 7 Deadly Sins of Grammar: No. 3 – Verbosity
Verbosity: Superfluity of words; wordinessIn this blog post, we will show three forms or wordiness:
Filler words and phrases
Excess verbiage
Redundancy
1. Some people like to use words to fill space, hold the floor as they are thinking, or make those they are talking to feel smaller than a flea.
The overuse of uh, so, well , and you know can be used to fill space while the speaker thinks of what to say next.
Some people like to add phrases to the end of what they say to make you feel stupid: “Understand?” “Do you know what I mean ?” “Did you get that?” “Right?” and similar things.
2. Excess verbiage can be wordy phrases, larger-than-necessary words, and more words than necessary.
Wordy phrases can start sentences: “What is did is . . . “ or “What this means is . . .” or “The reason is because [yuck!!!]. . .” and even worse, using a double is : “What I did is is . . .” Then there is “The fact that . . .” and “That being said . . .”
Using fancy words doesn’t usually make you sound smart: conversate instead of converse or talk; using words like enormity and orientate. You don’t need to use a twenty-five cent word when you can use a nickel word.
“We will elect a president at the next meeting.” Or you could say, “The election of the president will be held at the next meeting.” The first one is far more direct and has more punch. Using a noun (election) instead of the verb is called nominalization.
If you have ever read your mortgage papers or any other contract, you have seen verbosity in the form of legalese.
3. Redundancy is usually done by mistake or because the writer or speaker doesn’t realize he or she is doing it. Here are some common redundancies:
7 p.m. in the evening (of course p.m. is in the evening!)
At this point in time is just a wordy way to say now.
Completely unanimous is the only type of unanimous there is.
The result is generally at the end, so end result is redundant.
In close proximity to is just a fancy way to say near.
For the purpose of is a puffed up way of saying to.
Each and every? Just each or every alone will do nicely.
Postpone until later? Can we postpone until any other time?
Past history really just means history, since there is no real future history.
Protest against ? Can you protest for something?
We made a decision is a nominalization for we decided.
Small in size? Small should do it.
Due to the fact that this blog post is about redundancy and other excess verbiage, I would like to repeat again, that my personal opinion is that now you know the basic essentials of this difficult dilemma. It should be noted that the final outcome of this blog post is hopefully spelled out in detail to you, my invited guests. Do you understand?
Save the Date!
Book Launch for The Best Grammar Workbook Ever! Friday, May 15 at 7 p.m.
April 18, 2015
The 7 Deadly Sins of Writing: No. 2 – The Fragment
Sentence Fragments
Last week we began the series of the 7 Deadly Sins of Grammar with the run-on sentence. This week we will talk about its opposite, the dreaded fragment.
By the way, I received a comment about my inconsistent hyphenation of the word run-on (run on). While it may have looked inconsistent, there was a method to my madness. It was actually not inconsistent at all. I hyphenated run-on when it was a modifier preceding the word sentence. If I used run on as a noun without the word sentence after it, I didn’t use a hyphen. I was following the standard of hyphenating compound adjectives that precede the noun they modify. I suppose I could have hyphenated run on all the time, but I saw no reason. Here is another example: I ordered a well-done steak. I like my steak well done. And another: He has a three-year-son. His son is three years old.
Back to the dreaded fragment (which is a fragment itself). While a run-on sentence is too much information, a fragment is not enough. A run-on sentence is two (usually) sentences that are run together without appropriate punctuation to separate them. They are usually strung together with a comma rather than a period or semicolon (or the addition of a conjunction).
A fragment, on the other hand, is less than a sentence. It is not a complete thought. First, what is a sentence, anyway. What do you need to have a complete sentence? A subject and a verb usually does the trick. Of course, sentences usually contain more than two words, but the right two words will do: a subject and a verb:
She runs.
He works.
Before we start writing a nursery school primer here, let’s continue. You can actually have a complete sentence with just one word–a verb–if it is a command. In a command the subject, which is always you, is understood if it isn’t actually there. So when you say to your dog, Sit!–that is a sentence: You sit.
Fragments are usually longer than one or two words, however, and often can look like sentences. But before we go into that . . .
I use fragments all the time. I use them in my blog posts. I use them in my books. You will see fragments in advertisements. Fragments have a use. Conversely, run ons don’t. Fragments are often used for effect:
She was afraid. She made herself so small she almost disappeared in the closet. There it was again. That horrible screaming.
Okay, I wrote that off the cuff, but there it is–those last three words do not a sentence make. But you know that the author used it for effect and probably knows the difference between a sentence and a fragment.
Here is another short passage with a fragment or two:
I have three dogs. First, a poodle. My poodle is named Mollie, and she is three years old. My little brother named her Mollie. Although she is a boy dog.
Yes, I wrote that one off the cuff too. That one might be part of a paragraph or an essay by an elementary-school student. There are two fragments, and we know they are not intentional, or for effect:
First, a poodle is not a sentence. There is no verb.
Although she is a boy dog is not a sentence either. “But is has a subject and a verb!” my student says. Yes, it does indeed. She is the subject and is is the verb. However, the group of words is not a complete thought. What about although she is a boy dog? Something else is needed for that group of words, which does have a subject and a verb, to make sense. In this case, it could simply be the sentence before it. If the writer had not put that period after Mollie and had not capitalized Although, it would have been correct.
Although she is a boy dog is called a subordinate (or dependent) clause. A clause is a group of words that has both a subject and a verb. An independent clause is a complete sentence. However, a subordinate clause isn’t and cannot stand on its own. It needs an independent clause to join with to make a sentence. The use of a subordinate clause as a sentence is probably the most common use of incorrect fragments–incorrect meaning, not intentional and not used for effect.
Many students come to my classroom believing they cannot begin a sentence with the word because. They have been told this in elementary school so that they wouldn’t run into the problem of not finishing the thought and producing a fragment:
Because the sky is gray. Fragment.
Because the sky is gray, I will take my umbrella with me today. Sentence.
Notice that we added a complete sentence (independent clause) to the subordinate clause: I will take my umbrella with me today.
Some other words that begin subordinate clauses and might result in a fragment are although, since, until, whenever, wherever, after, before, and while.
In conclusion, some fragments (group of words that do not make a complete sentence) are effective when writing a book, blog post, advertisement, etc. However,
1. I can’t think of when a run on would be acceptable, although many novelists use them.
2. I would not, and would not recommend, ever using a fragment for effect in a business letter, cover letter, college application, or any formal writing.
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Announcements:
As you know, The Best Grammar Workbook Ever is now available. If you received a PDF copy from me to review, please post your review on Amazon. If you have purchased the book, an Amazon review is always appreciated 
I will be launching the workbook on Friday, May 15, at 7 p.m. at Petaluma Copperfields. Please join me for this event if you live locally! There will be chocolate cake, prizes, and humor! Help me fill the seats! Bring your friends. Support your indie bookstore and support your indie publisher!
The 7 Deadly Sins of Grammar: No. 2 – The Fragment
Sentence Fragments
Last week we began the series of the 7 Deadly Sins of Grammar with the run-on sentence. This week we will talk about its opposite, the dreaded fragment.
By the way, I received a comment about my inconsistent hyphenation of the word run-on (run on). While it may have looked inconsistent, there was a method to my madness. It was actually not inconsistent at all. I hyphenated run-on when it was a modifier preceding the word sentence. If I used run on as a noun without the word sentence after it, I didn’t use a hyphen. I was following the standard of hyphenating compound adjectives that precede the noun they modify. I suppose I could have hyphenated run on all the time, but I saw no reason. Here is another example: I ordered a well-done steak. I like my steak well done. And another: He has a three-year-son. His son is three years old.
Back to the dreaded fragment (which is a fragment itself). While a run-on sentence is too much information, a fragment is not enough. A run-on sentence is two (usually) sentences that are run together without appropriate punctuation to separate them. They are usually strung together with a comma rather than a period or semicolon (or the addition of a conjunction).
A fragment, on the other hand, is less than a sentence. It is not a complete thought. First, what is a sentence, anyway. What do you need to have a complete sentence? A subject and a verb usually does the trick. Of course, sentences usually contain more than two words, but the right two words will do: a subject and a verb:
She runs.
He works.
Before we start writing a nursery school primer here, let’s continue. You can actually have a complete sentence with just one word–a verb–if it is a command. In a command the subject, which is always you, is understood if it isn’t actually there. So when you say to your dog, Sit!–that is a sentence: You sit.
Fragments are usually longer than one or two words, however, and often can look like sentences. But before we go into that . . .
I use fragments all the time. I use them in my blog posts. I use them in my books. You will see fragments in advertisements. Fragments have a use. Conversely, run ons don’t. Fragments are often used for effect:
She was afraid. She made herself so small she almost disappeared in the closet. There it was again. That horrible screaming.
Okay, I wrote that off the cuff, but there it is–those last three words do not a sentence make. But you know that the author used it for effect and probably knows the difference between a sentence and a fragment.
Here is another short passage with a fragment or two:
I have three dogs. First, a poodle. My poodle is named Mollie, and she is three years old. My little brother named her Mollie. Although she is a boy dog.
Yes, I wrote that one off the cuff too. That one might be part of a paragraph or an essay by an elementary-school student. There are two fragments, and we know they are not intentional, or for effect:
First, a poodle is not a sentence. There is no verb.
Although she is a boy dog is not a sentence either. “But is has a subject and a verb!” my student says. Yes, it does indeed. She is the subject and is is the verb. However, the group of words is not a complete thought. What about although she is a boy dog? Something else is needed for that group of words, which does have a subject and a verb, to make sense. In this case, it could simply be the sentence before it. If the writer had not put that period after Mollie and had not capitalized Although, it would have been correct.
Although she is a boy dog is called a subordinate (or dependent) clause. A clause is a group of words that has both a subject and a verb. An independent clause is a complete sentence. However, a subordinate clause isn’t and cannot stand on its own. It needs an independent clause to join with to make a sentence. The use of a subordinate clause as a sentence is probably the most common use of incorrect fragments–incorrect meaning, not intentional and not used for effect.
Many students come to my classroom believing they cannot begin a sentence with the word because. They have been told this in elementary school so that they wouldn’t run into the problem of not finishing the thought and producing a fragment:
Because the sky is gray. Fragment.
Because the sky is gray, I will take my umbrella with me today. Sentence.
Notice that we added a complete sentence (independent clause) to the subordinate clause: I will take my umbrella with me today.
Some other words that begin subordinate clauses and might result in a fragment are although, since, until, whenever, wherever, after, before, and while.
In conclusion, some fragments (group of words that do not make a complete sentence) are effective when writing a book, blog post, advertisement, etc. However,
1. I can’t think of when a run on would be acceptable, although many novelists use them.
2. I would not, and would not recommend, ever using a fragment for effect in a business letter, cover letter, college application, or any formal writing.
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Announcements:
As you know, The Best Grammar Workbook Ever is now available. If you received a PDF copy from me to review, please post your review on Amazon. If you have purchased the book, an Amazon review is always appreciated 
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April 11, 2015
The 7 Deadly Sins of Writing: No. 1 – The Run On
Waaaaay back, when I was in junior high school, I remember my English teacher telling us that if we had even one run-on sentence in an essay in high school or college, we would get an F for the entire essay. I don’t know if that ever came to pass; I like to think I don’t remember because I would never write a run-on sentence. And don’t believe I ever failed a paper.
At about the same time, or probably even earlier, I remember being told in math class that we had better learn the metric system because that is what we would be using in the near future. We all know how that one turned out!
I think that maybe the run-on sentence warning may have gone the same way. I have no idea whether or not teachers fail a student who writes one run on in an essay. I, however, do take off points for anything a student writes with more than one run-on sentence. More than one run on indicates to me that the student may not really understand what a sentence is.
What is a run-on sentence, anyway? What is this evil thing that people write? Simply put, a run on is actually two complete sentences without the proper punctuation between them. Generally, it is two complete sentences separated by a comma, also known as a comma splice. A comma is not a strong enough punctuation mark to separate two complete sentences by itself.
Yes, there are some authors who do separate their sentences with commas in novels. Perhaps it indicates some pacing technique. I don’t like it. As an editor, I generally change it, especially in a book for children or teens. They need to see books as bastions of correctness, right?
Here is a run on sentence (also a comma splice):
My sister had a job interview yesterday, she hopes she gets the job. (Ring the Run-On Buzzer loudly!)
Fortunately, run ons are easy to fix, and there are many repair options. The simplest is to simply change the comma to a period and begin a new sentence with a capital letter:
My sister had a job interview yesterday. She hopes she gets the job.
For those who are not afraid of the semicolon, you may use a semicolon if the sentences are related. In this case, I would say they are.
My sister had a job interview yesterday; she hopes she gets the job.
Perhaps in this case they aren’t:
My sister had a job interview yesterday. I would hate to work in the company she interviewed with.
If the sentences are closely related, you can also keep the comma and add a conjunction along with it:
My sister had a job interview yesterday, and she hopes she gets the job.
Those are the three easiest and most common ways to fix a run-on sentence. There are other ways. You can separate them with a colon if the second sentence is a result of, or an explanation of, the first sentence. However, you don’t need to use a colon in this case, so you might want to avoid using the colon to separate sentences, just in case it isn’t appropriate for the particular sentences:
My sister had a job interview yesterday: she graduates from college in two weeks. (No capital letter is necessary to begin the second sentence.)
There are also some more creative ways to write the sentence:
My sister had a job interview yesterday — she hopes she gets the job.
or even
My sister had a job interview yesterday (she hopes she gets the job).
Not common, but not really incorrect. The first three fixes are the recommended ones.
Join me again next week for Deadly Grammar Sin No. 2, which will remain a secret.
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The Best Grammar Workbook Ever is now available in paperback on Amazon and other online booksellers, available to order from your favorite bookstore, and available to purchase as a PDF from my website.
If you received a complimentary PDF to review, a review would be appreciated! Thank you to all who have already posted a review. If you purchase the book, of course a review would also be greatly appreciated!
If you are in the area, I will be at the Hampton Inn in Vacaville tomorrow, Sunday, April 12, from 10-4 for BookFest Solano.
The 7 Deadly Sins of Grammar: No. 1 – The Run On
Waaaaay back, when I was in junior high school, I remember my English teacher telling us that if we had even one run-on sentence in an essay in high school or college, we would get an F for the entire essay. I don’t know if that ever came to pass; I like to think I don’t remember because I would never write a run-on sentence. And don’t believe I ever failed a paper.
At about the same time, or probably even earlier, I remember being told in math class that we had better learn the metric system because that is what we would be using in the near future. We all know how that one turned out!
I think that maybe the run-on sentence warning may have gone the same way. I have no idea whether or not teachers fail a student who writes one run on in an essay. I, however, do take off points for anything a student writes with more than one run-on sentence. More than one run on indicates to me that the student may not really understand what a sentence is.
What is a run-on sentence, anyway? What is this evil thing that people write? Simply put, a run on is actually two complete sentences without the proper punctuation between them. Generally, it is two complete sentences separated by a comma, also known as a comma splice. A comma is not a strong enough punctuation mark to separate two complete sentences by itself.
Yes, there are some authors who do separate their sentences with commas in novels. Perhaps it indicates some pacing technique. I don’t like it. As an editor, I generally change it, especially in a book for children or teens. They need to see books as bastions of correctness, right?
Here is a run on sentence (also a comma splice):
My sister had a job interview yesterday, she hopes she gets the job. (Ring the Run-On Buzzer loudly!)
Fortunately, run ons are easy to fix, and there are many repair options. The simplest is to simply change the comma to a period and begin a new sentence with a capital letter:
My sister had a job interview yesterday. She hopes she gets the job.
For those who are not afraid of the semicolon, you may use a semicolon if the sentences are related. In this case, I would say they are.
My sister had a job interview yesterday; she hopes she gets the job.
Perhaps in this case they aren’t:
My sister had a job interview yesterday. I would hate to work in the company she interviewed with.
If the sentences are closely related, you can also keep the comma and add a conjunction along with it:
My sister had a job interview yesterday, and she hopes she gets the job.
Those are the three easiest and most common ways to fix a run-on sentence. There are other ways. You can separate them with a colon if the second sentence is a result of, or an explanation of, the first sentence. However, you don’t need to use a colon in this case, so you might want to avoid using the colon to separate sentences, just in case it isn’t appropriate for the particular sentences:
My sister had a job interview yesterday: she graduates from college in two weeks. (No capital letter is necessary to begin the second sentence.)
There are also some more creative ways to write the sentence:
My sister had a job interview yesterday — she hopes she gets the job.
or even
My sister had a job interview yesterday (she hopes she gets the job).
Not common, but not really incorrect. The first three fixes are the recommended ones.
Join me again next week for Deadly Grammar Sin No. 2, which will remain a secret.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
The Best Grammar Workbook Ever is now available in paperback on Amazon and other online booksellers, available to order from your favorite bookstore, and available to purchase as a PDF from my website.
If you received a complimentary PDF to review, a review would be appreciated! Thank you to all who have already posted a review. If you purchase the book, of course a review would also be greatly appreciated!
If you are in the area, I will be at the Hampton Inn in Vacaville tomorrow, Sunday, April 12, from 10-4 for BookFest Solano.
