Strain on My Brain!

Instant Quiz

Can you correct the error in the sentence below? Scroll to the bottom of today’s post for the answer.

Before we moved to Florida, we use to shovel our driveway after every snowstorm.

____________________________________________________________

Many ambitious writers believe that if you can just get the @##$%! grammar right, you’re going to be an effective writer. Sadly, that’s not true. Here’s a perfectly grammatical sentence from the Business Daily Review that – nevertheless – has a problem:

Abortion clinics and a doctor have launched a challenge at the Florida Supreme Court after an appeals court Wednesday rejected a temporary injunction that would have blocked a new law preventing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

First, it’s too long. More seriously, readers (at least the ones with a brain like mine) have to struggle to figure out what the sentence means.

I’m going to be folksy here and call this sentence a triple negative. A preventive measure was blocked, rejected, and challenged. Each step reversed the previous step. It’s like a shell game.

Be kind to your readers! Tell the story one step at a time.

Abortion clinics and a doctor have launched a Florida Supreme Court challenge. Florida has a new law preventing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That law started a chain reaction: a temporary injunction blocked the law and reinstated the right to abortion. But then an appeals court reimposed the 15-week limit. On Wednesday the Supreme Court accepted a challenge from an abortion clinic and a doctor who want to make no-limits abortions legal again.

Whew. (Incidentally, the Florida Supreme Court did reinstate the 15-week limit.)

Writing isn’t a contest to see who can cram the most information into a sentence. The goal is to communicate with your readers. The best writers are the ones who work hard to make things easy for their readers.

_______________________________________________________________________

Short Pencil Point Deviant Art ok

Instant Quiz ANSWER

Make sure you put that final “d” in used to:

Before we moved to Florida, we used to shovel our driveway after every snowstorm.  CORRECT

What Your English Teacher Didn’t Tell You is available in paperback and Kindle formats from Amazon.com and other online booksellers.
“A useful resource for both students and professionals” – Jena L. Hawk, Ph.D., Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College

“Personable and readable…Jean knows her subject forwards and backwards.” – Adair Lara, author of Hold Me Close, Let Me Go

Share

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on December 05, 2022 04:00
No comments have been added yet.


Jean Reynolds's Blog

Jean Reynolds
Jean Reynolds isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.
Follow Jean Reynolds's blog with rss.