Do You Need to be a Grammar Stickler?

Instant Quiz

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

Linda told us that “she didn’t support the proposed policy about overtime compensation.”

________________________________________________________________________________

New College is an innovative institution in Sarasota, Florida. Here’s a headline about New College from a recent edition of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. 

I like the headline, and I hope you do too. But there’s a problem!

A grammar stickler might say that the headline is wrong. You can’t compare a salary to a university.

Here’s the supposedly correct version: “How does Richard Corcoran’s salary compare to that of other Florida universities?”

My response is…bosh. I hate that of, and I refuse to use it. It’s clumsy and unnatural – and unnecessary.

Take another look at today’s headline. Nobody who reads today’s headline about New College is going to be confused.

Grammar sticklers sometimes forget that our brains are superbly wired to process language. Sentences don’t need to be carefully balanced (despite what an overenthusiastic English teacher might have told us). Our brains happily figure out what’s going on.

Mary Norris – former copyeditor for The New Yorker magazine – found some dangling modifiers make more sense and read better if you don’t fix them.

A wise woman! We would do well to follow her lead.

                           Photo courtesy of Lawrence G. Miller

___________________________________________________________

Instant Quiz ANSWER

Today’s quiz sentence is an indirect statement. You need to remove the quotation marks:

Linda told us that she didn’t support the proposed policy about overtime compensation.  CORRECT

Use quotation marks only when you’re writing exactly what someone said (a direct statement):

Linda said, “I don’t support the proposed policy about overtime compensation.”  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