GrammarPhile Blog

Well, sometimes your game's just not there, and so it seems you're randomly tossing the ball hither and yon with no target in sight. But don't cry if you flunk this test! Take your best shot, and if you don't get them all, there's always next week/month/year/life.

We see confusion reign when it comes to multiple subjects in sentences. Let's refer to some cogent advice from The Gregg Reference Manual:

If the subject consists of two or more words that are connected by and or by both...and, the subject is plural and requires a plural verb.

We, like many people I know who frequent sites like Amazon, ESPN, and even my newest favorite, BackyardChickens.com, have recently been overrun with banner ads for a new 'proofreading' service. It seems a group of Internet enthusiasts convinced some California venture capitalists to come up with $5 million and started what they hope is a competitor to ProofreadNOW.com. Replete with content-free buzzwords ("the 'secret sauce' is in how we process documents"), this service offers cheap proofreading in a blistering 24 hours.

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Making sales today is tough business. Finding jobs is even tougher. And though everybody is allowed a mistake here and there, the gatekeepers to both sales and jobs are clamping down on proposals and resumes, and even speech patterns. They're saying to themselves more and more, "Make the first pass easier by simply eliminating the ones with mistakes." So you want to avoid mistakes! Here are some more tips on making the right choice in words:

While phobias can be serious challenges for affected people and their psychiatrists, most of us toss the extension onto almost any word and run with it. Schoolophobia is what you have at the end of vacation. Dogophobia is what you have if you've been bitten by a dog. Is phobophobia what you have when you fear being labeled as fearful? Here are some real phobias. Can you identify the meanings?

Well, the words aren't confused, but sometimes people who use them are. Our job today is to help you avoid confusing the following words, some of which we've seen even in documents processed by our editors THIS VERY DAY!

• It was they who initiated the idea of holding the water ski tournament in Alberta next year. (They is in the subjective case because it follows the linking verb was.)
• It is we who must take the responsibility for the injuries we suffered when we jumped off Frye's Leap. (We is in the subjective case because it follows the linking verb is.)
  But:
• If anyone can vouch for Talullah's dependability, it's me. (I is technically correct, but me is the natural choice in conversation and is considered acceptable in all but the most formal writing situations.)

• Sassafras and I would love to judge this year's slam-dunk contest. (There is no need for myself; I is the proper choice.)
• We would like to invite Mortimer and you to travel with us next spring to Two Egg. (There is no need for yourself; you is the proper choice.)
• Q: How are you? A: Fine, and you? (NEVER answer "Fine, and yourself?" It is less than substandard English. It is like answering, "Fine, and how is yourself?" And that sounds flakey.)

Emphasis

• I myself will be driving the towboat for the slalom competition. (Following I with myself emphasizes that the speaker intends to take full responsibility for the driving.)
• Matilda herself will write the acceptance speech. (No speechwriters need apply for the job.)
  
  Reflexive Verbs
• The children amused themselves by barefoot skiing and by skiing backwards. (Themselves is the object of amused [a reflexive verb] and refers back to children.)
• Lucius has a habit of causing injury to himself whenever he starts skiing from the beach. (Himself is the object of the preposition to, and refers back to Lucius.)
• I nearly killed myself when I hit the wake at 75 mph. (Myself is the object of the verb killed and refers back to I.)
  
  Possible exception:
• As for myself, the plans for the airplane trip are still up in the air. (Me is probably the better choice, but myself could be defended on the grounds that the writer or speaker wants to emphasize the first-person pronoun and has elected to omit me.)

If you're in the newspaper business, you know how to properly capitalize headlines. But people writing white papers, press releases, brochures, and even résumés need to know what's right and what's wrong in order to retain the respect and admiration, to say nothing of the trust, of their readers. So take note!

Most style guides call for lower-casing prepositions, articles, and many conjunctions. But there are lots of extenuating circumstances that call for uppercasing those words sometimes. Read on, but first:

- A preposition is a word that could describe your relationship to a cloud: you're in the cloud, under the cloud, above the cloud, around the cloud, by the cloud, before the cloud, after the cloud. These italicized words are prepositions.
- The articles are the, a, and an -- they point out things: the boy, a man.
- Conjunctions join things: and, or, nor, while, etc.

The Chicago Manual of Style says to always capitalize the first and last words of a headline, no matter what. Lowercase prepositions, regardless of length, except when they are stressed (as through in A River Runs Through It), are used adverbially or adjectivally (as up in Look Up, down in Turn Down, on in The On Button, etc.), are used as conjunctions (such as before in Look Before You Leap), or are part of a Latin expression used adjectivally or adverbially (e.g., De Facto, In Vitro, etc.). CMS specifies lowercasing the conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor. Always lowercase to and as.

Examples: