GrammarPhile Blog

Here are some questions we've received from readers and clients, followed by our answers. Hope you find these helpful!

Question:  Would you hyphenate "we must perform our work with a high-level of technical expertise, professionalism, and integrity"?

Answer:  In this example, there should be no hyphen in "high level" - that's because it is not a compound adjective. "Level" is a noun that is modified by "high."

Now, if you take out the word "of" there, then "high-level" becomes a compound adjective and it IS hyphenated. "We need high-level expertise in order to compete."

More examples:

• He displayed a high level of intelligence.
• She is a high-level consultant at Monsanto.
• They sought higher-level access at the Kennedy Space Center.
• He showed a high level of interest in our design.

Question:  It is my understanding that abbreviations such as "etc., i.e., and e.g." are only used parenthetically, if at all. Why not simply write "and so forth, that is, and for example"?

Answer:  Yes, why not use "that is" and "for example"? Well, sometimes people want to be quicker with their writing, so abbreviations are brought in. Some clients of ours have in their style guides prohibitions on using these abbreviations, but most people rely on them, we see.

The biggest trouble we see with them is when writers confuse them, using "i.e." when they mean "e.g." And in British form, neither takes a comma, whereas in American form, both take commas.

Style guides say it's a matter of personal preference. We'd never change "for example" to "e.g." in a client document, and we'd only change "e.g." to "for example" if the style guide directed us to.

Question:  What's the rule for writing the name of a newsletter--italicized or underlined?

Answer:  Chicago style (Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition) has this:

CMS8.2: Chicago prefers italics to set off titles of major or freestanding works such as books, journals, movies, and paintings...Quotation marks are usually reserved for the titles of subsections of larger works--including chapter and article titles and the titles of poems that have been collected into a series.

Chicago does not use underlining at all, apparently.

So, we suggest putting a newsletter title in italics.

We receive questions quite often from blog readers, visitors to our website, and clients. Today, we'll list a few questions and answers that you may find helpful.

Question:  Why is it not AN historic event?

Answer:  Here in America, we correctly pronounce the "h" in "historic" as we would in "history" or "hip" or "him." Therefore, it is a consonant sound, and the correct article is "a."

In England, they generally drop the "h" and pronounce it as "istoric" - and so they use the article "an" with it.

Question:  Can you start a sentence with "And"?

Answer: In many writing contexts, it is quite all right to begin a sentence with "and." Marketing writers do this all the time. In more formal contexts, though, it is frowned upon. In documents submitted by your colleagues, we seldom if ever see sentences beginning with "and" and we think that's good. Your corporate documents are more formal, highly polished, and aimed at sophisticated, big-company readers. The writing is not folksy, and it is not conversational.

In personal newsletters, and certainly in advertising, sentences beginning with "and" are appropriate and welcome. And they make a point: that kind of writing is meant to be more casual, more personal, and easier to read.

Bottom line: Successful use of "and" at the beginning of a sentence depends on context.

Question:  Is the following sentence grammatically correct? "It wasn't I or another Alliance leader talking about where the Alliance is and where it needs to be if we are to prosper." Or should it be, "It wasn't me?"

Answer:  The correct pronoun is "I" in the context you cite. The subject "It" is referring to the speaker; the nominative (subjective) form is needed to redefine the subject.

To figure these things out, replace the subject with its renamed form "I" (or "me") and see if it fits: 

The ear immediately rejects "Me was talking" so you know the right pronoun is "I" here. Modern-day conversational English sometimes replaces the subjective with the objective, as in:

This is considered acceptable in many grammar books these days, but I prefer the nominative form: "It is I, Phil." Proper grammar may sound stilted, but that's almost always due to the dumbing down of English in these carefree times.