GrammarPhile Blog

First, a short quiz …

Of the two sets of sentences below, pick the one sentence from each set that seems as though it would more effectively serve a marketing or advertising piece (or any piece, really).

1. Our Acme space-saver products will help eliminate clutter in your office.
2. Our Acme space-saver products will eliminate clutter in your office.

1. Give Staff Savers a call! We’ll ease the burden on your overworked staff!
2. Give Staff Savers a call! We can help ease the burden on your overworked staff!

I don’t know about you, but I want the Acme space-saver product that is determined to do the decluttering (option #2). I don’t want the wishy-washy company that’s going to “help” me declutter my office. So when it comes to writing your copy: Be bold! Be assertive! Be confident! And be certain to eliminate the word “help” from your copy!

As people use technology more and more in their everyday lives, it’s becoming common to write and speak in fragmented and run-on sentences. Just think about the last batch of text messages or emails you wrote, or the last social media post you read

Sentence fragments are grammatically incorrect because they are incomplete. They are usually missing a subject, object, or verb, or they don’t express a complete thought on their own. But sentence fragments are used all the time in writing and speech so it’s easy to miss them or mistake them as being grammatically correct. Consider the following passages:

• Looking forward to seeing you at tomorrow night’s gala.
• Be sure to keep our customers satisfied. No matter what.
• There are some documents that still need to be signed. The client agreement. And the manufacturer’s agreement.

Sentence fragments are used in everyday speech, especially during brief exchanges of dialogue. In fact, sometimes people seem stuffy or odd if they don’t use sentence fragments when interacting with others. For example, if someone asked you in an email, “Did Sue ever get back to you about tomorrow’s meeting?”, it would be perfectly okay to respond with, “Still waiting for her reply.”, although that reply is technically a sentence fragment. Many writers use sentence fragments for stylistic reasons to emphasize certain ideas, phrases or passages. Consider the following example:

Once Maria learned that the vaccine that she was using was causing unforeseen and fatal illnesses, she threw every vial she had of it away. Every single one. And never used or spoke of it again.

Sometimes there are multiple ways to edit and revise a sentence or phrase in order to make it more grammatically correct, but sometimes there aren’t. Review the sentences and phrases below and select the best option for repairing the grammar mistake that you find. And be sure to share your results with us in the comments.

Writers are typically instructed to write in the active voice because it leads to clear and engaging writing. But writing that uses the passive voice is often associated with vagueness and long-windedness. Consider and compare the following sentences:

• The surgeon severed the young girl’s carotid artery while he was performing surgery.
• The young girl’s carotid artery was severed during surgery. 

What differences between the two sentences do you notice—aside from the fact that one of the sentences is written in the active voice and one is written in the passive voice? Which sentence do you think is clearer or more effective? And which one would you be more likely to use or write yourself?

Although we’re often instructed to avoid the passive voice like the plague in our writing, it does have its merits when used strategically and effectively.

As a writer, you need to trust your editors and proofreaders, but you should still spend at least some amount of time polishing your writing before handing it over to them. Sure, this makes things somewhat easier for your proofreaders, but it also ensures clearer, better writing overall.

Do you have a clear review process that you follow before passing your work along to your proofreaders or editors? If not, here are a few things to consider if you want your writing to be the best it can be before giving it to someone else to edit.

Nearly everybody has an Achilles’ heel when it comes to writing…that one grammar rule you can’t remember without double-checking a grammar guide first, or that tough-to-spell word you have to check in the dictionary every time you write it (so you don’t look dumb). Some writers aren’t great with prepositions, yet they never confuse verb tenses, and other writers aren’t great with punctuation usage, but they never misspell any words, and so on. Such Achilles’ heels in writing are why writers prefer to rely on editors and proofreaders.

What’s your Achilles’ heel in writing? Take the quiz below to see if you come across it. Then be brave and share your results with the rest of us in the blog comments.  

We can all agree on lots of things when it comes to writing. For example, everyone knows that grammar is important, and that proper spelling makes for good readability. Capitalizing proper nouns and lowercasing most other words make things clear for your readers. And most punctuation is pretty standard. Generally, if you’re sloppy in these areas, people will just put your text down, or worse, throw it away. But there are many things editors and publishers don’t agree on, simply because they’re following different style guides. For example, a psychology researcher will follow a style guide that is very different from the style guide a marketer who is writing web copy for a business will follow. The end result is their published works can look quite different.

Style guides exist to establish a set of standards for the writing and design of written works, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization, or industry. And due to this, they don’t always have the same set of standards, as different style guides exist to address the needs of different sets of readers and writers.

Knowing that you’ve just read a sentence or passage with a grammar error in it and being able to identify exactly what that grammar error is are two separate things. Do you think that you’re good at naming common grammar errors when you see them, using the appropriate terms?

Take a moment to consider what you learned about paragraph construction from your writing and composition course work in grade school.

Did you have to write standalone paragraphs with specific formulas and requirements about some sort of topic that you thought was mundane or boring? Were you able to write about your opinions and form arguments in standalone paragraphs? Or were you required to write paragraphs about more objective information that was provided to you beforehand? And did what you learn about writing paragraphs in high school, college, or the workplace change how you understand paragraph construction?

Now, do you think that there is a “perfect paragraph” formula? And do you think there is a one-size-fits-all paragraph structure for us all to follow?

How we construct paragraphs has a lot to do with how and what we were taught in the past, as well as what we read, write, or edit on a regular basis. Keep reading to see if what you understand about constructing paragraphs coincides with your training, learning experiences, and everyday reading, writing, or editing experiences.

“Language, never forget, is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines.”

― Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

What do you think? Do writers and editors need to continually practice grammar rules and language traditions as they are used by others? Or do you think that they should dictate the grammar rules and traditions that others use? Or do you perhaps think they should do a little bit of both?

Language is not static and is always changing; this much is certain. Remember when “LOL” wasn’t in the dictionary? Punctuation usage and grammar rules have also changed over time, especially in this era of social media, electronic communications, grammar-checking software, and artificial intelligence.

Perhaps editors and writers should abide by grammar rules and dictate those rules as if they were lexicographers. Lexicographers add words to the dictionary when those words have widespread, sustained, and meaningful use. Or is this what writers and editors already do? Do writers and editors already add or adjust grammar rules in style guides and similar resources when those rules change over time and exhibit widespread, sustained, and meaningful use?

So, what should writers and editors do to practice grammar rules that change over time? How about the following?