GrammarPhile Blog

It's an unusual water ski, no one knows much about it is an example of the so-called comma fault--using a comma to connect two independent clauses. The comma is not a connector; it is a separator. The semicolon, however, can function as both a connector and a separator, and at the same time: It's an unusual water ski; no one knows much about it. If we use a comma, then we have to supply a connector--that is, a conjunction such as and: It's an unusual water ski, and no one knows much about it.

We often find mismatched subjects and verbs in even the most smartly edited client documents. But that's why we're here! Check out this week's post on the subject.

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:

While is a conjunction primarily. It has overflowed its primary meaning, during the time that, into realms that belong to although, whereas, and, and the semicolon without connective.

• Thirty-five of the fifty female skiers made their way through the course, while only thirty of the fifty male skiers completed it.
  
• Sixteen of the female skiers were American, while nine were Australian.

The first while plainly means whereas (= but by contrast); the second means nothing (sixteen were American; nine were Australian).

• He said his daughter could jump, while (should be "and") his son and nephew could slalom.
  (should be "although") born right-handed, he had learned to ski 'right-footed.' (should be "and") in the next decade this heavy figure is expected to double. (should be "and") two popular prizes will be given on the last day.
• He recalled that while
• In the past six years alone college enrollment has jumped 45 percent, while
• Cash prizes will be presented the first day of the show, while

What is worth noting about these specimens is that the facts linked with while belong to times expressly stated to be different. To write that something happened today while something else happened ten years ago is to work hard at achieving contradiction.

Ideally, the conjunction while should be restricted to the linking of simultaneous occurrences in a situation where simultaneity has a point.

• Then it is the brave man who chooses, while the coward stands aside.

No writer, surely, can do himself harm by declining to use it otherwise. Yet as things stand, it is impossible to make much headway against such a use as

• While there have been more than 100 callers soliciting in this area, it has not been possible to call on everyone.

This while is a concessive that means although, and its claim to grudging acceptance is that it entails no temporal clash between facts. To tolerate while as a link between events patently not simultaneous is to misapply tolerance:

• In the daytime he's star of his own show, while at night he becomes the general announcer on the nationwide talk show.

The mind accustomed to ignoring what while means will soon not respond to its true meaning in One idles while the other works.