March 4th is National Grammar Day. Writers need to participate. It’s the law.
The Grammar Cop
Get ready for Grammar Day
March 2nd, 2010HYPHENS
December 23rd, 2009I see many words that should be hyphenated spelled as one word, the most common is e-mail. Here’s a rule to remember without exception: When the word is formed with a single as the first syllable, hyphenate or open. Q-tip, V neck, U-turn, e-publishing, X-ray, A-line, G-string, D day.
I also see hyphens that aren’t needed. Commonly mishyphenated words include: ongoing, under way, a priori (or any Latin phrase), bona fide, vice versa, and ad hoc.
Avoid using a hyphen with an -ly adverb: widely known, thinly coated, readily available.
Rules are fine, but most of the time you can use common sense. For instance, if the reader will stumble over a word because of a missing hyphen, it’s wise to add one: Do-able, co-worker, pre-wedding, city-wide. Another situation arises when the compound word repeats letters, creating an awkward spelling: anti-inflammatory, re-emphasize, multi-item, shell-like. You don’t want to jar your reader from your story with funny looking words like antiinflammatory, reemphasize, multiitem, shelllike, right?
It’s a good idea to hyphenate when the root word is capitalized or a numeral: pre-Columbian, Buddha-like, un-American, pre-1900s, post-1950s. Likewise, hyphenate numbers that are spelled out or are stated as fractions: twenty-one, sixty-seven, one-fourth, but not two-word numbers combined with a fraction: forty four one-hundredths of a percent.
Commonly accepted hyphenated words are those with the prefix ex, self, or all, or words with the suffixes free, odd, elect. Examples: salt-free, ex-husband, self-employed, all-encompassing, ninety-odd dollars, president-elect.
Don’t expect to remember all this. Keep a good grammar reference handy, such as Grammatically Correct: The Writer’s Essential Guide to Punctuation, Spelling, Style, Usage and Grammar by Anne Stilman.
Capital Punishment ;-)
September 9th, 2009Spelling can be such a pain in the behind, especially for writers. We’re bright enough to realize we can’t trust our spell checking programs because of homophones or similarly spelled words. We have dictionaries for tricky words, and we can program our auto-correct features to catch habitually misspelled words. But what about trademarked names, proper names, and other names requiring capitalizing?
After going through edits for RUNNING SCARED, I learned the rules aren’t cut and dried. For instance, while Internet and Web or Web site are capitalized, google used as a verb is not. Don’t ask why; I don’t know. According to my editor, that’s Google’s decision. Perhaps they like their trademarked word being generic for online search engines.
Other everyday items we don’t think about as proper names but are trademarked include Windbreaker, Dumpster, Formica, Jaws of Life, Hula Hoop, Kleenex, Coke, and Jeep. It’s very important that you respect a company’s brand name; they’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars to register and advertise it.
Back by popular demand, here is the Grammar Cop’s quick reference for capitalization:
CAPITALIZE:
- A person’s name.
- A person’s title when it precedes the name.
- Days of the week, months of the year.
- Special days, holidays.
- Organizations and abbreviations of organizations.
- Historical periods, documents, and events.
- Nationality, race, or language.
- Personification of objects or abstract concepts.
- First word of a statement.
- When used as part of a proper name: lake, county, high school, college, river, street, park, country, company, institution, etc. (Ohio River, the river)
- A noun identifying a family member when used as a name. (Mom, your mom)
- Geographical locations-specific. (The West, out west)
- References to the Diety.
- The pronoun “I.”
- Acronyms (AT&T, URL)
- In a title, all words except prepositions, articles, and conjunctions of four letters or less (Days of Thunder) unless it’s the first word. (The Runaway Bride)
- Subjects studied that are specific titles (Composition 101, meteorology, American History 202, biology)
DON’T CAPITALIZE:
- Points on a compass or direction.
- Seasons of the year.
- Pronouns other than “I” unless at the start of a sentence or part of a title.
EXAMPLES:
We watched West Wing before heading down south.
Independence Day falls on a Wednesday this year, according to my mother.
Mother is always right about summer holidays.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and best wishes for the new year.
As always, you should consult a dictionary or grammar or style reference when in doubt. Happy writing!
Is this an historical or a historical?
August 15th, 2009
My newest release is the anthology, Romance on Route 66, featuring four historical romances set during four different decades in four different towns along historic Route 66. It troubles me to hear the work referred to as an historical romance anthology when you should say a historical romance.
Although a typically precedes a consonant and an typically precedes a vowel, there is more to this rule. The a precedes a consonant sound, not simply a consonant. The an precedes a vowel sound, not simply a vowel. For instance, history begins with a consonant and the consonant is pronounced, so it’s a history or a historical document or a historian. But in some English speaking countries, the h is silent, which is why you may read an history. If you pronounce the h, use a not an.
Consider euphemism, eulogy, utility, or utopia. All are pronounced as if they begin with the consonant Y and must be preceded by a not an. Words beginning with a consonant but pronounced as a vowel sound include honor, honorable, and humble. Each should be preceded by the article an: an honor, an honorable man, an humble opinion.
