Top Twenty Grammar Errors: The Question mark

Number twenty-three in our top twenty grammar errors: Question marks!

Check this page out. Lots of question mark errors. Somebody at Yahoo! wasn’t using their style guide.
The question mark is such a simple thing, so why bother even looking at it? It simply goes after a question, so what’s the issue? Why is this error so vital to our writing?

Roy Peter Clark author of The Glamour of Grammar says, “The question mark, used well, may be the most profoundly human form of punctuation. Unlike the other marks, the question mark—except perhaps when used in a rhetorical question—imagines the Other. It envisions communication not as assertive by as interactive, even conversational. The question is the engine of debates and interrogations, of mysteries solved and secrets to be revealed, of conversations between student and teacher, of anticipation and explanation. There are Socratic questions, of course, where the interrogator already knows the answer. But more powerful is the open-ended question, the one that invites the other to act as the expert in telling his own experience” (Little, Brown, 2010).

The question mark is indeed powerful.

 

At its most basic, the question mark is used to indicate that a sentence is a question awaiting an answer.

Does Harry love Sally?

 

But the question mark can also be used to indicate surprise, skepticism, the unknown.

·         Are you joking me?

·         Who cares?

·         Really?

All of the above could be rewritten with periods or exclamation points as well, and is perfectly acceptable.

Sometimes we ask the question mark to do more work than necessary. Sentences referencing indirect questions never take a question mark.

Harry asked Sally if she was attending the New Year’s Eve party?

That’s wrong. The question mark should be a period.

 

 

The Top 20 Grammar Errors: Quotations

Error number twenty-two concerns quotation marks in our list of the top twenty grammar errors.

Dialogue is inherently a different beast in fiction than in any other writing style, and I cannot stress enough that this list of the twenty most common grammar errors along with Anderson’s five grammar errors has been culled from collegiate academic papers and essays and research papers written at the high school level. And, over the winter break from university this academic year, I’m planning a blog series on the new rules for dialogue in fiction.

And trust me, as much as the rules and guidelines for dialogue have changed, they have pretty much remained the same as well. That being the case, it’s vital for a writer to understand the constructs that surround quotation marks: that is—how to implement the punctuation correctly.

The correct usage of quotation marks within dialogue, how dialogue is formatted on the page, the punctuation that is unique to dialogue—all of that must be mastered to be able to veer from the course. The veering from the course will be covered in December. Stay tuned. Right now, we’re going to examine the basics.

The first rule is that every time you have a new speaker, you begin a new paragraph. Let’s look at a passage from Death of Day, the third story in my Wasteland series.

She took him to the temporary storage building.

"How safe is this?" the rep asked, pointing at the yellow steel drums behind a four-inch plate glass window.

"Well," said Lil', "moisture is always a factor. It could react with the materials inside and produce various gases."

"What kind of gasses?"

She stared through the glass into the holding room. The steel drums sat quietly in a corner in a room without movement. "Bad gasses," she said.

"What do you mean by bad?"

"Well, the gases should probably never ignite."

"What would happen if they did?"

Lil' looked at the floor and scratched the back of her neck. She didn't say anything, and Lil' thought the state rep looked pissed.

"What kind of time frame are we looking at in getting all of this done? Because we need to hurry this process."

"A lot of the procedures we've had to come up with ourselves," she said. "And you guys have started shipping waste from other facilities here." She shook her head. "What kind of question is that?"

"Ms. Philemon, this facility needs to be totally shut down."

"That would be my job. Yes."

The rep crossed his arms. "So then, how long?"

"Maybe a year. If—"

"If what? I don't like if's. I'm getting a lot of pressure from above. This needs done."

Lil' glanced at the steel drums. "Pressure," she half-whispered, half-breathed. She wasn't sure she could remain silent any longer. Wasn't sure if she could give him the answer he wanted. Wasn't sure if he could handle the answer he needed. "Maybe a year if you stop sending me additional waste."

He shook his head. "That's unacceptable. Way too long. This reactor site has been sitting here since 1984. It needs to go."

 

Notice each time the state rep speaks and each time Lil’ speaks. Whenever the dialogue switches speakers, we have a new paragraph.

Now, let’s take a look at the punctuation inside the quotation marks.

“Bad gasses,” she said.

 

Here, you have a complete thought within the quotation marks. Well, okay, it’s a fragment because there is no verb, but assuming it was a complete independent clause or sentence, without the quotation marks, instead of the comma, we should have a period.

But we don’t because the sentence does not end after the closing quotation mark. It ends after the dialogue tag she said.

The rule is, if you have a statement within quotation marks, and you have a dialogue tag after the quotation, instead of a period, use a comma before the closing quotation mark.

If, however, the quotation does not have a tag at the end of the entire sentence, place the period inside the quotation mark.

 
"Well, the gases should probably never ignite."

 

Okay, so that part is pretty straightforward, but what if you have a different ending punctuation mark within the quotation other than a period? Say an exclamation point or a question mark, what happens then?

"How safe is this?" the rep asked, pointing at the yellow steel drums behind a four-inch plate glass window.

You use the question mark or the exclamation point. You only ever use the comma construction with the period.

Sometimes, you may want to break the quote up.

"Well," said Lil', "moisture is always a factor. It could react with the materials inside and produce various gases."

In the example, the quote is broken by the dialogue tag said Lil’, and the quote is a complete sentence—the introductory clause within the first set of quotation marks, and the rest of the statement in the second set of the statement. Notice the comma after well and before the closing quotation mark. Also notice that the dialogue tag ends with a comma. This is always the case unless the first quote set is a separate sentence from the second quote set.

"A lot of the procedures we've had to come up with ourselves," she said. "And you guys have started shipping waste from other facilities here." 

The first quote looks totally like our first example: 

“Bad gasses,” she said.

The second portion of the quote looks totally like our second example:

"Well, the gases should probably never ignite."

Simple, right? What happens when you place the dialogue tag at the beginning of the quotation though? For the most part, you flip the comma usage. 

She said, “Bad gasses.”

Notice also that the portion of the sentence inside the quotation marks begins with a capitalized word. However, my favorite construction for a dialogue tag in front of a quotation utilizes an action:

The rep crossed his arms. "So then, how long?"

 
Because the action is a complete idea, a complete sentence on its own, there is no comma between the tag and the quotation. Instead, we end with a strong period and begin a brand new sentence with the opening quotation mark.

I’m hoping I explained this well enough. Dialogue in conjunction with its punctuation constructs is a tough subject for many writers. The subject is difficult to explain as well. If this is a problem area of yours, please do not hesitate to ask me your questions or voice your concerns.

Top 20 Grammar Errors: Capitalization

Welcome to the bonus round of the top twenty most common grammar errors in the English language. These five “additional” errors are listed alongside the top twenty errors in Jeff Anderson’s book: Mechanically Inclined —a High School English teacher’s guide to teaching grammar. These bonus grammar mistakes are: 

·         Capitalization

·         Quotation marks

·         Question marks

·         Double negatives

·         Spelling (homophones, doubling rule)

Today, we will be examining capitalization errors. Anderson wrote his list in 2005. Well, probably earlier than that as his book was published in 2005. Phone texting had just taken off in a pretty big way, and I believe texting has made an impossible situation worse. In fact, if you ever get a text from me, my phone attempts to automate the capitalizations, and it doesn’t do a very good job, and I don’t really bother to fix the problem either (getting new phone in August). So, when I text you, you normally get a jumble of capitalization errors. My daughter, at this point, believes I’m doing this on purpose. She also corrects me.

When she texts me, however, she doesn’t capitalize anything. She is not alone in her non-capitalization. When other people text me, there is also a distinct lack of capitalization. Admittedly, texting without capitalization is easier, and because it is easier, I think people have forgotten when they are supposed to capitalize a word.

In German, all nouns—no matter if they are run of the mill ordinary nouns like cat or proper nouns like John Smith—all nouns in German are capitalized. In Danish, before their spelling reform in 1948, all nouns were capitalized. Even in English during the 18^th Century, all nouns were capitalized. Take a look at the original printing of Gulliver’s Travels or the 1787 United States Constitution and you will find every single noun capitalized. This is such a recent change to English grammar that you still get people today who do this:

Every word in that sentence has been capitalized. That’s just plain wrong.

Jodi Gilbert has a nice piece on five tips for avoiding sloppy capitalization mistakes. Scroll down a bit to read the article. The article makes some good points.

The point Gilbert makes that I like the most: “Even if you’re wrong, be consistently wrong.” Her second tip is pretty good too: “If you’re not sure, leave it lowercase.”

And Owl at Purdue breaks down all the rules for capitalization in the English language.

Capitalization style guides are available too.

·         The Chicago Manual of Style Online

·         The APA Style Guide

·         The MLA Style Guide (this is a crib sheet based on the 2003 MLA Style Guide)

·         The AP Style Book (for sale at $20.94)

·         The Wikipedia Manual of Style/Capital Letters

Capitalization, at its heart, is not so much a question of grammar though as much as it is a question of style. And a style is a matter of consistency. As a fiction writer, you have a bit more freedom to decide how you want to implement capitalization. Just Don’t Capitalize Every Word Of A Sentence And You Will Be Fine.

The Top 20 Grammar Errors: It's versus its

 

We have reached number 20 in the top twenty grammar errors, and I know some of you have been impatiently waiting for this one:

It’s versus its.

Today’s grammar error is kind of a shout out to error number 9—the possessive apostrophe error. I believe we have also discussed word endings, and today we’re going to look at a lot of things: possessive pronouns, the plural s word ending, and the possessive ‘s ending.

The Mistake

The mistake here is simple enough.

Its denotes ownership.

It’s denotes the contraction it is.

But why do people make this mistake? I believe, for the most part, writers make this common mistake because the two words sound the same. The only item separating the meanings is a punctuation mark.

Possessive Pronouns

Let’s look at the pronouns he and she for a minute. The possessive forms are his, her, and hers.

·         His coat.

·         Her table.

·         That table is hers.

Even though in error number 9, we talked about the apostrophe s denoting ownership, none of the above pronouns include the apostrophe. They just tack the s at the end and that’s it.

The pronoun it is no different.

·         Its coat.

Normally, of course, a plain old s would denote plurality.

Cats don’t own anything; there are just a lot of cats.

Possessive ‘S

Take a look at this:

John’s cat.

The apostrophe s tells us that John owns a cat. But:

·         It is a nice cat.

·         It’s a nice cat.

·         It has stripes that go length-wise.

·         It’s stripes that go length-wise.

Simply put, many possessive pronouns don’t include an apostrophe. Look at these other possessive pronouns:

·         My

·         Mine

·         Yours

·         Ours

·         theirs

·         Whose

Not one of the above includes the apostrophe s. Neither does its.

However, let’s confuse the issue with indefinite pronouns, because they all take an apostrophe s to denote ownership (which may be another reason we are confused with its):

·         One’s

·         Somebody’s

·         Everybody’s

·         Another’s

·         Everyone’s

·         Everything’s

·         Nobody’s

·         Somebody’s

·         Someone’s

The History

Interestingly, the missing apostrophe in its is a rather recent change to English grammar. Not until the early 1800s was the apostrophe dropped. Apostrophes aren’t used much in English either. The apostrophe occurs on average once every twenty sentences or so (in French, they occur at least once per sentence). But in 2009, the Birmingham City Council dropped all apostrophes from their street signs. St. Paul’s Square became St. Pauls Square.

Apostrophes do not have a lot of rules or make a lot of sense. Much apostrophe usage has been handed down to us by the inventions of printers of the early 1800s and reflect usage as opposed to actual, real grammar.

For example, the word loved.

In the past, loved used to be pronounced as a two syllable word:

lov·ed

A lot of poetry was printed in the early 1800s though, and many poets preferred the single syllable pronunciation. Printers replaced the e in loved with an apostrophe to mark that the e should not be pronounced.

lov’d

Eventually, the two syllable pronunciation of loved lost favor, the apostrophe was removed and the e returned because the apostrophe was considered redundant.

Birmingham cited issues with GPS functionality as their reasoning why they removed apostrophes from their street names. Text messaging has nearly destroyed apostrophe use as well. Possibly, in the foreseeable future, we won’t have an issue with its versus it’s because we’ll eventually deem the apostrophe unnecessary. However, until that happens….

 

 

Top 20 Grammar Errors: The Dangling Modifier

Welcome to error number nineteen in our top twenty most common grammar errors. Only six more errors to go and this blog series is in the bag.

What’s today’s grammar error?

The dangling modifier.

The Modifier

A modifier is any word or phrase that changes or modifies the meaning of the sentence. The modifier “alters, limits, or adds more info to something else in the sentence” (yourdictionary.com).

The Writing Center at the university of Wisconsin-Madison has a gorgeous list of 25 misplaced and dangling modifiers. Let’s play with the first dangling modifier on the list, because it’s fun:

Oozing slowly across the floor, Marvin watched the salad dressing.

What or who is doing the oozing? The way the sentence reads, it seems as if Marvin is the one doing the oozing.

Salad Dressing Ooze

But, in fact, the salad dressing is actually the thing that is oozing.

The modifier in this sentence is:

Oozing slowly across the floor

Modifiers do not have to be entire phrases though. They can be single words.

The happy puppy ran quickly to its new owner.

Were you able to pick out the modifiers in the above sentence? Happy modifies puppy, quickly modifies ran, and new modifies owner. And check this out: all those modifiers are either adjectives or adverbs!

Dangling modifiers confuse the sentence though, and lead to an unclearness not intended by the author. Did the author really intend Marvin to be oozing slowly across the floor? Perhaps maybe Marvin is a snail?

 

The Top 20 Grammar Errors: the run-on sentence

The eighteenth error in the list of the most common grammar errors is the run-on sentence, AKA the fused sentence.

Let’s revisit grammar error number eight, the comma splice.

In error number eight, I stated that the above was a run-on sentence. This is what I was told in high school. However, while researching the fused sentence I discovered I was wrong. A fused sentence looks like this:

The dog chased the cat the cat climbed a tree.

A fused sentence is two independent clauses connected without punctuation. Therefore, a fused sentence can also look like this:

The dog chased the cat and the cat climbed a tree.

Check out error number three: no comma in a compound sentence. The example should read:

·         The dog chased the cat. The cat climbed a tree.

·         The dog chased the cat, and the cat climbed a tree.

·         The dog chased the cat, but the cat climbed a tree.

·         The dog chased the cat; therefore, the cat climbed a tree.

·         Because the dog chased the cat, the cat climbed a tree.

The fused sentence can be fixed by separating the two independent clauses with a period, a comma and a conjunction, a semi-colon with conjunction and comma, or by rewriting the sentence with an introductory clause.

 

Top 20 Grammar Errors: Unnecessary comma in a restrictive element

Number seventeen on the list of the twenty most common grammar errors is the unnecessary comma with restrictive element.

German

I have taken a lot of German classes, and I can actually speak a bit of the language, which is exciting to me. In my last class, my instructor had us write a lot of essays, and the one item I got marked on a lot was my commas. My instructor told me that was a common problem among English speakers.

English writers are comma crazy.

Restrictive Element

In error number 5, no comma in non-restrictive element, we learned that a non-restrictive element was really a parenthetical and should be sent off by commas. Whereas a non-restrictive element is not necessary to the understanding of the sentence, a restrictive element or an essential element is vital to the meaning of the sentence.

I like the examples of restrictive elements on About.com’s grammar portion of their site, so I am reproducing them here with my own edits.

v  A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read. –Mark Twain

§  A person has no advantage over one.

 

v  A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child. –H.L. Mencken

§  A poet is simply an overgrown child.

 

v  It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf. –H.L. Mencken

§  It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven.

What happened to the sentences when I removed the restrictive elements?

Notice also the missing commas. And if you add the commas, the commas drastically change the meaning of the sentence.

It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven, being good at billiards or golf.

Adding the comma to the above sentence changes the meaning. The sentence now means: if you are good at billiards or golf, then it is impossible for you to imagine Goethe or Beethoven.