Writers often mistakenly withhold repetition of prepositions with corresponding sentence elements in the erroneous belief that those elements can share a single preposition. In each of the following sentences, a repeated preposition is missing, and a discussion after each example explains the problem and a revision resolves it. 1. These developments are significant as the … Read more
Each of the following sentences demonstrates a faulty consistency of tense when the context calls for a shift to another tense. Revise each sentence as necessary. 1. I had wanted to show you where the Joneses lived. 2. She wrote a poem that began with an apt simile. 3. Einstein supposedly said positive-feedback loops were … Read more
As shown in the examples below, when writers craft sentences with more than one noun or pronoun in the subject, they sometimes misidentify the key noun or pronoun and assign the wrong verb form to it. Discussion and revision in each sentence describes and solves the problem. 1. “Five days are too short for a … Read more
Various syntactical constructions signal the potential for verbal economy. In each example below, one or more words are easily omitted, as shown in the revision that follows the discussion about each sentence. 1. This is another step toward bringing the country’s privacy-protection regime in line with those of other international jurisdictions. In this sentence, nominalization, … Read more
One of the most persistent and pernicious types of syntactical errors is the misuse of the point-counterpoint “not only . . . but also” construction. For each of the following three sentences, the discussion that follows offers not only one revision but also an additional option. 1. The loss or theft of intellectual property not … Read more
One of the joys of researching word origins and usage is discovering facts such as that the five English words formed on the frame of b_nd, with different vowels, are cognates, all stemming from a common proto-Indo-European ancestral verb meaning “restrain.” Band, meaning “a flat strip” or “something that binds,” came to refer not only … Read more
Usually, a subordinate clause is obvious, as in the case of this one you’re reading right now. Intuitively, you know to separate it from the main clause (in the previous sentence, the first six words) with a comma. But sometimes, as in each of the following sentences, the first word in the subordinate clause may … Read more
Each of the following sentences includes an emphatic word that must be set off from the rest of the statement. Insert punctuation as necessary. 1. An heirloom plant may have been grown in the same location for say a hundred years. 2. It’s within this context then that we must consider the arrival of the … Read more
Once upon a time, one could speak or write about such media as books and mail, or use such terms as business and commerce, and your audience would immediately understand what you were referring to. But then, toward the end of the twentieth century, came a revolution in how humans conduct social behavior, academic pursuits, … Read more
The sentences below, each followed by a discussion and a revision, illustrate various ways in which a hyphen is used extraneously. 1. He adds that cities should be forced to follow a federally-defined law pertaining to what kinds of benefits restaurants should be required to provide to their employees. Because adverbial phrases such as “federally … Read more
When crafting “If (this), then (that)” statements, note that several varieties exist, distinguished by tense and probability. This post describes, with examples, various types of conditional statements. “Zero conditional” pertains to things that occur in the natural course of events: “If a person stands out in the rain, he or she gets wet.” Both the … Read more
Writers’ efforts to evoke a folksy or quaint sensibility by using a variation on the word old often fail because they use the wrong form. This post discusses the proper use of the variations. When the intent is to simulate a drawl, the correct version of old is ol’, which follows the common pattern of … Read more