One Step Forward to Better Writing

Can Something Blatantly Flagrant?

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:07:00 +0000

I recently received a question from Geneva on an old post about commonly-confused words asking me to clarify the difference between the words blatant and flagrant. The two words share a similar sense of the obvious, but are used to convey different senses. Consider this sentence (which I'd avoid in a real writing situation, as it's redundant and stilted):Such a flagrant act show blatant disregard for established procedures.The word flagrant implies contempt rather than a simple lack of guile. ...

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Word Tidbits: Uncouth

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:14:00 +0000

Some words fall out of favor and become archaic simply because they make you sound uncouth. Couth is not one such word. No one uses couth, regardless of how those around them act. When you compliment someone on how couth they behave, it sounds as though you are so socially backward as the be uncouth. That's because couth never attained “word” status. The Old English word “cuth”, which meant known or familiar, spawned the now-defunct use of uncouth as uncommon or uncanny, essentially...

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Word Tidbits: Ruthless

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:37:00 +0000

When writing descriptions of an evil foe, terms like tireless, relentless, fearless, and ruthless come to mind. Of those, most are easily defined. The -less suffix indicates that the noun so described lacks the root word, as a tireless leader does not tire and a fearless enemy attacks without fear. What, however, is a ruthless tirant without? The word ruthless comes to us not from the name Ruth but from the twelfth-century word “reuwen”, a verb meaning “to rue” or regret. Over the next...

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Fargo Flood Highlights Evacuee versus Refugee

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:51:00 +0000

As have many Americans, I've listened to a great deal of flood talk, these last two weeks, including orders and the discussion of requests that residents evacuate endangered areas. At one point, a Fargo official referred to those forced to leave their homes as “refugees”. This sparked an immediate objection from others, who quickly agreed that Fargoans seeking shelter were, instead, evacuees. What, you ask, is the difference? Linguistically, there exists very little to differentiate between...

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A Brief Consideration of Mood

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:57:00 +0000

As I recently mentioned, it's high time we thought about mood and writing. Most resources recognize four basic moods: indicative, imperative, infinitive, and subjunctive. This post will offer an overview of each mood. The first two on that list won't need much explanation, but I'll do a separate post for each of the others, so if you don't find an answer to your questions here please be patient. In fact, share your questions with me and I'll make sure that I answer them in up-coming...

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Ultra-Quickie Post: Happy National Grammar Day

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:21:00 +0000

I wanted to extend to you all a reminder that today is the Society for the Protection of Good Grammar's National Grammar Day. In its honor, let me share the worst headline I saw this morning: "OMG! Italy [sic] Catholics asked not to text during Lent". Apparently the Associated Press has never encountered the word Italian to describe people who live in Italy. I am editing this on March 11th to add this horrendous sentence from the AP, this time out of Germany and a confusing introduction to a...

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The Difference between Parentheses and Brackets

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:24:00 +0000

As far as specialized punctuation goes, brackets rank as one of the most useful types, if only under their very specific uses. Parentheses mark off material that supplements a sentence, explanations and asides that add information or feeling but are not grammatically necessary. You can use them either within a sentence or to set off additional exposition within a paragraph. Parenthetical additions, however, should be carefully monitored. They tend to distract your readers from the content...

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Will This Tide You Over?

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:17:00 +0000

I often see sentences containing something like, “It is there to tie you over...” Something may be there to tide you over until you can do or get another thing, like an afternoon snack that will tide you over until dinnertime. But what does that mean, exactly? As far as I can determine, the phrasal verb “tide over” grew out of nautical terminology. The in-coming tide would lift your ship over an obstacle, such as a sandbar, or free you from having run aground. Thus, something that tides...

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If I Were You...

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:37:00 +0000

Recently, someone asked about the difference between, “If I were you…” and “If I was you…” In short, you use “were” to indicate the past subjunctive of “to be”. I doubt that that answer clears up the question, however, so let’s consider the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive mood arises in sub-conjunction use of a verb, that is, when you use a verb after a conjunction as part of a dependent clause. As with so many English grammar rules, you can find exceptions to prove this one but it holds...

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Be Cautious with Auto-Correct

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:50:00 +0000

As I’ve not been inspired by any heinous grammatical failings in the past week, I thought I’d warn you all of the insidious influence of the auto-correct feature available in many kinds of word processing software. Certainly, it’s handy to have your typographical errors corrected without having to stop and find them yourself, but allowing your computer to think for you will never replace careful proofreading. As a case in point, I have had two notable typos that I blame completely on my word...

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A or An Historic Day?

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:04:00 +0000

I received a suggestion that, on this historic occasion, I review the use of the articles “a” and “an” with regard to the word historic. I could have sworn that I wrote about this question long ago, and intended to drop a link for everyone with some wishes that everyone enjoy this auspicious inauguration day. I could find no such post, so I’ll start from scratch. You can use a very simple rule for deciding whether to use a or an before a word, a rule that relies not on the written word but...

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Poor Examples from Some Pros

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:57:00 +0000

In perusing the back of a cereal box, the other day, I realized that I hadn't posted bad examples for writers in some time. Thus, I'll share the errors I've recently noted in articles and other commercial writing of late. We'll start with that cereal box, upon which it was made clear to me that punctuation lies outside of the capabilities of the design and copy writing folks at Post. It read as follows: So enjoy delicious fiber rich whole grain Post [product]...The text was wrapped around a...

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Back to Basics: Apostrophes

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:06:00 +0000

In response to a recent comment from Linda on an earlier post, I have gathered here my previous apostrophe posts and will attempt to cover any ground I've missed among them. I had intended this post to rely heavily on these earlier examples, but I discovered, to my chagrin, that I hadn't ever written a really basic piece about apostrophes. I intend to correct that oversight here.Apostrophe AbuseWorking around the ApostropheApostrophes after an SAnd now for the basic definitions. You use...

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Word Tidbits: Expatiate

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:44:00 +0000

In one of those lexical coincidences that befuddle many, I recently came across the word expatiate in two books in a row. I can't recall ever having seen the word before, and so I immediately made a note to research it for you folks. Expatiate acts as an intransitive verb, meaning that it does not require an object. It generally gets an explanation, however, because it generally means digression or wandering off-course. Thus, if you could say, “I expatiate,” and have spoken a grammatically...

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Loath and Loathe

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:51:00 +0000

Loath and loathe comprise two sides of the same linguistic coin. You can find many instances of the words being used interchangeably, perhaps because the pronunciations appear identical in text, but the silent "e" in loathe indicates that the word is a different part of speech. Loth, or loath, works as a predicate adjective and means that the subject is unwilling or reluctant to act. Often, writers use loath to indicate that a character doesn't want to do something that they will do, whether...

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The -Ous Suffix

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:32:00 +0000

I’ve spent a few days searching for a definition of the adjective suffix -ous. One would think, given the thousands of English grammar and language sites on-line, that finding such a definition would be simple. One would be mistaken. I found many sites that purport to list suffixes and their respective meanings, but nary a one included a -us or -ous ending. Thus, I’ve begun a list of such words and an inexact definition of each. I aim, here, to find a meaning of the -ous suffix for...

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My 300-Posts Review

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:57:00 +0000

I thought I should recognize my 300th post (since I completely missed number 250) by talking about what has been successful and interesting about the blog, from my point of view. I'm going to do one of those self-congratulatory posts, in other words, so if you don't want to find out my most humorous or curious recent search term or the posts that bring the most people here, you might want to skip this one. If you're one of those curious and easily amused people, however, as I am, you might...

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Punny Business: I Couldn't Resist

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:32:00 +0000

Normally, I write my own material, but I couldn't resist posting this groaner list of puns.The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a...

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Bad English Grammar from around the World

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:58:00 +0000

Some days, I get so interested in reading the rants of others that I forget to write my own. Today is one of those days. I'd like to share some of those rants with you, both because they relate to grammar and because I like to demonstrate that I'm not the only one who has strong feelings about the English language. If you've got a rant of your own, or a favorite post that relates, please add a comment with the link.An Infiniti ad in Canada gets shamed (but not the company's own misspelling...

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Help with Diagramming Sentences

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:43:00 +0000

I've long harbored the idea of including complicated sentence diagrams on One Step Forward, but I've come to accept that I have neither the space nor the graphics skills to make them worth our collective while. I firmly believe that diagramming sentences gives people insight into how language fits together and helps them learn to identify various parts of speech. Then again, I could simply by trying to rationalize my inordinate fascination with the practice. Whatever the case, I'd like to...

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A Toney Topic for Today

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:54:00 +0000

I've always found the adjective "toney" to be a mite pretentious, which fits my plebeian lifestyle. I never gave it much thought, however, until I recently read a sentence regarding a "tony" club. Being me, I got to thinking about the word itself. Toney, or the more-common tony, simply describes something as having "tone". The tone indicated thus has nothing to do with music but with social standing. It implies an upper-crust flavor or a sense of "quality" in an aristocratic sense. Tony...

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Are You Onto Something?

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:40:00 +0000

Many of my questions come from my reading, when I see usage that I know should never have made it past an editor or phrases that I think have been used incorrectly. Recently, an author used the phrase "he was onto something" several times, and I found myself unable to decide whether he should have written "on to something". (Clearly, I need to start reading books with more absorbing plots, but that's a discussion for another blog.) When you use a phrasal verb that includes the preposition...

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Risible and Derisive

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:09:00 +0000

I ran across the word "risible" in a book, recently, and immediately thought of "derisive". Specifically, I wondered if something that you found risible would generate derisive laughter, and using both words in a sentence would make it redundant. That, of course, meant that I needed to research the question for you folks. The adjective risible indicates that something is generally related to laughter. The common usage adds an element of contempt to that laughter, and saying that someone's...

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Hey, Apple! Funnest Is Not a Word

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:33:00 +0000

I've posted before concerning my dislike for inventive spelling in company names or who can't spell the name of their product. I've even ranted about badly-written advertisements. Apple manages to offend under both of the latter two categories. They can offer no earthly reason for the lower-case "i" at the beginning of their product names except an attempt at cuteness. They then compound the problem by adding slang in the tag line for their newest, unnecessary, and over-priced product. ...

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What Is a Sentence, Anyway?

legbamel@yahoo.com (legbamel) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:47:00 +0000

In all of the months I've blathered on about grammar basics and writing, not once have I dedicated a whole post to deciding whether your sentences actually are. I've certainly mentioned in passing the criteria, but I thought it about time to specify the requirements in one place. A sentence requires two essential elements to qualify as such. It must posses a subject and a predicate, minimally a noun or pronoun and a verb, either written or understood. I could write a sentence as simple as,...

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