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OUR 10 BIGGEST GRAMMAR WOES, SOLVED
A guide to commas, clauses, commonly mixed-up words, and more, with can’t-fail tricks to keep your writing clean.
By Toni Fitzgerald
I was scrolling Twitter recently, as one too often does when facing a tight editing deadline, when I spied a tweet more offensive to me than anything I’ve ever read on the site, and that’s saying something. The tweet in question was a response to one of my favourite editors, who had advised writers to use spellcheck and proof-read for grammar before submitting an essay for publication.
The guy answering her wondered why this was necessary. “If my idea is good enough,” he demanded, “why do I need to worry about grammar? That’s your job.”
As a long-time copy editor, I felt personally affronted by the tweeter. Not “worry” about grammar? The nerve. Clearly this dude was just lazy, I thought. I began dashing off a snide response but then remembered my impending deadline. I switched from social media combatant to editor mode and resolved to forget about the tweet…only I couldn’t.
I slowly realised Lazy Dude might have been sincere. Editors issue a lot of commands, and writers get, understandably, sick of being told to do things when they aren’t offered the “why” behind it.
Let’s all get on the same page. Grammar is not meant to be oppressive. It provides guidelines to reduce confusion that would otherwise arise in our writing.
Here are three reasons using proper grammar in a query or completed manuscript is vital:
1. Correct grammar makes your pitch easier to understand. Reading messy grammar is difficult. Editors receive lots of mail. If your misplaced apostrophes and overzealous commenting obscure your point, the editor will move on to the next pitch in their overflowing inbox.
2. Bad grammar distracts from your ideas. When an editor wastes minutes trying to decode your unique system of capitalisation, they’re not digesting your insights. A brilliant pitch littered with typos has less chance of earning the green light than a neatly presented yet mediocre idea.
3. Clean copy shows attention to detail. It’s hard to trust someone who cannot take 45 seconds to run spellcheck. Knowing an assigned piece will be submitted with proper grammar gives an editor confidence in your ability to get other things right, too, like the names of your sources. (And this is even more critical at a time when many publishers and publications have lost their fact checkers to budget cuts.)
Proper grammar demonstrates commitment to your project and respect for your editor. Feel apprehensive about your skills? Here is some good news for Twitter Guy and for you: You can improve your grammar, and we can help.
We polled writers across the country to determine their biggest grammatical pitfalls. Here are the top 10 weaknesses they identified – with actionable advice on how to fix them.
1 Affect vs. effect
Affect is a verb, and effect is (almost always) a noun. To figure out which one to use, study the context. Affect does something – using proper grammar affects the outcome of your query. Effect, on the other hand, is a thing or a result – using proper grammar has an effect on your query’s success.
Tip: I substitute another verb, alter, into the sentence in question. If it works, then I feel confident in using affect. Example: “The steroids may affect your mood.” You can swap in “alter,” and the sentence still works. Now try this one: “The steroids may have the effect of making you stronger.” Subbing “alter” confuses the sentence. Remember that “effect” often includes “an” or “the” before it.
Alas, grammar rules are not infallible, and there is one major exception to the affect/effect rules. You “effect change,” where effect is used as a verb – but you don’t “affect change.”
2 Lay vs. lie
I’ll confess – I look this up every time just to be sure. Lay means putting something down flat and requires an object being acted upon, such as a book or piece of paper. Lie means being flat on the bed or another surface and refers to something moving of its own power or already put in position.
Here are two examples of proper usage: “I lay the book on the table.” “I lie down on the bed.”
Tip: I once saw a cute graphic illustrating the difference between these terms that showed a hen “laying” eggs on one side and a chicken “lying” down on the other. Now I think of that fowl in a lay/lie situation. The chicken lays an egg, just as you “lay” the book on the table. Then the chicken lies down after laying the eggs – she’s tired, you know.
3 Comma splices
Did your eyes glaze over at this subhead? A lot of people freeze up when it comes to the technicalities of grammar. “Comma splice” sounds intimidating, so think of it as something more basic – a run-on sentence. Here’s an example of one: “Editors rarely respond to pitches on social media, they are more likely to answer emails.”
A comma splice incorrectly uses a comma to connect two phrases that could stand independently. These phrases should actually be bridged by a semicolon, dash, or conjunction, like so: “Editors rarely respond to pitches on social media; they are more likely to answer emails” or “Editors rarely respond to pitches on social media, but they are more likely to answer emails.”
Tip: Take sentences connected by a comma apart to see whether each clause stands on its own, i.e., do they have their own subjects and verbs? If so, you probably have a comma splice. In our example, both “Editors rarely respond to pitches on social media” and “they are more likely to answer emails” contain a set of subject and verb (editors/respond and they/are).
4 Dangling modifiers
When editing magazines, I find many dangling modifiers require correction. Dangling modifiers occur when you start a sentence with a phrase whose subject should be the very next word after the comma. The meaning of the sentence changes when that subject is out of place.
Imagine if I’d written instead, “When editing magazines, many dangling modifiers require correction.” Now, “dangling modifiers” are editing the magazines instead of me, since I was the subject of the original sentence.
❱❱ Tip: You can avoid danglers easily by adding the subject into the introductory phrase. My example sentence would become, “When I edit magazines, I find many dangling modifiers require correction,” and voila. No more dangler.
5 Apostrophes
First, follow proper Christmas card etiquette and never use an apostrophe to make a plural. (That card is from the Nelsons, not the Nelson’s.) Second, resist the urge to write 1960’s, unless you are writing about “1960’s biggest hit song.” Use 1960s (or 1970s or ’80s or ’90s, etc.) when referencing an entire decade.
Generally, you use an apostrophe to form a conjunction (cannot becomes can’t) or show possession (a cat belonging to William becomes William’s cat). If a word ends in s, don’t change the original word when you create the possessive. Say you are writing about a cat the Williams family owns. The proper phrase would be “the Williams’ cat” and not “the William’s cat.” If you notice the spelling of the original word has changed in this instance, you know you did something wrong.
Many style guides disagree on whether to use ’s (the Williams’ cat) or s’s (the Williams’s cat) for plurals that end in s. The former is more common, but old school editors may use the latter. Ask editors about their preference and remain consistent above all else. Consistency is the foundation of grammar.
Tip: If you aren’t sure if a word that ends in “s” needs an apostrophe, substitute another word that doesn’t end in “s” into the sentence. For instance, for “the boys basketball team” or “the boys’ basketball team,” substitute “children.” Your choice becomes “the children basketball team” or “the children’s basketball team.” In this case, the possessive is necessary. Go with boys’ basketball.
6 Further vs. farther
Confession: I didn’t use “further” and “farther” for years because I couldn’t keep them straight. While eliminating words from your vocabulary ensures you won’t misuse them, you also limit yourself. You’d be wiser to learn the definitions and deploy the words properly.
So now I know that “farther” denotes a physical, measurable distance: “She moved farther from Virginia when she departed Pennsylvania for Maine.” Further relates to figurative, not literal, space: “She moved further from the ideals of her adolescence as she grew older.”
Tip: Remember “farther” by thinking of far, which implies distance. (But don’t think of further as fur – unless you can come up with an excellent PETA-related mnemonic.)
7 That vs. which
I see everyone from college professors to my teenage son mix up “that” and “which,” probably because we’re told their usage is tied to restrictive or non-restrictive clauses. Most people, even writers, don’t know what this means, so I’ll simplify it. Use “that” when you want to define the identity of the subject. Use “which” when there’s no limit on the subject’s identity and it’s more like a parenthetical aside.
For example, “my mug that my daughter gave me sits on the counter” refers to a specific cup my daughter bought for me. It implies I own other mugs, but I’m highlighting this one for a reason. You can’t remove the clause because it is vital to the sentence. Now, let’s plug in “which:” “My mug, which my daughter gave me, sits on the counter” describes a mug but doesn’t imply that I have more than one. The mug’s origin is not crucial to the sentence. Remove the clause, and I still have a mug sitting on the counter.
❱❱ Tip: Which requires a comma before it in nearly every instance. That does not.
8 Punctuation in quote marks
Keep punctuation inside of quote marks. This includes when you use them around titles, such as a poem or for dialogue. Examples: “Is April the cruellest month?” he asked. “April is the cruellest month,” she replied. “I agree with T.S. Eliot’s thoughts in ‘The Waste Land.’”
❱❱ Tip: Apostrophes are punctuation. Keep those inside the quote marks, too, such as when you give a poem a possessive: “I think ‘The Waste Land’s’ description of April is unhinged.”
9 Hone vs. home in
“Hone” means to sharpen. You hone your skills by practicing them. “Home in on” means to target or aim toward. You home in on coffee every Monday morning.
❱❱ Tip: When you think of “home in on,” imagine homing pigeons as they wing their way toward a destination, homing in on it.
10 Semicolons vs. dashes
When to use one or the other? Break these common pieces of punctuation into their most essential functions. Semicolons join two sentences with distinct subjects; dashes disrupt a sentence – by allowing you to emphasize a particular point.
Limit your dashes and semicolons. Like exclamation points, they are effective only in moderation. Save them for when you really want to jolt the reader.
❱❱ Tip: Most of the time, you can navigate by feel. When you reach a big reveal, pull out a dash. When you merely narrate the story, opt for the semicolon.
Editors want to focus on your story’s or manuscript’s ideas, not performing syllabary surgery on a misplaced apostrophe. By learning these 10 grammar lessons, you can clean up your copy and perhaps land more assignments as well.
Toni Fitzgerald is the copy editor for The Writer. She discovered her inner grammarian at a Dow Jones News Fund editing internship in 1997 and has since plucked typos from books, magazines, newspapers, white-papers, and website copy. She recently added a weekly blog on grammar tips to her website, tonifitz76.com.
A WORD ON GRAMMAR CHECKERS
Some copy editors regard grammar checkers the way humans view robots in the Terminator movies: with deep suspicion. I like these tools, as long as you don’t develop a dependency on them, and you don’t take everything they take as gospel. Recognize that apps lack contextual cognizance, and they sometimes make weird suggestions. (A grammar checker once urged me to replace “breakfast” with “lunch” or “dinner” to avoid repetition of the word “breakfast” twice on one page. Um, no.)
Yet grammar programs catch small typos effectively, such as repeated words or errant letters. Saving face on a few minor errors is worth the minor hassle of ignoring 25 other supposed “errors.” Scrutinize each recommendation carefully and institute the changes you agree with.
TO SERIAL COMMA OR NOT TO SERIAL COMMA?
This isn’t actually a grammar question so much as a personal choice. Most often it depends on the style guide you prefer. The Associated Press Stylebook, an industry bible that dictates more of my behaviours than the actual Bible, does not use the serial comma unless the meaning of the sentence would otherwise be lost (“My passions include making art, music, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches”). The other major guidebook, The Chicago Manual of Style, employs the serial comma, arguing it clarifies most sentences.
Ask what the editor prefers and stick with that. There’s no use trying to convert someone else to your side – serial comma usage preferences are as polarising as religion and politics.
WHEN IS IT OK TO BREAK THE RULES?
My general rule is: It’s OK to break the rules once you understand why the rules exist. Don’t just break them to break them. I’ve had editing clients who think their characters would speak in a certain voice that demands grammar goof-ups, but often this is lazy writing, not characterisation. If you just don’t want to put in the time or effort to determine if it should be lay or lie, affect or effect, then you’re not going to do the work to uncover your characters’ motivations, either.
DYSLEXIA AND GRAMMAR
When I polled writers for their grammar questions, a prolific author whose work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and Narratively raised an excellent point. “I’m a dyslexic writer,” she told me. She noted she has spoken with other writers with learning disabilities who feel shamed in traditional literary spaces when they admit to difficulties with grammar.
The writer said she hires copy editors to look over her writing. Since this method may not be accessible for every correspondence by a writer with a learning disability, other possibilities may include:
• Asking a friend with strong grammar skills to proofread
• Investing in a grammar checking app (though remember, these are fallible)
• Using speech recognition software to dictate your work vs. typing it yourself You also could consider mentioning your learning disability when you contact an editor. When an editor can exercise situational awareness, they will view the grammar in your pitch within the proper context.