While browsing Pinterest, I found the sign accompanying this week’s column. I feel certain that the creators of this sign meant it to read, “Help Handicapped Children.” Surely there isn’t a group with the exclusive purpose of handicapping children. The sign got me thinking about the proper use of words like “handicapped” and “disabled.” Many people use these words very [...]
I took my older daughter on a Girl Scout camping trip this past weekend. It was a hoot (a cold, wet hoot). In addition to being a great experience insofar as camping is concerned, I also came across a couple of column topics. This week, the topic is plurals of –ful words. As I sat with my co-leader at one [...]
It’s really hard to answer a question asked with a negative qualifier without completely restating what you mean. If I say simply, “No,” my answer is unclear. Technically, a negative answer means whatever I said was, in fact, what I really meant. Only a positive answer would mean what I said (or how it was interpreted) was not what I [...]
My husband is a math guy. His grammar has improved in the nearly two decades we’ve been together, but ultimately, he’s brilliant with numbers. So when his co-workers ask him grammar questions, he happily suggests their questions for columns. That’s how this column came about: “How do you use so? I really like the word, and I use it a [...]
A dear, sweet, wonderful friend of mine recently updated his Facebook status with a rather glaring error. I’m certain it was an error of excitement and not grammatical ignorance. He is a math guy, though, so I guess you never know. My friend, whom we’ll call Frank, was expressing his excitement at being part of a certain basketball team’s success. [...]
When I was in college, my own grammar guru used a grammar test in all of her classes. You had to pass the test at some point during the semester, or you failed the class. The test was about a style manual she wrote, and the manual contained more than one hundred rules for various grammatical issues. Several of the [...]
GRAMMAR There are plenty of iconic Elvis Presley phrases, but none greater, I think, than his classic, “Thank you. Thank you very much.” If you’re of a certain age, you can’t read that line without hearing Elvis’ swagger and cadence. And thank you is such a lovely phrase (clause, really, if you consider the implied subject), you don’t even need Elvis’ swagger [...]
GRAMMAR By Brandie Bohney Today’s topic is redundancy. In case you’re unfamiliar with the concept of redundancy, it is basically the needless repetition of similar words or concepts. It’s important to be aware of redundancy in your writing or speech because being precise and saying what you mean are important. Another reason redundancy awareness is important, though, is redundancy is [...]
GRAMMAR By Brandie Bohney I’ve had a few experiences recently with misplaced or dangling modifiers. I’ve covered modifier placement before, but misplaced and dangling modifiers never cease to provide hilarious fodder for columns. Recently I heard a woman on TV say, “I remember my mom making pancakes as a kid.” The first thing I wanted to ask was how she remembers her [...]
I recently got an email from a faithful reader up in Noblesville who has a question about the use of that between independent clauses. He didn’t ask in so many words, but that was his question. Did I lose you there? Let me explain. Sometimes, we use that between two clauses: Bob knew that Sheila was married. She [...]
