Weekly Vocab Builder

Improve your lexicon with these words. Use one or more in a sentence in the comments section!

MFA: Made for AdSense. A derogatory term for sites created just to post ads through Google's AdSense program and get readers to click on the ads.

Canonicalization: The process of converting computer data with more than one way to format it into a standard (canonical) format.

Wlatsome: Disgusting; foul.

Interrobang: ‽ A punctuation mark that combines a question mark and an exclamation, usually used to convey surprised questioning.

Stabby: Making a stabbing action. Able to make a stabbing action.

Be sure to check out more words on Wordie and follow me on Twitter to get the word of the day.

Grammar Quiz...Answers!

On Friday, I offered you a couple quick quizzes to test your grammar knowledge. As promised here are the answers.

Subject/Verb Agreement. Choose the correct verb.
1. Either you or Vern wins this silver pin.
2. The herd of cattle was sold for a large sum.
3. Hundreds of daffodils are blooming on that hill.
4. Not one of the cows is purple.
5. Relief for the sufferers was in sight.

Related Verbs. Choose the correct verb.
1. Who taught you how to swim?
2. After I had learned these things, he taught me some more advanced strokes.
3. Let us not make our decisions hastily.
4. After I have told you what I know about Tom, I will leave the decision to your good judgment.
5. May I see your tickets? Yes, you may.
6. Can you speak French? No, I can not.
7. Did you accept the nomination?
8. Marion invited all the girls in our class. She excepted nobody.
9. Does George think he will be excepted from the general rules?
10. The muskrat accepted the morsel daintily.

Adjective or Adverb. Choose the correct word.
1. Our tenant pays his bills slowly.
2. She stepped along quickly and spryly.
3. Ellen felt badly about breaking the vase.
4. The country looks beautiful today.
5. We think differently about that.

How did you do? E-mail me or post below any questions or comments you have.

A glutten for more? Check out these sites:

• Grammar Bites
• KU School of Journalism
• Style & Substance from The Wall Street Journal

Grammar Quiz: Grammar Basics

It's Friday, and my third grader is taking a battery of quizzes to show he learned something this week. Maybe that's not a bad idea for us adults. Herewith, three quizzes on basic grammar knowledge. All exercises are from Easy English Exercises by Ada Riddlesbarger and Nell Stillwagon (World Book Co., 1956). Good luck!

Subject/Verb Agreement. Choose the correct verb.
1. Either you or Vern (wins, win) this silver pin.
2. The herd of cattle (was, were) sold for a large sum.
3. Hundreds of daffodils (is, are) blooming on that hill.
4. Not one of the cows (is, are) purple.
5. Relief for the sufferers (was, were) in sight.

Related Verbs. Choose the correct verb.
1. Who (learned, taught) you how to swim?
2. After I had (learned, taught) these things, he (learned, taught) me some more advanced strokes.
3. (Let, Leave) us not make our decisions hastily.
4. After I have told you what I know about Tom, I will (let, leave) the decision to your good judgment.
5. (Can, May) I see your tickets? Yes, you (can, may).
6. (Can, May) you speak French? No, I (can not, may not).
7. Did you (accept, except) the nomination?
8. Marion invited all the girls in our class. She (accepted, excepted) nobody.
9. Does George think he will be (accepted, excepted) from the general rules?
10. The muskrat (accepted, excepted) the morsel daintily.

Adjective or Adverb. Choose the correct word.
1. Our tenant pays his bills (slow, slowly).
2. She stepped along (quick, quickly) and (spry, spryly).
3. Ellen felt (bad, badly) about breaking the vase.
4. The country looks (beautiful, beautifully) today.
5. We think (different, differently) about that.

I'll post the answers on Monday.

Update: View the answers here.

Weekly Vocab Builder

Part of writing well is having a rich vocabulary...and knowing how to use it. Check out these words from my Twitter Vocab Builder feature.

NIMBY: http://bit.ly/nv5NP
Cap and trade: http://bit.ly/1VBZT
Carrefour: http://bit.ly/15hycT
Gadabout: http://bit.ly/HTUrx
Abecedarian: http://bit.ly/DtWHO

Increase your vocabulary even more. Get the Word of the Day from Dictionary.com; it's available via RSS feed, e-mail, Facebook, and lots more!

I've lots more words at Wordie than I can share here. Check them out! Plus you can follow me on Twitter (@ebrenner) to get the vocab word of the day.

Update: Wordie is now part of Wordnik, but my growing lists of words are still available to all. You can also check out another growing list of terms of mine at City Dictionary.

Writing Tip: What's That You Say?

The Hartford Courant recently began aggregating content from other media outlets. Unfortunately, it wasn't always attributing the content and has apologized. Whether intentional or not, presenting someone else's words as your own, in small part or in their entirety, is called plagiarism, and it's a big no-no.

Now, I don't think you, dear readers, are going to pick up someone else's copy, slap your name on it, and present it for all the world to see. If you were, you wouldn't be wasting your time reading a blog to help improve your writing.

Yet quotations can be invaluable to your copy. They can offer authority to what you're saying, colorful commentary, or more information. You must deal with quotes correctly to avoid be called a plagiarist. Today, a brief rundown of handling quotes.

The most important thing to remember is this: if you quote someone, you must identify the quote and who said it. Quotation marks are the most common way to set off a quote, but you can also introduce the quote and then indent the quote itself (as I do later with the Bill Walsh quote).

If the quote is from a written piece, what's the title of the piece and when was it written? If you quote a Web site, what's the URL? Even if you don't publish all this additional information, having it ensures you can back up your claims should anyone question their accuracy.

Can you edit direct quotes? In a word, no. Most authorities, including AP and Chicago, dictate that direct quotations not be altered. Easy enough when you're quoting the written word: just copy and paste. But what about the spoken comment?

Again, don't alter the quote. If there's a question about what the person said, ask him or her to clarify. Even if this means following up later, when you realize something's not clear. Better to check before you publish than fix it after -- if you can.

Bill Walsh, copy chief of the national desk at The Washington Post, summarizes dealing with spoken quotes in Lapsing Into a Comma:

This doesn't mean we need to reproduce every um, every er, every cough; it doesn't mean a reporter's transcription errors can't be corrected; and it certainly doesn't mean that stories should attempt to re-create dialect (plenty of literate people pronounce should have as "should of"). But it does mean that a reader should be able to watch a TV interview and read the same interview in the newspaper and not notice discrepancies in word choice.

Finally, use quotes judiciously. That's your name on the piece. Readers are expecting your words, your wisdom. Don't quote so much that someone else is writing your copy.

If you want more information on quotes, check out The Associated Press Stylebook 2009, The Chicago Manual of Style, or Garner's Modern American Usage. There are all kinds of style manuals out there, of course, but these are the ones I use most frequently. And if you're ever in doubt about how to handle a situation, just ask. That's what your editor is for!

Writing Tip: Unpack Your Suitcase

Portmanteau, or suitcase, sentences are long sentences packed with lots of information. They're called that, says James Kilkpatrick in his now-defunct Charlotte Observer column, "The Writer's Art," "for the 16th-century suitcase. It was huge. You could pack everything into a portmanteau. Without pausing for a burp, it could swallow 10 suits, six robes, four pairs of shoes, a month's worth of underwear and three fifths of Scotch."

There's nothing wrong with suitcase sentences per se, as long as they're grammatically sound. Take a look at this sentence:

Seems the pressure that has been placed on advertising and marketing teams in our industry is that e-mail communications (which, based on every metric I have seen, continues to generate some of the most impressive and trackable return on investment) has been designated as the budget whipping boy.

The sentence isn't ungrammatical. But readers are looking to quickly digest your wisdom. They want you to get to the point quickly. Though they're understandable, suitcase sentences take more time to comprehend. They slow readers down. You risk your readers getting frustrated and tuning out.

Yet there's no need to dumb-down content. Readers aren't unintelligent, just busy. Your best bet is to split the suitcase sentence into two or more sentences. Let's unpack that sentence above:

Based on every metric I've seen, e-mail continues to generate some of the most impressive and trackable ROI. Yet advertising and marketing teams are pressured to make e-mail communications the budget whipping boy.

We've regrouped the ideas a bit, trying to preserve the same punch of the whipping boy at the end. We've introduced the idea with how valuable e-mail is; it generates impressive ROI. We've then put the idea of ad and marketing teams being pressured closer to the rest of the thought (e-mail comm being a whipping boy) We've ended it with the punch: that despite being valuable, e-mail comm is a whipping boy.

Next time you notice a suitcase lurking in your writing, stop to consider whether it should be unpacked.

Need more help unpacking your suitcase and other writing challenges? E-mail me or post a comment below!

Weekly Vocab Builder

Can you define all these words? Follow the links to build your vocabulary!

Cyberculture: http://bit.ly/2M9mo4
Geolocation: http://bit.ly/RTBT2
Nor'easter: http://bit.ly/121r1I
Ratchet: http://bit.ly/195Uab

Grammar Bite: Active vs. Passive Voice

You want to keep your readers engaged with your writing to the end. You want them awake and interested in what you have to say. One way to do this is to use more active voice and less passive voice in your writing.

Active voice? Passive voice? What is all this grammar mumbo-jumbo? Simply put:

Voice refers to the form of the verb. The subject acts when you use the active voice verb form. In passive voice, the person or thing performing the action becomes the object of the sentence. It does not act; it is acted on by the verb. (When Words Collide, 86)

For example:

Passive: An increase will occur in behavioral targeting opportunities.
Active: Behavioral targeting opportunities will increase.

There's nothing wrong with the first sentence. It's grammatically correct, and it gets the point across. The second sentence, however, works a little better. The reader gets the point quicker, making it easier to understand. In the first sentence, we first discover that increases will occur. Where will they occur? The answer comes at the end of the sentence: in behavioral targeting opportunities. In the second sentence, we don't have to ask what will increase. We know right away it's behavioral targeting opportunities.

Passive voice emphasizes the receiver of the action, because that's more important, the actor is unknown, or you don't want to mention the actor: "Because online technology is shifting so quickly, the guidelines must be updated frequently."

Too much passive voice, however, can slow down the reading process. In today's world, that could mean the reader never finishes reading your piece.

The active voice is quicker and easier to read. It's direct, to the point: exactly what most readers want. It doesn't hide the sentence's subject, which helps build readers' trust in what you say.

Passive: In 2008, it will be imperative that the industry's research and measurement leaders step up and deliver ways to better track the success of every dollar advertisers spend.

Active: In 2008, the industry's research and measurement leaders must deliver ways to better track the success of every dollar advertisers spend.

Garner's Modern American Usage offers this advice for finding passive voice: Look for a be-verb (or get) plus a past participle (usually a verb ending in -ed). For example: is discussed, were delivered, been served, being flattered, and get stolen.

Also, says Garner, watch for the be-verb or get to be implied: "Recently I heard it suggested by a friend that too many books appear with endnotes." "Being" is implied after it in this sentence, making it passive. The active version: "Recently I heard a friend suggest that too many books appear with endnotes." You get the idea right away that your friend suggested something.

Resources:

• Garner's Modern American Usage
  
• When Words Collide: A Media Writer's Guide to Grammar and Style (Wadsworth Series in Mass Communication and Journalism)
  
• Lynch's Guide to Grammar and Style: Offers another explanation of passive voice
  Online English Grammar: Has a good list of active voice verbs and their passive voice counterparts.
  
• Guide to Grammar and Writing: Try the quiz at the end of the page! Click "Grammar's Version" to compare your answers to the site's.

E-mail me or post a comment below if you have questions!

Writing Tip: Avoiding the I-I-I

Writers are often encouraged to "speak from the I," sharing their experiences with readers and imparting valuable advice in the process. The trick, of course, is to keep that first-person point of view while focusing more on the readers rather than yourself.

One way to achieve this balance is to limit the use of I in your text. Copy that starts with I and heavily uses it throughout can be a turnoff for readers. They want your knowledge and experience, but they want you to be concerned mostly with them. (Rather like advertising, isn't it?)

Try this: in your draft, highlight every use of the word I in red. Is your copy bleeding? You might be using I too much. Try recasting some of those sentences, eliminating the I:

Orig.: "In part two, I'll cover the Google-Yahoo deal in more detail."
Recast: "Part two will cover the Google-Yahoo deal in more detail."
Recast: In part two, we'll look at the Google-Yahoo deal in more detail."

Orig.: "When I meet anyone for the first time, I suggest using Google to learn more about me and to see what other people have said about me."
Recast: "When you meet anyone for the first time, suggest using Google to learn more about you and to see what other people have said about you."

Check out these articles for more ideas on recasting your sentences:

• "Me, Myself and I: Writing First Person Point of View"
  
• "When "First Person" Is the Last Person You Need"

Vocab Builder

Can you define all these words? Follow the links to build your vocabulary!

Hyacinth Bucket Syndrome: http://bit.ly/1eOMwE
Lion of the Senate: http://bit.ly/ntj2g
tintinnabulation: http://bit.ly/U8RbT
gallicism: http://bit.ly/DkzNG
lackadaisical: http://bit.ly/3TU1kE
redolent: http://bit.ly/vskqp

Grammar Bite: Correlative Conjunctions

Correlative conjunction is the grammarian's fancy term for a pair of conjunctions that join two matching sentence parts, such as not only...but also and both...and. The trick with these conjunctions is the sentence parts they join must be structured the same way. For example:

Not only was I sick, but I was also tired.
He not only will call but also will send flowers.
Both she and I have completed the coursework.
The book is both long and complicated.

In the first example, both parts of the sentence have a subject-verb structure (technically, these are two complete sentences). In the second example, the conjunctions are joining two verb phrases: will call and will send flowers. If you're going to use not only, be sure to follow it with but also (or but...as well or but...too).

In the third example, both...and are joining she and I, subject pronouns for the verb have completed. In the last example, the conjunctions are joining two adjectives describing book: long and complicated. In these cases, you could choose to drop both:

She and I have completed the coursework.
The book is long and complicated.

But if you use both to join two parts, you'll need to follow it with and:

Wrong: The book is both long or complicated.
Right: The book is both long and complicated.

Some other correlative conjunctions to watch for:

• Although...nevertheless
  
• Although...yet
  
• As...as
  
• Either...or
  
• If...then (though then can often be dropped to streamline the sentence)
  
• Just as...so also
  
• Neither...nor
  
• Since...therefore
  
• When...then (then can sometimes be dropped to streamline)
  
• Whether...or

Think you've got it? Try this quiz. You'll get your score after completing the quiz and continue taking it until you get all the questions right. E-mail me or post a comment below if you have questions!