Correct Laying-Lying Usage

• Laying something on the table—transitive (has a direct object, in this case, “something.”)
• Lying on the table—intransitive (no direct object. Just doing it.)

The guys in this comic both get it right.

Frankly, I suspect we’re seeing evidence of the cartoonist’s knowledge of grammar, not his characters’.

This post first appeared on The Writing Rag.

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Want to write professionally? About your area of expertise perhaps? Something related to work? Maybe your résumé even?

Then get your mechanics right!!! Mechanics are grammar, punctuation, spelling, syntax, vocabulary.

Regardless of your area of expertise, savvy, knowledge, or insight, if you have bad mechanics, you come across as a doofus! Yes, bad punctuation in a paper about magneto-hydrodynamics, or an article about migraine headaches, or a document outlining your job history and skills; these all give the lie to your ability to know what you’re talking (writing) about.

Here are some examples from a webpage that described some articles whose headlines sounded interesting. I won’t embarrass the writer by identifying the site. I’ll identify the errors even though you probably can see them yourselves.

• Thirty eight million people or more suffer from migraine headaches in America, according to Mirgraine.com. [Hyphenate: Thirty–eight; and they misspelled migraine.com]
• This 3000 years-old secret to preserving food without refrigeration was invented by the ancient Egyptians. [3000 year-old secret. Adjectives don’t show number]
• EMPs are bursts of electromagnetic energy which can disrupt or seriously damage electronic equipment. [Should be “…energy that can disrupt…”
• People with dementia show a different makeup in the bacteria dwelling in their guts, a preliminary study finds — raising questions about whether the “bugs” play some role in the brain disease. [Use a dash, not two hyphens. We’re out of the age of typewriters. It should be “…finds—raising…”]

Some of these are sixth-grade mistakes, and all of them are things a professional should know. If you doubt your ability with mechanics, get someone to proofread your work. Don’t look like a doofus!

This post first appeared on The Writing Rag.

This is a fairly standard curmudgeonly (okay, grammarian’s) complaint. Is the guy in the last panel right or wrong?

Well, he’s wrong. Somehow that word (it’s called an appositive) between the subject and the verb makes us want to use “us” instead of “we.” You wouldn’t say “us are allowed to be stupid,” would you? Nah, that would be stupid!

Don’t smoke Tareytons, either.

This post first appeared on The Writing Rag.

That title sounds like a practice I would disagree with, but a compound subject with a singular verb can be correct! Here’s the rule:

• A compound subject with “and” gets a plural verb.

Here’s an example of getting this wrong. “zone and others” is plural, so the verb should be plural:

Our results provide new insights into how this subduction zone, and possibly others, behaves over geologic timeframes of millions of years.

https://earthsky.org/earth/cascadia-megathrust-fault-earthquake-probability

Here’s the other rule: A compound subject with “or” takes the number of the last item in the subject. If the last item is plural, use a plural verb, if the last item is singular, then use a singular verb.

A correct example:

Anomalous propagation, or AP, is the name given to radar echoes that are not related to precipitation.

https://www.wunderground.com/news/news/news/2019-07-24-traffic-highway-101-california-doppler-radar

Here’s an incorrect example. “rhetoric” is singular, so the verb should be singular:

Administration officials push back on the idea that Trump or his rhetoric have any responsibility to bear, saying the only people responsible for these mass shootings are the people shooting the guns.

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/05/748190808/trump-calls-for-strong-background-checks-following-el-paso-and-dayton-shootings

This is correct; plural second subject, plural verb.

I don’t think most schools or employers are there yet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/05/new-ipads-make-strong-back-to-school-appeal-im-still-not-sold

This post first appeared on The Writing Rag.

Some verbs take a direct object. We call them transitive verbs. Other verbs don’t take a direct object; we call them intransitive verbs.

So: “The computer displays a window”—transitive. You have to display something, in this case, a window.
And: “When you press Enter, the window appears.”—intransitive. Well, “press” is transitive, and “appears” is intransitive.

And some verbs can go either way. You can say, “Let’s run!” and “Let’s run a race!”

Here’s an example of a verb phrase (work out) that can go either way. I hope you don’t mind a big, complicated noun clause for the direct object…

Note that the transitive and intransitive meanings are quite a bit different, and therein lies the humor.

This post first appeared on The Writing Rag.