A Grammar Magazine?

The genius of Dan Piraro’s Bizarro strikes again. I hardly know what to say, except that I’ve written about every topic mentioned on the cover. Except the lips.

Lessee… Participles (sort of), Adjectives (several; here’s one), adverbs (also several), S-V agreement (at least twice), pronouns (also more than once).

Well, The Writing Rag site has been around since January of 2009 (!), and more than 400 posts (!!) whaddya expect?

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Pronouns are tricky because sometimes you can’t tell what the pronoun refers to (called an antecedent, by the way). This is sometimes a source of humor in grammar textbooks, but occasionally this weakness turns up in the comics, too. I ran into a humorous take on missed antecedents in this Luann:

Pronouns often refer to something else, and it the pronoun doesn’t tell you what that something is. You have to figure it out yourself what the pronoun refers to. Therefore, when you write, make sure this task your reader’s task is easy!

Here’s a Pickles comic:

(We’ll skip that it should be “whom” he goes to)

What does “them” refer to? The rule is that a pronoun refers to the closest noun (called its the pronoun’s antecedent, by the way). So the kid’s misunderstanding is legitimate. It’s The strip is funny because we already know about getting glasses adjusted, but suppose you are explaining something serious—a repair process, something involving safety, a science experiment, a contract. You want to be sure your reader understands it your exact meaning.

Sometimes you might feel as if it’s you’re being repetitious, but it’s repeating the noun is a good way to prevent mishaps.

Get it?

I haven’t mentioned this “the hard part of writing” in a while. Long enough ago that I don’t entirely remember what I wrote back then, but you probably don’t either, so it won’t matter if I repeat myself.

The hard part of writing is when you have a perfectly grammatical sentence, but it the sentence could be better—but and you have to think to make it better.

Here are I will share a few rules of thumb to make it writing good sentences a little easier.

Avoid using a false subject. Examples: “there is,” “there are,” and “it is.” (Except with the weather. You can say, “It’s raining.” But You can improve even on that: “Look at that rain!” “Good weather for ducks, eh?” “The rain is really coming down.”)

It’s a real problem
We have a real problem

… it hit me that I might still have special privileges with them
I realized that I might still have special privileges with them

It’s often said that faster is better
My shop teacher always said that faster is better.

Make the subjects of your sentences real.

Avoid using Use a better verb than the verb “to be.” (By which I mean all the forms of that verb, not just the infinitive.) “Make” and “do” are good ones to stay away from, too. This is why it’s using some other verb is harder: You have to think of another word. But if you do, your writing will be more colorful, interesting, and meaningful.

…which is the biggest rocket humanity has made.
…which currently stands as by far the biggest rocket humanity has made.

The writer wrote the second line is what the. It’s Better, isn’t it?

Nouns are better than pronouns. I mentioned this recently, so it’s not necessary I don’t need want to repeat myself. The idea is that Pronouns generally have words they refer to (antecedents) and your reader might have trouble figuring out what the antecedent is the pronoun refers to.

You might think of some more rules, but these are enough should give you enough to think about for a start. I made it this post hard enough to read by sharing some of my edits.

I mentioned conciseness recently, but avoiding unnecessary words is a good enough rule that it bears repeating. Make your writing concise.

Here’s a related comic, a Luann from a couple years back:

Got any suggestions of your own? Share in the comments.

Here’s part of an article in Ars Technica that brings up a point about writing style. I’ll make the words I want you to think about bold:

Our brains are apparently really good at divvying up heavy mental loads. In the decades since scientists started taking snapshots of our noggins in action, they’ve spotted dozens of distinct brain regions in charge of specific tasks, such as reading and speech. Yet despite documenting this delegation, scientists still aren’t sure exactly how slices of our noodle get earmarked for specific functions.

Three words for the same thing. Is this good or bad? That depends, and herein lies the point of this post.

• If you’re engaged in informal writing, especially writing meant to entertain, variety is good. In fact, it’s considered gauche to repeat a word. We look on repetition as due to lack of imagination or vocabulary, and it’s boring.
• But if you’re explaining something, use the same word for the same thing every time. The reader of technical material wants to know exactly what’s going on, and giving something more than one name obfuscates the meaning. Call it “the half-inch wrench” every time. Don’t sometimes call it “the spanner,” and see the next bullet:
• Beware of using pronouns. Pronouns are supposed to refer to the closest preceding noun, and it’s easy to accidentally refer to a word that’s farther away. For example, someone might write “Use the half-inch wrench to tighten the cap screw assembly, then put it down.” Put what down? The wrench or the assembly? Be explicit.