Tag Archives: writing advice

advice

Today’s Writing Tip: Using Commas with the Word “But”

sig2010When should you use a comma with the word “but”? You can use commas whenever they don’t break up the sentence and interfere with the meaning.

Here’s an example: “Everybody but Jason stopped eating.” It wouldn’t make sense to put a comma after the word everybody because then you have a sentence fragment that isn’t telling us anything. And it would disrupt the meaning of the sentence.

But in the sentence, “I like ice cream, but not banana flavored,” the comma is well-placed. That’s because you have a whole clause that is not broken and it contains a pronoun, a verb, and the direct object.

What about “He chose not one but two tuxedos”? You tell me.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor http://tinyurl.com/7wnk5se and two erotic short stories, which she wrote under the pen name Tiffanie Good. Silver Publishing has released “The Pink Triangle,” a tale of friendship, lust, and betrayal. You can view her story here: http://tinyurl.com/6v65rgr

advice

Today’s Writing Tip: “For Whom Are You Voting?”

sig2010 As we start the Republican National Convention and move into the Democratic Convention next week, many people will be asking each other which candidate they prefer.

Technically, the right way to do this is to say, “Whom are you voting for?” because the sentence has a direct object. Or, you can say or write, “For whom are you voting?” This phrasing is correct; however, I don’t like it. I think it sounds stuffy.

Sometimes the only really important thing about grammar is to know the rules so that you can understand when you are breaking them. In conversation, I would opt for the more casual, “Who are you voting for?” And if I were writing a dialogue in a fictional narrative or quoting someone in a blog post, I would still use the informal version.

But if I were writing for a serious website, of course I would choose the official version. We are seeing more of a trend toward casual speech and writing as part of a desire to move forward in the modern world. Just as we wouldn’t say, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?”, it sounds stilted and uptight to answer the phone by saying, “It is I” or “For whom are you voting?” I’m going to declare this to be a style issue in conversation and when we are quoting dialogue, but I know that many people will disagree.

Of course you can always circumvent the problem, as I did in the beginning of this piece, by saying, “Which candidate do you prefer?” And the answer in this particular election may be “neither.”

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor http://tinyurl.com/7wnk5se and two erotic short stories, which she wrote under the pen name Tiffanie Good. Silver Publishing just released “The Pink Triangle,” a tale of friendship, lust, and betrayal. You can view her story here: http://tinyurl.com/6v65rgr

advice, editorial

Today’s Writing Tip: From Worse to Worse

sig2010I’m surprised at how often I see the phrase “from worse to worse” in print. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s a lot like the term “I could care less.” Neither one says what you want them to say.

Let’s reason this out. If I am number 10 in line in the grocery store and I move forward one spot, I become number nine. If I move back one spot, I become number 11. In either case, there is a sense of motion and movement. Something changes.

If I go from worse to worse, nothing much changes. I am still number 10 in line at the grocery store – or maybe I’m 10 1/2. I have to go from worse to worst in order to see a significant change.

An easy way to remember this one is to think of the opening line in A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Thus, you want to go from worse to worst. Although of course, you don’t really. That is the outcome that most of us are hoping to avoid.

As a postscript, I will add that the correct way of saying I don’t give a damn is “I couldn’t care less,” because if you could care less it means that you already care. If you couldn’t care less, you care so little that your interest in the matter is currently negligible. Thus, it couldn’t become any more unimportant to you; hence, you couldn’t care less.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor http://tinyurl.com/7wnk5se and two erotic short stories, which she wrote under the pen name Tiffanie Good. Silver Publishing just released “The Pink Triangle,” a tale of friendship, lust, and betrayal. You can view her story here: http://tinyurl.com/6v65rgr

advice

Today’s Writing Tip: Multitasking

Sigrid Macdonald
Sigrid Macdonald

Twenty years ago, the concept of multitasking was rare. Most people worked at one task at a time.

Writers may have been different; perhaps they turned on music in the background when they wrote to help their creative juices flow. But they weren’t likely to be watching the tickertape on the news, texting from their phones, and checking other open windows on their computers while they were writing.

Many studies, especially those conducted with the younger generation, have found that people who multitask believe that they are doing just as well, if not better, than if they had focused on one task at a time, but the hard-core proof indicates otherwise.

And who needs a study to reaffirm what we already know from common sense? Doing one thing at a time yields better results.

This is probably more true for rewriting and editing one’s work than writing. I often find that background music helps me to write, but I turn it off right away when I’m revising and polishing because using my creative mind is very different from using my meticulous inner critic.

Ask yourself how much of a multitasker you are. And see if it makes a difference to your writing and editing your own work if you buckle down and do one thing at a time. Easier said than done, I know, but well worth the experiment.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor http://tinyurl.com/7wnk5se and two erotic short stories, which she wrote under the pen name Tiffanie Good. Silver Publishing just released “The Pink Triangle,” a tale of friendship, lust, and betrayal. You can view her story here: http://tinyurl.com/6v65rgr

advice

Today’s Writing Tip: “Do You Mind?”

sig2010I’m always amused when I ask someone if they mind if I do something, and they say yes when they really mean to say no. Here’s an example:

Me: “Do you mind if I borrow your printer?”

Other person: “Sure, go ahead.”

Wrong answer! The question was, do you mind?, so the answer should be no. In an ideal world, this is the way people would answer:

Me: “Do you mind if I borrow your printer?”

Other person: “What’s wrong with your printer?”

Me: “Well, I just got a new laser printer, and the paper jammed, and when I went to replace the toner the store was closed, so I had to go to visit my neighbor…”

Other person (Yawn!): “No, I don’t mind. Go ahead.”

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor http://tinyurl.com/7wnk5se and two erotic short stories, which she wrote under the pen name Tiffanie Good. Silver Publishing just released “The Pink Triangle,” a tale of friendship, lust, and betrayal. You can view her story here: http://tinyurl.com/6v65rgr

advice

Today’s Writing Tip: Matching Terms

sig2010Quite a bit has been written about misplaced modifiers like “Sheila drove her car into the kitchen in a long dress.” We know that sentence needs to be rearranged so that no one mistakenly envisions the kitchen wearing a long dress.

Something similar to a misplaced modifier, but slightly different, is when we match up the wrong nouns and verbs.

“Tommy was sitting at the table munching on his milk and cookies.” I can just hear him biting into the milk. Hmmm. That’s not going to work.

You need to switch it around. “Tommy was sitting at the table munching on his cookies and milk.” I find that adequate, but some grammar Nazis might want to rewrite the last phrase to make it even more accurate: “Tommy was sitting at the table munching on his cookies and guzzling his milk.” Because then when you look at it, he’s not going to be munching on milk. Unless he’s a pretty weird kid.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor (http://tinyurl.com/7wnk5se) and two erotic short stories, which she wrote under the pen name Tiffanie Good. Silver Publishing just released “The Pink Triangle,” a tale of friendship, lust, and betrayal. You can view her story here: http://tinyurl.com/6v65rgr