Usage
Q. I see inconsistent usage on “she is a friend of Bill” versus “she is a friend of Bill's.” We say “a friend of his,” not “a friend of him,” so should the possessive control here? Answer »
Q. Is it “happy medium” or “happy median”? The author writes: “We would all be much better served as stewards of finite public funds if we could find that happy median where trust reigns supreme . . .” Thanks! Answer »
Q. A coworker insists “protests against” is never correct because “protests” normally implies someone is against something. I think it depends on context, because one can protest for, say, human rights. Is “protests against” ever correct? I wrote: “A farmer sleeps at a protest against the World Trade Organization in New Delhi.” Answer »
Q. Is the word “how” necessary in sentences such as “Learn how to bake breads and cakes”? In some cases, it sounds better with the word “how,” but it seems unnecessary in this case. Answer »
Q. Do you have a problem (as I do) with the phrase “the fact that,” and if so, what alternatives do you offer? Answer »
Q. Hello there, I am usually pretty confident about sorting out punctuation, but recently I encountered some information set out as follows. Answer »
Q. Do footnotes have to start with number 1? Can I start my first footnote with number 2? Is that considered wrong? Answer »
Q. I often see initialisms such as EPA and FDA appear without “the.” For example, “One of FDA’s regulations prohibits this.” This comes up particularly often in technical and legal writing and strikes me as pompous. And, yes, these people also speak this way. Please tell me I’m right. Answer »
Q. Curriculum vitae or vita? According to Merriam-Webster vitae is the plural of vita, but another source indicates that vitae means the “course of one’s life” and vita means “a short biographical sketch.” If these definitions are accurate, it would make sense to use vitae, as the course of one’s life is made up of many singular events or sketches. Answer »
Q. I read a lot and have been working on a novel of my own for a while now. In most of the materials I read the authors use “had had” and “that that” quite often. For example: “He had had the dog for twelve years and everyone knew that that was the real reason he didn’t want Animal Control to take it.” I doubt there is any actual rule against this, but I find it to be unattractive on a purely aesthetic basis and try to avoid it like the plague when writing. Is there anything to this or am I just weird? Answer »
Q. I am working on a book that is more of an information-type book. The author consistently used “it’s,” “I’m,” “I’ve,” “don’t,” “doesn’t,” etc., throughout the entire thing. I went through with the spelling check (I’m using Microsoft Word), and it suggested changing them to “it is,” “I am,” “I have,” etc. I do not think that one should use the abbreviated version. For one, it doesn’t save any space and appears rather unprofessionally written. This will be a published book. Is there a definitive rule on this or is it simply up to the writer/editor on how these words should be used? Answer »
Q. Does one “maximize the total cost of ownership” or “minimize the total cost of ownership”? This phrase is going to be our service’s tagline so we need to get it right. Answer »
Q. Hello, arbiters of messy prose. In a scholarly work on global labor conditions, plural-singular nonagreement involving the word “ability” occurs about fifty times, as in “Rules regarding paid leave affected families’ ability to earn a living.” My instinct is to change “ability” to “abilities” in this and similar cases, but is it really necessary? Thanks! Answer »
Q. In the latest Q&A on your website, I noted that an answer contained the word “lowercased.” Is this really a verb or another example of a noun erroneously transformed into a verb? I cannot imagine that you would make such an error, but I have never heard that verb before! Answer »
Q. Hello, CMOS Gurus—I cannot seem to locate the rule that proves (or disproves, I guess) the following to be correct: More than 28 million pounds of scrap is reclaimed every year. I thought that units of measurement or money took a singular verb, not plural (such as, three million dollars is a lot, or five miles is a long way). Are there other quantities that this applies to (such as years)? Or am I wrong entirely and should all three of my examples above take a plural verb? —A stumped copyeditor Answer »
Q. In the sentence “I thought more people would be interested in knowing what happened to XXX, but I see that his fate, his life, doesn’t seem to bring folks together the way the water did,” would you use “don’t” instead of “doesn’t”? Or does that comma after “his life” keep the verb singular? The author will not tolerate the insertion of “and” between “his life” and “his fate.” Answer »
Q. Don’t you think it is improper to use both Porsche and Jimmy Choo as proper nouns (instead of proper adjectives) in a Q&A about proper writing technique? Answer »
Q. Should the following sentence use the plural of century? Even in the late third and early fourth century[ies?], military resources were stretched. Answer »
Q. Dear CMOS Editor: In my technical publications work group, we have a difference in approach about using the verbs “to type” and “to enter” when instructing a reader to provide data to a computer screen interface. “Typed” data is “entered” to the computer by clicking a named control button such as “OK.” Should a reader be instructed “Type your password and click OK” or “Enter your password and click OK”? The Microsoft Manual of Style indicates that “enter” should not be used as a synonym for “type.” I would appreciate the editing perspective of CMOS. Answer »
Q. My colleague and I are editors and are debating the form of the verb in the sentence “As a schematic design (fig. 1), there are a main reactor for the co-precipitation reaction, a cation reactor for the Ca2+ diffusion, and an anion reactor for the diffusion of phosphate ions.” I say that the sentence should read, “there is a main reactor,” but my colleague says there are three items in the list and hence the verb should take the plural form. Could you please help resolve this debate? Answer »
Q. My daughter is filling out a college application that tells her to “write a brief answer (150 words or less) to both of the following questions.” The two questions are unrelated. We’re wondering whether to read that as “write 150 or less on each of the questions” or “write 150 words or less on both questions together.” Answer »
Q. Oath of Office. Who was grammatically correct, President Obama or Chief Justice Roberts? Should faithfully as an adverb come at the end of the sentence or after execute? Or is the oath correctly written with faithfully as an adjective before execute? Answer »
Q. “The first of which is better.” I said this is a sentence fragment, but a student pointed out that it has a subject and predicate. Who’s correct? Answer »
Q. Hello, I saw Barack Obama speak and he seemed to make a grammar error. I was wondering if I was missing something. He said, “President and Mrs. Bush invited Michelle and I to come to the White House.” Another time he said, “It was for Michelle and I.” Shouldn’t it be “Michelle and me”? My husband thinks I’m crazy to spend my time thinking about things like this, but it bothers me. Answer »
Q. I am an editor at a city magazine, and our copy department just had a spirited discussion over the phrase “last September.” The issue in which this phrase will appear hits newsstands in December 2008. Would the phrase “last September” then refer to September 2007 or September 2008? The phrases “last Tuesday,” “last week,” “last month,” and “last year” all refer to the unit of time immediately before the current one. Does “last September” merit a special consideration? Answer »
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