Usage
Q. A colleague insists that this sentence is both ungrammatical and misuses a metaphor: “One of the major benefits of cloned stem cells could be as a more accurate window on diseases.” While I think the sentence is clumsy, I don’t see the mistake in grammar. And, while “accurate window” also isn’t elegant, a quick search on the web turned up plenty of uses of “accurate window” on reputable academic and government agency sites. Who’s right? Answer »
Q. My question concerns the grammatical morass of using “due to” in a manuscript only to have a diligent copy editor consistently cross out the phrase and replace it with “caused by,” “as a result of,” or “resulting from.” The way I tend to use it is, e.g. “The optimism about human progress due to mechanization or technology . . .” Am I wrong? I am wasting hours of my life stetting these (as I see them, mistaken) changes. Is it wrong to care so very deeply? Should I just go have some tequila and simmer down? Answer »
Q. Would it be a gender-biased usage if you used “man-made element”? What could be the neutral substitute, “human-made element”? Answer »
Q. Which is correct? “Most important, you enable your students to pursue their passions” or “Most importantly, you enable your students to pursue their passions.” Answer »
Q. I regularly come across sentences in which “only” strikes me as being misplaced. An example: “Fish were only collected from the western portion of the pond,” which I think should be rewritten “Fish were collected only from . . .” because the former placement of “only” means “merely” or implies that something other than collecting could have been possible, whereas it is clear from the context that “only” is used to mean “there and nowhere else.” Am I correct? Or only nuts? Answer »
Q. I am a technical writer responsible for procedures used by electronics technicians. I am struggling with the best choice among documents I’ve inherited: the use of will, shall, must, are to, should (or anything better?) in sentences such as the following: “Work will not be performed on energized components if the surrounding area is wet.” This use of “will” is very off-putting to me; my choice would be “should.” Answer »
Q. I am taking a medical transcription class, where the teacher constantly states the adverbs before the main verbs in the sentence. When I correct this in the transcript, I get it counted wrong. According to the AAMT book of standards this should be corrected, so the doctor does not sound illiterate. The teacher states that the following is incorrect: It has actually been only ten months since I last saw him, but he unexpectedly was scheduled sooner than he had planned. She says it should be typed: It has actually been only ten months since I last saw him, but he was unexpectedly scheduled sooner than he had planned. Please give me some advice. Answer »
Q. Greetings, I am an editor at a law firm in Tokyo. I have explained to a colleague that, in my opinion, the term “in the meantime” appears to have evolved, as certain expressions do, and now may be being used incorrectly. Based on my research, the original, and certainly, the principal, meaning of this term, which obviously functions as an adverb, is “in the intervening period.” Based on letters she has received from England and the States, she firmly believes that this is an acceptable substitute for “by the way.” Neither of us is budging on this point. Though she is quite proficient in English, as a native English speaker, I (hopefully!) have the advantage of knowing what is natural, specifically in terms of such standard introductory phrases. I’m genuinely interested in knowing if my “theory of incorrect evolution” has any merit. Answer »
Q. Is it incorrect to say: “x values are shown in table c” or “The following graph shows x”? When editing scientific reports and articles for my coworkers I tend to replace “show” and “shown” (in the context of graphs, tables, and results) with “reveal” or “demonstrate,” but I’m told this is a question of style. Am I being unreasonable, or is there a good reason why the use of “show” in scientific articles grates on my nerves? Answer »
Q. When writing about an author’s work, do you write in the past or present tense? Example: The author argues (argued) that it was the correct choice. Please help. Thanks. Answer »
Q. It has come to my attention, over the last few years, that people are now using the phrase “different than” instead of “different from.” Please warn your readers against this gross misuse of the English language! Answer »
Q. I hope that you can settle a minor dispute between a colleague and me. In a journal article that we are writing, we have a passage similar in syntax to the following: “I don’t like animals. An exception is cats, which are warm and furry.” The dispute is over the verb in the first clause in the second sentence, “An exception is cats . . .” My colleague believes that the verb in this clause should be plural, “are,” since the subject is the plural noun “cats.” It isn’t clear to me that the subject in the sentence is “cats.” Who is correct? Answer »
Q. I have often disliked authors in the habit of introducing a statement with “Firstly” or “Secondly,” and so on. Are there any good rules on this or should it be banished from usage? Answer »
Q. Is the word “not” subject to the “neither . . . nor” rule? As in: “I will not be angry nor upset if you don’t attend my party.” Answer »
Q. I say that “between 2000 and 2010” means Jan. 1, 2001, through Dec. 31, 2009. Am I (a) correct or (b) crazy? Answer »
Q. What is the rule about using a product or company name that implies the type of product to avoid redundant words, for example, Fred’s Bakery bakery products are the best in town? What is the justification for not including the adjective for products (bakery)? Answer »
Q. The word “whose” used as a possessive with an inanimate object never sounds correct to me. Example: She had changed into a long green dress whose very modesty highlighted a long lean body. The modesty refers to the green dress. Is it correct to say it this way? I always thought “whose” referred to a person. Answer »
Q. I am editing a work of historical fiction set in the 1950s in Texas. The author is writing about segregation and racism. She wants to use the language of the times, but I just don’t feel comfortable having so many uses of “ni——s” in the text. (The word is currently spelled out in the text; I’ve redacted it here.) I have advised her that these terms are considered highly offensive by today’s standards and should be used rarely. Instead, she added the term in more places. Any suggestions on how to handle using these terms? Should I use something like the above? Put them in quotations? Italics? Answer »
Q. Do I need “the” before “hoi polloi”? I know that hoi means “the” in Greek, so a second “the” would seem redundant. Answer »
Q. In reading a marketing piece written by a co-worker, I thought that the following sentence contained a possessive pronoun that disagrees in number with its antecedent: “We tailor each client’s portfolio to meet their investment objectives.” Personally, I think “their” should be “his,” “his/her,” or “its” because “each client” is singular. Another approach, in my opinion, would be to make the entire sentence plural, i.e., “We tailor our clients’ portfolios to meet their investment objectives.” However, that construction loses some of the connotation that each portfolio is individually constructed for each client. Please help! Answer »
Q. The ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a British set of books describing best practices for the IT service provider. The books are poorly written, a mess of needlessly long and stultifyingly passive sentences. That fact aside, the ITIL authors also randomly capitalize nouns that they think worthy. What is your position on this quaint custom of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English literature? Whilst you dwell on your response, is there ever a situation where “utilize” adds anything more to its synonym “use” than two extra syllables and a healthy dose of pretentiousness? Looking forward to your glib, yet wise, response. Answer »
Q. Dear Editor: Do you believe that number matters? In the following sentence about a company that makes washboards, is it “Today, a half dozen women continue building a household anachronism that’s seldom seen anymore” or “Today, a half dozen women continue building household anachronisms that are seldom seen anymore”? Thank you. Answer »
Q. Hi. I used the following sentence in an e-mail: “Without apologies, I’m sending this Voice article on in case you got depressed (like I did) by the Reading at Risk report or various articles about it.” Someone responded and told me that using “like I did” is grammatically incorrect. Is it really? And if it is NOT incorrect, can you tell me what I can reference to support my wording? (I.e., can I find info on this in the Chicago Manual of Style, and if so, under what topic?) Thanks so much for any help you can offer! Answer »
Q. Trying to sound scientific, students love to use the phrase “as evidenced.” This strikes me as grammatically correct but stylistically atrocious. Am I alone with this feeling? Answer »
Q. We can’t seem to resolve this question and are hoping you can help. Which sentence is correct: “I just wish she was still alive” or “I just wish she were still alive”? As I understand it, “were” is used with a singular subject as a subjunctive to express an unreal condition. “If she were alive today . . .” My vote is with the second sentence, but we have some dissent because it doesn’t sound right to others in this office. Can you help put this to rest? Thanks in advance. Answer »