Usage
Q. A number of educated friends tell me that “sans” is archaic and affected; they frown when I use it and instead encourage “without.” What do you think? Answer »
Q. What is the proper use of “would” or “could” in sentence structure? For example, would you please close the door? Or, could you please close the door? Answer »
Q. Could you please tell me the difference between toward and towards? 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. I work for a software company catering to law firms. In a law firm’s name you might use “et al.” if the firm name is long. What is the proper way of doing so? Answer »
Q. Dear CMOS, I know you aren’t a grammar usage source, but for lack of knowing where to look, I wonder if you might know which word—“be” or “is”—would be correct here. “The senior management plan specifies that the lump sum rate in effect at termination (be/is) used to project interest to the regular retirement date.” I believe the correct word choice is “be,” but I’m not sure why. Can you offer any expertise? Thanks for your help! Answer »
Q. Hello! My question is regarding the following sentence. Answer »
Q. Do you have the definitive word on the following: “A is 29% greater than B” (as, for example, when A costs $1.29 and B costs $1.00)? I’m bothered by the use of a percentage less than 100, immediately followed by the “greater than” phrase, which I think is self-contradictory. In this specific case, I think A is actually 129% greater than B. If A cost less than B, it would be some percentage less than 100; if it costs more, then it must be some percentage greater than 100. Any comments? Answer »
Q. We are having a bit of a debate down here—in a manuscript, one of our authors refers to a person who keeps a journal as a “journaler.” The author prefers “journaler” to “diarist” because she feels that they are two separate things. The copyeditor wants to change “journaler” to “journalist” (the second definition of “journalist” is “a person who keeps a journal”), but I think that would be confusing to a reader. “Journalizer” appears in Webster’s but doesn’t seem right either. Any opinions? Answer »
Q. Dear CMOS, What is your opinion of the contraction “there’s” for “there has”? A sample sentence is “There’s been an explosion of scientific knowledge.” One on-line source says “there’s” has two meanings, “there is” and “there has.” If contractions were appropriate in a document, would you use “there’s” in both ways in the same document? Same paragraph? And by the way, when did the second usage creep in? Thanks. Answer »
Q. I am the copy editor for a nonprofit organization, and we recently hired a new publications director. One of his style preferences drives some of us crazy, and I was hoping you might help, as we are supposed to be following The Chicago Manual of Style. Anyway, I think this might be more of a personal choice instead of a style decision: the problem is that he insists on leaving in or adding unnecessary “thats,” even if the other editors feel they bog down the sentences. Example: I had a sentence that read, “It is important for mental health workers to understand the vital role companion animals play in their clients’ lives.” Per his choice, it now reads, “It is important for mental health workers to understand the vital role that companion animals play in their clients’ lives.” I know it’s not incorrect to add the “thats,” but I believe they make the text sound sloppy. What do you think? Answer »
Q. When is it correct to use “if” and when is it correct to use “whether?” Thank you. Answer »
Q. Help us out if you please. We are debating whether the following incomplete sentence (it’s used in a table) takes singular or plural verbs. “A tool applied to data that identifies consumer goods, defines their characteristics, and describes their method choice behaviors.” Answer »
Q. An article I wrote recently was copyedited, and wherever I had begun a sentence with “Due to” the editor changed it to “Owing to” or “Because of.” What’s the difference? 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 »
