The Editing Ninja: An Abusive A

Does any word misuse cause more consternation than the simple flipping of articles a and an? The rule is simple: a comes before words beginning with a consonant or consonant sound; an comes before words beginning with a vowel or vowel sound.

Incorrect: Dakota ate a orange. 

Correct: Dakota ate an orange.

Incorrect: Gregory became an zombie.

Correct: Gregory became a zombie.

Poor Gregory. 

Some notes:

The vowel u often makes a consonant sound (yew) at the beginning of words such as university and unified. Therefore, a must proceed these words even though they start with a vowel.

Be aware of words which begin with silent letters, such as the h in herb or heir. Since the initial sound is a vowel, you must use an.

The sound wins every time. Yet another reason you should read your work aloud in the revision phase. 

The Editing Ninja: Whose versus Who's

The apostrophe causes problems with these two homophones.

  

Whose is a possessive pronoun.

Incorrect: Who’s car is this?

Correct: Whose car is this?

Who’s is the contraction of who and is. Again, the apostrophe (like with it’s) indicates the omission of a letter.

Incorrect: Whose on first using who’s glove?

Correct: Who’s on first using whose glove?

Simple, right?  And now you can steal from the Editing Ninja's arsenal in one handy digital package:

(Isn't he cute?)

The Editing Ninja Assassinates Myself

Okay, the pronoun myself is used and abused far too much.

Myself is NEVER used to replace I or me. Got it? It should only be used reflexively (I stabbed myself) or for emphasis (I told Mr. Polson myself).

Wrong: Myself and my son will go to the game on Saturday.

Right: My son and I will go to the game on Saturday.*

Wrong: She emailed Juan and myself.

Right: She emailed Juan and me.

*You should always mention yourself last. It pays to be humble.

The Editing Ninja Rises Again: Me and I

It's been a while since I've tackled an Editing Ninja post, but leave it to my students to provide inspiration.

Let's talk about personal pronouns, the first-person variety.

I is a subject. Use me when it's an object of a verb or preposition.

Incorrect: Vanessa and me like to watch old horror movies.

Correct: Vanessa and I love Vincent Price.

Incorrect: John invited Vanessa and I to his horror movie marathon.

Correct: John invited Vanessa and me to his horror movie marathon.

Simple, right? Eliminate the "___ and" and you can easily see which pronoun is correct. No one over the age of three would say "Me like to watch old horror movies."

Unless you are Cookie Monster.

The Editing Ninja Strikes on Saturday: FANBOYS

The Editing Ninja took an unplanned leave of absence of late (i.e., my home improvement project has been kicking my ass).

As promised, here is the scoop on the FANBOYS, otherwise known as coordinating conjunctions, otherwise known as those wonderful things with which you can join two complete sentences (or independent clauses) into one sentence without any nasty comma splicing*.

So for this quick and easy recipe, you need two complete thoughts (sentences or independent clauses):

Mom started the car.
The kids scrambled into the back seat.

and a FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So).

In this example, and would work nicely.

Mom started the car, and the kids scrambled into the back seat.

Evidently, Mom was going to leave without the kids. Notice how it reads differently if you invert sentence order:

The kids scrambled into the back seat, and Mom started the car.

Did you see the comma? Yes, when joining independent clauses with FANBOYS, you must place a comma before the conjunction.

Simple? Sure. The FANBOYS can do other things, too, but today we'll stick with the clauses.

*a comma splice is when two clauses are joined together with a comma and no conjunction. It's like suturing with garden twine. Don't do it.

Editing Ninja: Going Subordinate

Your teachers lied to you.

Probably.

If they were like mine, they told you never to begin a sentence with "because". Lies and deceit, I tell you. Lies and deceit.

Remember last week's post about clauses? Today we're going to talk about dependent clauses (otherwise known as subordinate clauses). Every dependent (or subordinate clause) will start with either a subordinate conjunction or relative pronoun (I've listed common ones at the bottom of the post). Break the word subordinate down, and you'll understand why these clauses can't stand on their own. (sub=beneath, under, below and ordinate means in order, so these clauses are less than a sentence, got it?) The word dependent is fairly easy to understand, too: These clauses depend on something else to make a complete thought.

Every subordinate or dependent clause will have a subject and verb like a real, grown up sentence, but the subordinate conjunction or relative pronoun will knock it down a peg. Here's the basic formula:

subordinate conjunction + sentence = subordinate (dependent) clause

or

relative pronoun + sentence = subordinate (dependent) clause

Last week's example When Bob went to the store for a drink of water is a subordinate clause because of the word when. Without when, it's a sentence, see:

Bob went to the store for a drink of water.

Now here's how your teachers lied. If they were like most of mine, they told you never to begin a sentence with because (one of the more popular subordinate conjunctions). You are welcome to start with a subordinate conjunction (and therefore clause) as long as you attach an independent clause to make a complete sentence.

Let's work with Bob.

Bob bought a bottle of water because he was thirsty.

Here you have an independent clause (Bob bought a bottle of water) and a subordinate clause (because + he was thirsty).

English syntax allows you to rearrange these clauses when you have a subordinate and independent clause.

Because he was thirsty, Bob bought a bottle of water.

Beautiful, right? Wait. Wait. WAIT. I started a sentence with because! Ah, but I finished it with an independent clause tacked onto the subordinate clause with a comma. Yes, you can do that.

Because he was thirsty is not a complete thought. Because he was thirsty, Bob bought a bottle of water is. Your teachers (if they were like mine) wanted to avoid the messy "subordinate clause masquerading as a sentence" situation. How could you explain a mess like that to a third grader?

Here's a list of common subordinate conjunctions and relative pronouns. Should you need more help, you know where I live (on the 'net). Don't hesitate to contact me.

Subordinate Conjunctions:

after
although
as
because
before
even if
even though
if
in order that
once
provided that
rather than
since
so that
than
that
though
unless until
when
whenever
where
whereas
wherever
whether
while
why

Relative Pronouns:

that
which
whichever
who
whoever
whom
whose
whosever
whomever

(Yeah, like anybody uses "whosever" anymore...)

Next week, we get crazy with the FANBOYS.

Clauses: Not the Santa Kind (an Editing Ninja Post)

I'm going to keep this simple because I'm up to my eyeballs in sawdust (see yesterday's post.)

There are two types of clauses in English--the independent and the dependent.

Before your click finger goes rogue (out of boredom) and clicks on the nearest shiny thing, stick with me.

An independent clause is simply a sentence--it expresses a complete thought:

Bob went to the store for a drink of water.

A dependent clause is an incomplete thought and often preceded with a "dependent marker word".

When Bob went to the store for a drink of water...

See? What happens when Bob went to the store for a drink of water? Huh? Don't leave us hanging. The dependent marker word often makes a clause dependent. Notice how our complete thought (the independent clause) was actually shorter than the incomplete thought? Nobody said language was supposed to make sense.

Oh wait--yes, it should make sense.

Many dependent marker words (a fancy way of saying adverbs and conjunctions) are lurking out there, waiting for you...

Next week, I'll tackle conjunctions (the matchmakers of clauses) and help fix "dependent clause-itis". That is, if I'm not buried in house rubble.

Heh.

Editing Ninja: Passive Voice is for Losers

I’m tired of people mucking up passive voice, so here it is, once and for all:

A passive sentence is one in which the subject receives the action instead of doing it.

Example: The boy was bitten by the dog.

Snooze fest, right? And easy to correct:

The dog bit the boy.

If you are writing a slightly different kind of story: The boy bit the dog.

Easy, right? Passive voice adds extraneous words and weakens a narrative. Do a quick search of your manuscript for the use of “by” (for PCs: CTRL+F to open the search dialogue box and then search for by with one space before it). Try to change your passive sentences to the active voice.

Passive voice makes sense in limited situations. Writing a mystery?

The man was murdered. -- technically a passive sentence, but notice the lack of "by". In a mystery, we wouldn't know who murdered the man.

Some folks tend to say any sentence with a linking verb (forms of be: is, was, were, etc.) is a passive sentence. Not so. I'll address the weakness of linking verbs in the future.