Comments on: A Curmudgeon’s Guide to Style

By: Annie Glimmerglass

Annie Glimmerglass — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:34:57 +0000

Of course those who ruthlessly use “that” when it should be “which” will be just fine with “by the way” coming afterwards. They won’t hear it as wrong.

By: Casey

Casey — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:43:35 +0000

@Kenneth: Grammar by ear, or intuition, is a tricky thing. Some people are lucky enough to be right most of the time. The trouble with relying solely on intuition is that you have no way of knowing when you’re being misled!

By: Casey

Casey — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:41:42 +0000

@Annie: There’s a great site out there that exists solely to point out erroneous uses of “literally.” I’ll leave it up to you to find it. I’d love to have a proofreader for this blog, but my publishing schedule doesn’t really allow time for one. A great tip for “that” and “which”, which may have come from Lynch (I don’t remember where I saw it), is to imagine a “by the way” after every which. If you can’t fit in a parenthetical “by the way,” it should probably be “that.” Thanks for the (voluminous) comments–do you have your own blog somewhere?

By: Casey

Casey — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:38:27 +0000

@Emma: Thanks for the tip! You make an important point, too: often we writers are NOT the best proofreaders of our own work. That’s why it’s so important to get someone else to look at it. I’ve fixed the error…but I’m sure there will be more of them in my future. Such is the nature of a daily blog, when most of my efforts go into the editing I do for private clients!

By: Annie Glimmerglass

Annie Glimmerglass — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:44:43 +0000

Uh, er…I believe it was Ms. Butterfield who made that blunder. But she’s entitled, I think. She’s doing a lot of writing here, and if she’s getting the work she’s got this website for, it’s probably not the only writing she’s doing. Ms. Butterfield….do you need a proofreader? I’m available any time.

By: Emma

Emma — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:35:27 +0000

Lynch says “…which made me want to through my tablet stylus across the room…”. Yup, well – just goes to prove there’s no substitute for proof-reading one’s work!

By: Kenneth

Kenneth — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:10:32 +0000

I have always found the “rules” for grammar to be fascinating and humorous. I learned my grammar from a mother for whom English was a second language, and have never learned the “rules”. I count on my ear to tell me the correct usage, and find that I am right 99% of the time. Grammar wrought from family dinners at which the spoken word was the coin of the realm, and mistakes were jumped on faster than light.

By: Annie Glimmerglass

Annie Glimmerglass — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:44:30 +0000

Wait! Obviously I’m not looking these things up in my Strunk an White, but it now occurs to me (after I’ve actually used “which” in something I’m writing) that “which” is used when the thing it’s pertaining to has been used as the object (of a preposition, for example) rather than the subject. Or something like that.

By: Annie Glimmerglass

Annie Glimmerglass — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:26:44 +0000

and…… how does one learn “Track Changes” so that one doesn’t go mad figuring out how to make it go away when one wants it to? I know this is a program that should be invaluable in my writing, but it’s so confounding!

By: Annie Glimmerglass

Annie Glimmerglass — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:23:55 +0000

I don’t know the rule regarding “that” and “which”; I just know that, when I’m driving along, listening to NPR, I’m likely to mumble “WHICH, you twit, not THAT”. I have a vague notion it pertains to whether it’s an animate or inanimate thing it’s pertaining to….(how’s that for bad writing?). By the way, Daniel Schorr did a bit on bad grammar this morning on Sunday Edition of NPR, including my new fave – “literally” being used when it’s obviously “figuratively” (or what I’d rather say, “virtually.”)