Teachers and writers who think about these things tell us that our thoughts take shape in the sentences we write. Language, or to be more precise, expository prose, is constructed, and if that is true, then the more knowledgeable we are about grammar and sentence structure, the more facility we can command in finding the …
Author Archives: rultimo
A Comma Will Sort It Out
What does this sentence mean: I did not review your proposal because I did not believe it had any merit. Tough words to read from a teacher or boss, but before we let our emotions go, what does it really mean according to its grammatical construction? Such sentences are not infrequently encountered. Almost certainly we …
Whomever or Whoever?
In the news this past week, I read of someone quoted as saying, Whomever did something like that should be punished to the full extent of the law. If we agree that using our ear to test questions of grammar is not a reliable way to proceed, we can agree that our trained ear will …
From Concrete to Abstract and Back Again
Grammarians make the distinction between concrete and abstract nouns, and writing teachers routinely enjoin their students to prefer the former to the latter. A concrete noun names something we perceive in the world with one of our five senses; an abstract noun we perceive only with our mind. A concrete noun denotes something regarded as …
Two Problems, Three Solutions
Let’s return to the practical matter of identifying and revising a sentence that is not structurally sound. Something is wrong with the following sentence, for example, even though we can certainly wrest a meaning from it: Interest rates finally came down I decided to look for a new house. When we’re writing fast, in a …