One cannot travel too far in grammar without coming upon the term object. Verbs have objects, prepositions have objects, even participles, infinitives, and gerunds have objects. So what are they and why? An object, in its derivation, is something that is thrown in my way. The letters ject stem from a Latin verb meaning to …
Author Archives: rultimo
The Trouble with Relatives
Let’s turn our attention to the sentence structure that relative pronouns create. To speak of sentence structure implies the idea of building, constructing, remodeling, and if we think for a moment about those associated ideas, we can see how appropriate they are to the work of writing: to build something, an addition to a house …
Things and Ideas
Some writers and all grammar teachers make a distinction between concrete and abstract nouns. Concrete nouns name things we perceive with one of our senses: the word grass is a concrete noun because what we call grass is something we can see or touch; the word kindness is an abstract noun (as are most nouns …
What Is a Rule?
There are some who believe, perhaps unwittingly, that to concern oneself with points of grammar is to worry over matters of social etiquette: learn the rules, apply them, and don’t ask why. If that were true, if our speaking and writing were only a matter of dictates, of absolute laws laid down absolutely, the prospects …
Seeing Other Choices
Revising does not always mean correcting errors. Moving from rough draft through revisions to final copy can also mean changing something good into something even better, or developing a description or line of reasoning from an entirely different angle. There is no arguing with the fact that we all need models to follow in learning …