In an earlier post (Why Theory?), I referred to what is called an anticipatory construction, a sentence design in which we refer to something we haven’t yet mentioned. Reading the sentence My friend Andy, as do many under financial strain, fell victim to a predatory lender, we wonder what it is that many do, and …
Author Archives: rultimo
Why Theory?
One of the great frustrations most of us have when we try to learn a new skill or improve on an old one is being told that we can do better, but not being told how. Friends or colleagues who look at our writing, for example, might with the best of intentions tell us, I …
The Spice of Life
Cast your mind back to a time when we could leave our homes and travel anywhere at will (a time, let us remember, that will return) and imagine this sentence: I worked hard for a long time and I decided to take a vacation. On the face of it, there’s nothing special to see here: …
Upcoming Seminar
Some Choice Words: Building a Vocabulary Tuesday, January 19 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. CT Writing well means thinking clearly, and thinking clearly means making distinctions. And to make distinctions, we need words—a good reserve of nouns and verbs readily at hand to convey accurately the ideas we want to communicate. The next Writing Smartly seminar …
The Case of Who and I
Those who have little interest in language will often point to a rule like the difference between who and whom to argue how unimportant grammar really is: whether I say the doctor who I saw last week or the doctor whom I saw last week, you know what I mean, they’ll say. And there’s no …