Here’s a problem that illustrates how practical a little theory can be in sorting out the intricacies of modern English. Should I write skyscrapers typify modern architecture or the skyscraper typifies modern architecture? The question draws us into the way many (but not all) languages work, and understanding these constructions can help us make better …
Category Archives: Thoughts About Writing
Finding a Rock in a Stream
I managed to involve myself this past week in a difficult online chat with customer service, and early on in the exchange the agent wrote, I am going to send you a code on your mobile number on file, once you receive it please provide it to me. The comma caught my attention, and although …
To Whoever or To Whomever?
It’s spring, it’s time to clean out the garage, and you come upon a clutter of rakes and shovels you no longer use. You say to a friend, Give these tools to whomever needs them. That’s right, right? Setting aside the first problem of why, cleaning the garage, you’d try to be so careful about …
Not Entirely Correct
Imagine two friends engaged in a conversation about politics. One expresses his view that corporate tax rates have never been higher and the other replies, Well, that’s not entirely correct. With this simple response, the speaker has risked conjuring the Furies for a crime of confusion, and it might help us all to sort out …
Parallelism
We human beings seem to have an innate need for order. The deliberate arrangement of things, whether furniture in the living room or ideas on a page, signifies meaning to us. Design, we sense, reveals an intelligence, and that too seems to be an inborn obligation that pleases us when we find it. One way …