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| Words, Words, Words! |
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Grammar Problems? Who doesn't have them? Do we use hyphens or quotation marks? You can go crazy trying to decide when to use lay, lie or laid? What about accept and except, affect or effect, is it bad or badly.
Our heads spin out of control bringing on headaches, eye strain and just plain stress. Where do we find them? Our dictionaries are constantly by our side. They show some description but not what we may be looking for. Thinking it will only take a few minutes to search for the right word sometimes turns into hours.
Well, I hope these following web sites help you. The first one is The Grammar Doctor. Tips are given on everything. I went crazy trying to figure out how many hyphens were needed for ..two year old. Are there two, three or none. What about twenty five years? Now we have the plural. Where do you look? Finally with luck keying in the words themselves, I came across the Doctor's website. What a relief. I was amazed to see how much there was on this site.
The following is an example of the answers given on the site. You key in your question and the answer comes up with examples so you can relate to the usage of the word.
Example and answers from the site:
When is it appropriate to hyphenate "years old"? This is a question I'm asked frequently. Believe it or not, my answer will solve your problem without you ever having to wonder again. Note these sentences:
1. He is a typical two-year-old. (Use hyphens if the measurement term is singular such as "year.")
2. He is twenty-two years old. ("Twenty-two" is always hyphenated, but since "years" is multiple, no other hyphens are needed.)
3. She was a thirty-two-year-old female. (Since "year" is singular, all three hyphens are needed. All two-word numbers between twenty-one and ninety-nine are hyphenated.
* Be careful about mistyping (or misspelling) similar but usually unrelated words such as the following: "than" and "then", "form" and "from," "sale" and "sell." "lead" and "led" and the list goes on. Obviously, your spell checker will be no help in such cases.
* There are a number of words that are always singular in English. They include "luggage," "baggage," "equipment" and "weather." These words have to be memorized.
Every month The Grammar Doctor covers different issues with grammar. The site is www.grammardoctor.com/archive10.htm.
As for ways to improve your writing, I again recommend Gary Provost's handbook 100 Ways To Improve Your writing. There are only 158 pages so it doesn't take long to go through it. Also, it's tiny so you can keep it in your briefcase or pocketbook. He also shows examples of the "Do's and "Don'ts" in writing. I'm one who loves to visually see the examples. I relate to the word in action better. It's an inexpensive book but well worth keeping on hand. It can be bought at www.barnesandnoble.com for only $6.95.
The last site that I recommend is www.answers.com. Key anything you need an answer for...and in seconds...the answer is staring at you. It can be with questions about your writing, history on an issue you are looking for at the time.
Here is a Grammar poem credited to Green Baker from a Freedmen's School around 1865:
Three little words you often see
Are articles--an, a and the.
A noun is the name of anything,
As school or garden, hoop or swing.
Adjectives tell the kind of noun,
As great, small, pretty, white or brown.
Instead of nouns the pronouns stand--
Her head, his face, your arm, my hand.
Verbs tell of something being done--
To read, count, laugh, sing, jump or run.
How things are done the adverbs tell,
As slowly, quickly, ill or well.
Conjunctions join the word together,
As men and women, wind or weather.
The prepositions stand before
A noun, as in or through the door.
The interjections show surprise,
As Oh! How pretty! Ah! How wise!
The whole are called the nine parts of speech.
Which reading, writing, speaking teach.
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