Grammar

Compiled by Teresa DesJardien (1995)

Picture an art dealer. Before her hang two paintings. One is clean, crisp, nicely framed, professionally arranged, instantly conveying something of what the artist tried to capture in her subject. The other is my 8-year-old's refrigerator art. Yeah, the latter is colorful and it even has something to say, but the art dealer isn't about to rush to buy the stick people in a crooked house.

Is that because it's less a treasure? No, it's because the art dealer is going to invest her precious dollars in something she believes she can easily sell with a minimum amount of input from her: the professional-appearing product.

It's the same for the publishing house editors. They see professionally constructed manuscripts and they see those that are weak. In particular, a manuscript with grammar that is weak screams "needs work" at them, not "commercially viable." Poor grammar skills are the quickest way to convince an editor she may not want to work with this particular writer.

It's true some of the "old rules" are less rigid than they used to be, but you are better off knowing the rules before you break them!

Do you know how to apply the grammatical rules for all of the following?

Anyone vs. any one; everyday vs. every day; etc.
As, as if, or as though vs. like
Awhile vs. a while
Bad vs. badly; good vs. well
Bring vs. take
Commas, proper placement of
Commonly misused words, such as:

A lot (never alot)
Affect/effect
age/aged/at the age of
all right (not alright)
assure/ensure/insure
beside/besides
capital/capitol

regardless (never irregardless)
stationary/stationery
supercede/supersede
than/then
toward/towards
who's/whose
would have (not would of)

Dangling participial phrases (how to avoid)
Ellipsis, dashes, colons, and semi-colons
If vs. whether
Its vs. it's (never its'), and other possessives
Kind vs. sort
Lay, lie, laid, had lain
Numbers, in writing
Quotation marks, punctuating in. (In the American style, periods and commas go inside the quotation marks. Semi-colons and colons go outside the closing quotation marks.) Do you know how to treat question marks and exclamation point quotes within a sentence?
Shall vs. will
Sneaked, not snuck
If . . . was vs. If . . . were (subjunctive case)
Who vs. whom
Who, which and that (who and that when referring to persons; which and that when referring to places, objects, and animals.)

Hey, we all need at least some help with the rules of grammar! So here is a list of books to keep nearby (and peruse occasionally) to improve your grammar skills:

The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White
The Gregg Reference Manual, by William A. Sabin
The Writer's Hotline Handbook, by Montgomery and Stratton

Remember, no one will see how wonderful your characters, action, and scenes are if they have to wade through a profusion of grammar mistakes to get there!