{"id":1677,"date":"2014-10-22T16:16:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T22:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1677"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:53:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:53:41","slug":"thrash-the-slash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/effective-writing\/thrash-the-slash\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrash the Slash"},"content":{"rendered":"

There have always been words that people use to show they\u2019re cool\u2014words like cool<\/em>, which gained wide acceptance in the 1940s, unseating swell<\/em>, keen<\/em>, and spiffy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And there have always been trendy phrases. In the 1970s, no one who was cool said in conclusion<\/em> or in the last analysis<\/em>. It was all about the<\/em> bottom line<\/em>\u2014a phrase still in use, although it has been eclipsed by at the end of the day<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But now, perhaps for the first time, a punctuation mark is all the rage. It\u2019s the forward slash, also known as the virgule<\/em>, solidus<\/em>, slant<\/em>, separatrix<\/em>, and whack<\/em>. It is the only mark with more names than legitimate uses.<\/p>\n

To most of us who care about the written word, the omnipresent slash is about as welcome as a fox\/piranha in the henhouse\/bathtub.<\/p>\n

It appears we have computer technology to thank for this symbol\u2019s unlikely emergence. The slash has become indispensable for URLs and any number of online activities. But that hardly makes it compatible with proficient writing.<\/p>\n

The slash has always been a handy tool for taking notes and writing rough outlines. Substituting w\/o<\/em> for without<\/em>, y\/o<\/em> for years old<\/em>, and b\/c <\/em>for because<\/em> can save valuable time and space.<\/p>\n

However, most slashes can\u2014and should\u2014be removed from a final draft. Writers who keep a construction like any man\/woman<\/em> in their finished work instead of replacing it with any man or woman<\/em> are telling their readers, \u201cI don\u2019t have enough time or respect for you to write all this small stuff out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our GrammarBook.com offices are teeming with an eclectic range of grammar primers, reference books, and style guides. Although many of these volumes have entire sections on punctuation marks, only a handful even acknowledge the ignoble slash. The consensus is that a slash has two principal uses:<\/p>\n

\u2022 To separate numbers in dates (9\/11\/2001) and fractions (\u00bd).<\/p>\n

\u2022 To denote the original line breaks in quoted poetry (\u201cCelery, raw \/ Develops the jaw\u201d).<\/p>\n

Here are some recent examples of slash-mania:<\/p>\n

\u2022 They can indeed be responsible and successful statesmen\/stateswomen<\/em>. (Would it kill you to write \u201cstatesmen and stateswomen\u201d?)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Using the pass\/fail option backfired on her<\/em>. (How about \u201cpass-fail\u201d?)<\/p>\n

\u2022 An amateur might find him\/herself in trouble<\/em>. (Amateurs might find themselves in trouble.)<\/p>\n

\u2022 I don\u2019t open letters\/mail that aren\u2019t\/isn\u2019t addressed to me<\/em>. (I don\u2019t open letters or other mail that isn\u2019t addressed to me.)<\/p>\n

Try this experiment: say \u201cI don\u2019t open letters\/mail that aren\u2019t\/isn\u2019t addressed to me\u201d out loud to someone. Doesn\u2019t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

This might be the easiest pop quiz yet. Suggested fixes are below.<\/p>\n

1. When\/if Mary ever shows up, we can serve dinner.
\n2. Each child had a permission slip from a parent\/guardian.
\n3. This car gets thirty miles\/gallon.
\n4. The actor\/director\/producer Troy Biffley was happy to sign autographs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. When and if Mary ever shows up, we can serve dinner.
\n2. Each child had a permission slip from a parent or guardian.
\n3. This car gets thirty miles per gallon.
\n4. The actor-director-producer Troy Biffley was happy to sign autographs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There have always been words that people use to show they\u2019re cool\u2014words like cool, which gained wide acceptance in the 1940s, unseating swell, keen, and spiffy. And there have always been trendy phrases. In the 1970s, no one who was cool said in conclusion or in the last analysis. It was all about the bottom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effective-writing","category-hyphens"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}