Here is another assemblage of less than shining achievements in journalism.<\/p>\n
\u2022 From a review of a movie about a ninety-three-year-old designer: \u201cShe makes no attempt to deny the pains and rigors of life in her ninth decade.\u201d Let\u2019s see now, a three-year-old is in her first decade; a thirteen-year-old is in her second decade; a twenty-three-year-old is in her third decade. Do the math: a ninety-three-year-old is in her tenth<\/em> decade.<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cIt\u2019s a real kudo for Yahoo.\u201d There is no such thing as \u201ca kudo.\u201d Kudos<\/em> is a Greek word meaning \u201cpraise\u201d or \u201cglory.\u201d Despite the s<\/em> on the end, kudos<\/em> is singular, not plural.<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cGreen yelled, \u2018I told ya\u2019ll it was over!!!\u2019 \u201d The punctuation is a mess even before the sentence ends with that intemperate outburst of exclamation points. Apparently the writer\u2019s MO is to just fling apostrophes around and pray they make a smooth landing. Well, the one in \u201cya\u2019ll\u201d sure didn\u2019t. Why would anyone want to harm a nice word like all<\/em> by disfiguring it with a wayward apostrophe? The correct contraction of you all<\/em> is y\u2019all<\/em>. The apostrophe replaces the ou<\/em> in you<\/em>\u2014just as it stands in for the wi<\/em> in you will<\/em> when we write\u00a0you\u2019ll<\/em> or the ha<\/em> in you have<\/em> when we write you\u2019ve<\/em>. What missing letter or letters does the apostrophe in\u00a0ya\u2019ll<\/em> replace?<\/p>\n \u2022 Three sentences from three articles that share one problem: \u201cBut improvements could take awhile.\u201d \u201cEvery once in awhile, then, you feel like you\u2019re watching an old mystery.\u201d \u201cHanging around with fantastic writers rubs off on you after awhile.\u201d<\/p>\n All three writers should have used the two-word noun phrase a while<\/em>. It is worthwhile preserving the difference between awhile<\/em> and a while<\/em>. As one word, awhile<\/em> is an adverb meaning \u201cfor a while.\u201d Obviously the writer of the first sentence didn\u2019t mean \u201cimprovements could take for a while,\u201d which makes no sense. He should have gone with the noun phrase \u201ca while,\u201d making the noun \u201cwhile\u201d the object of \u201ccould take.\u201d<\/p>\n The writers of the second and third sentences have mistakenly made awhile<\/em> the object of the prepositions in<\/em> and after<\/em>. But only nouns and pronouns may be objects of prepositions, never adverbs. Claire Kehrwald Cook sums it all up in her book Line by Line<\/em>: \u201cUse the article [a<\/em>] and noun [while<\/em>], not the adverb [awhile<\/em>], after a preposition \u2026 Use awhile<\/em> only where you can substitute the synonymous phrase for a time<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cIt is a memorial to the thousands of soldiers who fought and died in the June 18, 1815 battle of Waterloo.\u201d Add a comma after \u201c1815.\u201d Most people still use a comma to separate the day of the month from the year, but many forget to put another comma after the year.<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cOur design critic\u2019s favorite example of \u2018defensive architecture\u2019 are the wooden benches on Mission.\u201d The writer forgot what every schoolchild learns the first week of English class: The verb must agree with the subject. The subject is \u201cexample.\u201d The critic\u2019s favorite example is<\/em> the wooden benches. Case closed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n The following are sentences recently heard over the airwaves. See if you can spot the errors. Our answers are at the bottom of the newsletter.<\/p>\n 1. \u201cIran is as great a threat that Israel has ever faced.\u201d <\/p>\n Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. \u201cIran is as great a threat as<\/em> Israel has ever faced.\u201d Here is another assemblage of less than shining achievements in journalism. \u2022 From a review of a movie about a ninety-three-year-old designer: \u201cShe makes no attempt to deny the pains and rigors of life in her ninth decade.\u201d Let\u2019s see now, a three-year-old is in her first decade; a thirteen-year-old is in her second decade; […]<\/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":[16,12,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apostrophes","category-effective-writing","category-subject-and-verb-agreement"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978"}],"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=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2. \u201cIt\u2019s a extremely politicized department.\u201d
\n3. \u201cEvery one of our allies in the region are up in arms.\u201d
\n4. \u201cIt\u2019s a good opportunity for whomever becomes the nominee.\u201d
\n5. \u201cThis could spurn other people to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n2. \u201cIt\u2019s an<\/em> extremely politicized department.\u201d
\n3. \u201cEvery one of our allies in the region is<\/em> up in arms.\u201d
\n4. \u201cIt\u2019s a good opportunity for whoever<\/em> becomes the nominee.\u201d
\n5. \u201cThis could spur<\/em> other people to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"