Crystal Clear Proofing: National Grammar Day

Thursday, March 4, 2010

National Grammar Day

TODAY IS NATIONAL GRAMMAR DAY!

Language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It's not only a date, it's an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same! - Grammar Girl

Most of us know clumsy sentences when we hear or read them, but we don’t always know exactly why they are clumsy or possess the skills to fix them. Here's a sentence that needs a little work:

The network that this computer is able to connect to contains information that is privileged and confidential.

The clumsiness is caused by several common writing errors:

Unnecessary dependent clauses
Get rid of that is/which is, that are/which are clauses whenever possible.

Extraneous verb phrases
Delete verb phrases that don’t add meaning: is able to.

Subjects too far away from their verbs
Place subjects closer to their verbs: computer connects, network contains.

Redundancy
Weed out repetitious words: Confidential and privileged mean the same thing in this context.

Finally, tweak the wording so that the sentence flows:

This computer connects to a network containing confidential information.

Check out The Grammar Song! Find it here: The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.

Sources: Grammarbook.com, Grammar Girl, The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar

19 comments:

Christine DanekMarch 4, 2010 at 6:04:00 AM CST
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Christine DanekMarch 4, 2010 at 6:05:00 AM CST
Whoops! I hit the wrong button before. Thank you for the post. I always need to brush up on my grammar issues.
Thanks!
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Elizabeth Spann CraigMarch 4, 2010 at 7:57:00 AM CST
Great tips, Crystal! I'm tweeting these. :)

Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
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Creative ChroniclerMarch 4, 2010 at 8:00:00 AM CST
Happy Grammar Day!! Thanks for more awesome advice!! Love the cat pic!!
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AnonymousMarch 4, 2010 at 8:23:00 AM CST
Thanks for these tips; they're very useful! Readers get drawn into stories in part because of good, clean writing, and these are valuable ideas for creating that kind of writing.
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UnknownMarch 4, 2010 at 8:30:00 AM CST
Christine: Thanks for stopping by! CCP's goal is to help you with those grammar issues. Hope to see you again!

Elizabeth: Thanks for the tweet!

CC: Thanks! Today is a holiday in Grammar World! LOL! Yeah, I'm debating about adding that cute pic to my sidebar!

Margot:Thank you! There is quite a difference between the first sentence and the "polished" one! You're so right; "little" things make a big difference to readers!
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Mason CanyonMarch 4, 2010 at 8:45:00 AM CST
Happy Grammar Day. I have learned much from your blog. The photo of the cat is priceless.
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Arlee BirdMarch 4, 2010 at 10:47:00 AM CST
I always loved my Grammar and my Grandpa as well. Oh, wait-- I'm sorry. You said grammar.

Okay, that was bad. But your information was excellent. It brought to light a mistake that I commonly make. I will try to be more observant in the future.
Lee
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The Old SillyMarch 4, 2010 at 11:33:00 AM CST
Love ALL of these advices. And Happy Grammar day, Crystal!

Marvin D Wilson
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Alex J. CavanaughMarch 4, 2010 at 11:37:00 AM CST
In other words, KISS - keep it simple stupid? I can do that!
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UnknownMarch 4, 2010 at 11:47:00 AM CST
Karen: Thank you so much for the kind words. I'm just as happy for you with your singing! We "happy dance" very well together!

Mason: I'm so happy to hear you've gained something from my posts! As for the picture: yes, I decided that had to accompany the other kitty editors on my sidebar! LOL!

Lee: Always a pleasure to see you stop by. Glad you found the information helpful.

Marvin: Thank you Old Silly!

Alex: There you go! You have a better understanding of a lot of this stuff than you think! :)
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L. Diane WolfeMarch 4, 2010 at 12:23:00 PM CST
Yeah! A whole day to celebrate the fact I am not a grammar queen. Woo-hoo!!!!
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Carol KilgoreMarch 4, 2010 at 1:18:00 PM CST
Just excellent. I need to remember all these things. All the time. Thanks.
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JournoMichMarch 4, 2010 at 1:37:00 PM CST
I just saw this event and posted it. I knew it was something you'd enjoy!

Michele
SouthernCityMysteries
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Kathy McIntoshMarch 4, 2010 at 2:52:00 PM CST
Wonderful post. I checked out the song and LOVED it! I'm going to tweet this!
Thanks.
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UnknownMarch 4, 2010 at 3:50:00 PM CST
Thank you everyone! What a great Grammar Day it's been! Thanks for sharing the fun of the day with me.
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Martha BrockenbroughMarch 4, 2010 at 11:19:00 PM CST
Thank you for participating!
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AnonymousMarch 6, 2010 at 12:49:00 AM CST
There's something for you at my blog :o)
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Susan FieldsMarch 6, 2010 at 5:59:00 AM CST
I came over here after reading Niki's post - congrats on your award! And happy (belated) Grammar Day!
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Reader Comments

This is one of the reasons I love your blog. I find things here that no other blog has! Between cool words and your fun challenges, not to mention your awesome tutorials you have a wonderfully unique and helpful blog!

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You truly do have one of my favorite blogs. Those spelling posts are working wonders for me. Thanks again!

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Love your blog posts - you have such a succinct and clear way of clearing up the most difficult and subtle nuances of good writing and editing.

You have a special talent for clarifying literary distinctions.

You realy do need to write a grammar book! No one does these posts better and makes them as easy to understand & remember as you do!

Great and informative post. It's so nice and succinct - grammar seems soooo much easier now.

I am so delighted to have found you! I look forward to following your blog.

As usual, your in-depth posts bring clear distinction to often gray and fuzzy topics.

you really do do this extremely well.

Great tips. You always have such useful information. Thanks.

I think your blog is great! Very helpful

All good information...I love your tutorials!

Some excellent advice and as usual, very clearly explained. Thanks for the help.

Love your blog...Thanks for this, you're keeping English intact.

Thanks. I love your site for the great information.

Once again, a clear (crystal), concise, and easy to understand tutorial, my dear. And once again, I got it bookmarked. I'm putting together an editing/proofreading e-book for my personal use with the compilation of all these wonderful posts - thanks!

Your post are helping to alleviate the grammar phobia in me. Thanks, Crystal.

Crystal Clear Proofing posts the greatest writing/editing tutorials. As an editor myself, I go there often to learn subtle nuances in the craft of good writing, as she has this marvelous ability to make those fuzzy, sometimes hard to determine, gray areas of correct writing, well…Crystal Clear!

I do love your posts, they have such great information.

You always break it down into realistic terms, Crystal!

You have such interesting posts. Thanks.

Crystal, I think I'm going to print out all your posts and staple them together for my own style book. Thanks!

Thanks for the great posts!

I have learned much from your blog.

Just excellent. I need to remember all these things. All the time. Thanks.

Thanks for these tips; they're very useful! Readers get drawn into stories in part because of good, clean writing, and these are valuable ideas for creating that kind of writing.

I.E AND E.G.
Thank you! I've never know what those meant or how to properly use them!

JOINT AND SEPARATE POSSESSION
Thank you so much! I had a hard time finding what joint and seperate possession means! Once again, thank you!

WAIT AND AWAIT
Oh, I love this site! Do you have a past post about lay, lie and all that good stuff?

This is a very clear and succinct explanation of the distinction between the two words."

LAY AND LIE
OMG! This is GREAT!!! I might actually understand it now! Thanks so much, Crystal. This is an awesome site!

You have a great way of explaining words. Your blog is a wonderful source for writers. I'll have to search your post to see if you have "affect" "effect", I know I use those improperly often.

AFFECT AND EFFECT
Thank you for this great post! I have printed it to keep it handy. Hopefully, it will positively affect my future writing.

Thanks for this post Crystal. I was going to actually email you and request that you explain the difference between these two, because these are usually a problem for me. Thanks again!

Another classic, Crystal Clear explanation...this tutorial contains some subtle nuances well worth being reminded of. Thanks!

THAT AND WHICH
Another excellent grammar lesson!

You are really rockin' this grammar instruction! I am currently working on a short story for class, which must be submitted this week, and this was very helpful. Did I get it right? (Note from CCP: she did get it right!)

WHO AND WHOM
Perfect! Got it...I keep all these tutorials in a bookmarked file now.

Great tutorial!! I'm saving this one.

Another great tutorial.

QUOTATION MARKS
Great post. Good tips about punctuation.

AWHILE AND A WHILE
Another fine tutorial. Got it added to my Clear as a Crystal file.

What a wonderful tip!

Oh!!! Those examples are perfect and it really makes sense now. Thanks!

APOSTROPHE USE WITH POSSESSIVE NOUNS
Excellent and very thorough. Got this one copied and stored along with ALL your tutorials in my Crystal Clear Writing folder. :)

Another excellent post. I always have trouble with these.

Now that my eyes have re-focused after glazing over, I can say that this is why writers need to hire editors--So they don't have to think too much about grammar. I can't keep all the darn rules straight in my head. Thanks for doing what you do. I am cutting and pasting this into a new word file for grammar tips.

Good one! I'm tweeting this.

Clear and concise. Thanks.

That possessive S has at some points been the bane of my existence...so thanks for this.

Great article! Thanks for the examples too.

Confusing topic, excellent post. Many people really do not know at all how to handle these pesky little things, so thanks for 'splaining it so nicely.

Excellent post! I enjoyed this a lot...Great blog. :)

LEVELS OF EDITING
Crystal, great explanation and post today - I copied it as a word doc and stored it in my "Crystal Clear" file.

You've written a wonderful post that throws light on a rather mysterious (to me) subject.

ONE WORD VS. TWO WORDS
Another great post.

Thanks for sharing this list and clarifying these points.

WRITING DATES AND TIMES
Writing dates and times is always confusing for me, so I really appreciate this, Crystal! Thanks.

Great tips. This is very helpful. Thanks.

Awesome tips. I make some of those mistakes.

I will copy and paste into a writing tips folder I've started to gather all these handy dandy things in one place. Thank you.

Great post!

What a very useful post! I'm going to bookmark it for easy reference. Thanks Crystal!

Good stuff Crystal!

Very good and clear lesson here. Copied and pasted it into a Word Doc and saved it in my "Crystal Clear" file!

You have some good reference article(s) here, Crystal. :-)

PREPOSITIONS
Excellent tutorial, got it saved as usual.

Thanks for this! Bookmarking it for easy reference.

SEMICOLONS
Another great and much needed post for people like me. This is why you are the Grammar Goddess!

Oh I agree. You are the Grammar Goddess. I have the worst time with commas and semicolons. Thanks for the helpful post. I'll have to print this out and keep it close.

I bow to you, Grammar Goddess. Another one to save in my growing list from your posts.

Oh great Grammar Goddess, how I worship you! Thanks so much for this post.

You make it look so easy!

Good one!

Oh my goodness you have made it so clear! I'm sure it will be this clear when I am writing later...Thank you!

COLONS
As always, awesome advice and clarification.

Thanks, Crystal. Helpful, as always.

Great advice, Crystal! I'm tweeting.

Helpful as always. Thanks.

DASHES
You should really turn your blog into a book. Now THAT is a grammar book I would buy!

Thank you so much for this post. The explanations and examples made it "crystal clear" for me. :-)

I like your distinction between the use of dash and colon. It makes sense to me.

Most helpful. I just had to change a host of en dashes to em dashes in my ms.

HYPHENS
Thank you very much for this post!

Great tips, Crystal! Thanks so much.

Such great advice! Thanks for the valuable lesson!!

Great post. Thanks.

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to clear up some of the confusion about hyphens. As always, a very helpful post.

These are wonderful guidelines, Crystal, thank you!

Another fine tutorial.

I'm pretty sure I don't use hyphens correctly. It was good to read through this advice and think about how I do use them. Thanks.

Good post, great blog!

OVER THE TOP AWARD
Congratulations, you and your blog are "Over the Top."

Your blog is sure Over the Top! One of my favorites!

FIFTEEN PUNCTUATION FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Great summary.

Love this post!! I needed this one. I think I might have to frame it and stick it beside my desk as a reminder when I'm writing! You rock!!

Great tips! I'm tweeting.

Crystal this is excellent. I've got it stored in my Crystal Clear file folder.

Yeah, I've created a Crystal folder as well and cut and paste all your gems.

Thanks for these tips, Crystal! Very useful! I think I should post them above my desk!

Another very useful post, Crystal.

Great tips as always :)

You always make this painless. Thanks Crystal.

EFFECTIVE WRITING
I think this is one of my favorite rules post yet. So helpful!! May have to post this one on my desk too, I know I'll get one of those flip book easels so I can have all your post handy and in my face to remind me. I need that, you are an editor extraodinaire!!!

Thanks for making grammar crystal clear once again, Crystal.

Another fine lesson, Crystal on some of the finer points of good prose. Got this one saved, too.

I love the examples - they make it so much easier to remember these rules!

And another of your posts goes into the 'keep' file. Bless you, my dear, for making it all so Crystal Clear!

Oh, man, I wish I could send this to all the writers I worked with and trained over the years at TV stations! You rock, Crystal!

CLAUSES
Thanks! I love these tutorials.

Very helpful and easy to understand as always!

CHALLENGES
Great idea for a proofreader post!

Your posts are fun, creative, and challenge our brains.

What a fun exercise!

This is a great exercise, Crystal! I really appreciate your blog.

I just love your challenges - they make me realize how much I still have to learn!

This is great, I like the new Challenge! Great blog too, glad to have found you on blogger!

I love these!

Thanks Crystal. :) This is fun.

This is a great exercise for concentration; thanks!

Another excellent week of challenges...Keep them coming!

These are so much fun, Crystal. Helps keep us sharp, too!

This is an interesting weekly challenge, Crystal; it shows me time and time again how easy it is for my brain to skip over mistakes.

I love the idea of doing this weekly. What a fun little challenge.

This is such fun to do...Thanks for providing a means for waking up my brain.

This is great...Thanks, Crystal! So fun!

I LOVE the spelling challenge!! I am a horrible speller and need all the help I can get. Great idea for a weekly post.

It's so easy, isn't it, to miss those little things that, in the end, make writing look polished or look "raw." This is a good exercise : ). I look forward to more.

Yippee for me. Got them this time. So fun, Crystal. Thanks.

As always, you're the Grammar Goddess. Thanks for keeping us on our toes.

Thanks, as always, for these little challenges. It's so important to communicate clearly when one writes, and readers do *not* want to be bothered by obvious spelling goofs.

Love the spelling challenges.

Wow, you really know how to get a brain working! Thanks again for another helpful post!

Thanks for this challenge. I appreciate the exercise. It's always good to keep in practice.

I just love your challenges - they make me realize how much I still have to learn!

Great test! Thanks, I love your posts!

***************************************************************************************** "Editors and proof readers are the unrecognized support structure of books. Without them, books would take authors twice as long to complete." Comment left by Leigh Russell (CRIME FICTION)