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The Grammar Logs # 137 |
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| QUESTION |
| I have a rather minute, yet interesting question. In both familiar
and unfamiliar letter composition a capitalized Dear (whoever the recipient
of the letter is) followed by a comma is the accepted salutation. EX: Dear Coty, In several letters mainly informal I have seen My Dear ( letter recipient ) Ex: My Dear Maureen, My question is if "my" in the salutation is capitalized or not and or if My Dear is even an accepted opening. I would like a response as soon as possible. This question has stupmped my entire 9th grade honors class. I have also consulted many grammar sources and found nothing. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Unknown ___ Thursday, June 4, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| My Dear ______, I can't find any references that include "my dear" as part of the salutation of a personal letter. (It would seem quite inappropriate, to me, in business correspondence, where the tendency is even to get rid of the "Dear" and use "To ________.") So there are two ways to think about this: Most authorities write "To Whom It May Concern" -- all capitals, and I see one salutation that reads, "My Fellow Volleyball Players," with a capital "F." Can we read from that that all the words in a salutation should be capitalized? Another way to think about it: in closings, you would write "Very truly yours," with only the first word capitalized. Does that suggest that only the first word (and, of course, proper nouns) would be capitalized in a salutation? The short answer, obviously, is that I don't know. Probably a book on etiquette would have some suggestions about this, but I don't have one of those. Personally, I'd go with capitalizing both "My" and "Dear," but then again, I used "My Dear" for the first and last time today. I will post this response in hopes that more knowledgeable folks will help us out. |
| QUESTION |
| Please give an example of when e.g. vs. i.e. would be used. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Bear Creek, North Carolina ___ Thursday, June 4, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| That issue is pretty well covered with the Notorious Confusables, but if you click HERE, just that article will appear. If that's not enough of an explanation, please write again. |
| QUESTION |
What about the sequense of verb tenses in this situation:
By 30 I will have known something that he had realised only by 50.I've used past perfect (had realised) in the dependent clause instead of present perfect because now he is 55. Is it correct? |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Moscow, Russia ___ Thursday, June 4, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
Maybe it's your use of "known" here (instead of "learned," perhaps?) that's throwing off this sentence. I would word it this way: "By the time I'm thirty, I will know something that he didn't realize until he was fifty."If we use "learned," maybe we can address the sequence problem: "By the time I'm thirty, I will have learned something that he did not realize until he was fifty."The past perfect doesn't seem to work for me. It's the fact that he didn't realize it until he was fifty that counts. The fact that he's now fifty-five doesn't seem to matter (in this sentence, that is). |
| QUESTION |
| When editing essays, letters, and compositions what symbols do you use for certain errors? Are those symbols on the internet somewhere where I can print them?
Example: Morea my sister will be coming with me to the mall. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Dallas, Texas ___ Thursday, June 4, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| We have an online document called Common Proofreading Symbols and Abbreviations that might be just what you need. It takes a moment to download because of all the little graphics. |
| QUESTION |
| I've found myself writing a lot about computer interfaces lately, but I'm puzzled about how to handle things like button labels, menu items, etc. I don't know if I should put them in italics, quotation marks, or if I should just capitalize the first letter. For instance, would I refer to the button below as the "Send the Question" button or the _Send the Question_ (italics) button? And how would I differentiate between a button and a menu item? If I wrote, "Send the Question," would people think "Edit" was a button too? This sounds like something that would be in a style guide somewhere... can you point me to the right one? Thanks |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Minneapolis, Minnesota ___ Thursday, June 4, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I suggest you go to the Style Manual from the Yale Center for Advanced Instructional Media and copy whatever they do. Personally, I'd write it "Send the Question." (The italics looks like you'd be asking them to write it in italics, I think.) |
| QUESTION |
What is the possessive of Secretary of State? Is it Secretary of State's or Secretary's of State. Example: Secretary of State's Office or Secretary's of State Office |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Dover, Delaware ___ Thursday, June 4, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Although there's a certain logic in your suggestion of Secretary's of State office, it is customary, as the Chicago Manual of Style says, to form the possessive of all compound words by adding the inflection at the end of the compound or phrase. An interesting example from the Chicago manual is "the mayor of Chicago's office." Authority: Chicago Manual of Style 14th ed. U of Chicago P: Chicago. 1993. 199.
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| QUESTION |
One of my students has this question:
We are going to visit our relatives next week.What is the function of "to visit" in this sentence is it an infinitive or what? Could you please give us the parts of speech of this sentence? Thank you. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Mexico City, Mexico ___ Thursday, June 4, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Yep, that's an infinitive. It's acting as an adverb here, modifying the verb "are going." The subject is "we," of course, and "our relatives" is the object of the sentence. "Next week" is a prepositional phrase modifying the verb, so it's behaving, in this case, as an adverb. |
| QUESTION |
| How do you address a formal business letter to a man with a Ph.D.? Should the salutation be as set out below or should there be another form?
John Edison, Ph.D. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Laton, California ___ Friday, June 5, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Yes, that's fine as long as you don't combine them (using both the "Dr." and the "Ph.D." at the same time). Also, if this individual is a professor, you could use "Professor" instead of "Dr." |
| QUESTION |
Which of these two sentences is correct?
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| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Berkeley, California ___ Friday, June 5, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| See our section on the uses of the Subjunctive, especially the NYPL User's Guide's counsel on the matter, which includes this statement: "If the information in such a clause points out a condition that is or was probable or likely, the verb should be in the indicative mood. The indicative tells the reader that the information in the dependent clause could possibly be true." You want "was." Authority: New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage HarperCollins: New York. 1994. 155. Cited with permission.
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| QUESTION |
| Of the 3 million Americans aged 65 and older living in the community, 2 million are very happy. My Question: Can you use the word ages to replace aged in this sentence? If not, why not? |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Washington, D.C. ___ Friday, June 5, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I wish you could use ages instead of aged because aged sounds like something that happens to cheese and whiskey, but the plural doesn't really fit "65 and older," does it? Sixty-five and older is one thing. You could say "between the ages of 65 and 105," but I don't think it makes sense to refer to "ages 65 and older." What about "age 65 or older"? |
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