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The Grammar Logs # 141 |
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| QUESTION |
Dear Sir/Madam, I'm scheduled to take a police officer's exam on June 20, 1998 and I have a question about part of the test. This section of the test is called Sentence Clarity Exercise and here is an example.
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Pittsburg, California  Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Those are both sentence fragments -- that is, in the first pair, the first sentence is correct (not a fragment), and in the second pair, the second sentence is not a fragment. You might try going through the Guide to Grammar and Writing, to review some of the basic problems. I'm otherwise not sure what they mean by "sentence clarity" if they're going to limit it to fragments. Try going to the section called Deadly Sins and using that as a list of things you ought to review. Or use the Editing Checklist as a more extensive of list of potential problems. In either case, the hyperlinks will take you to the various sections of the Guide that are involved. |
| QUESTION |
| I want to ask you about how we can use the adjectives in writing English . Please give me the answer that you can tell me. For example I am a responsible student. Do I use it in the right way |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Bangkok, Thailand Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Yes, you've used "responsible" correctly in that sentence. I'm going to write a more extensive description of the use of Adjectives in the next day or two. Maybe that will help. |
| QUESTION |
| Is the use of "had had" correct in "The man had had several heart attacks." Please state the rule for using tenses of have. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Moultrie, Georgia Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Yes. It looks rather strange because of the repetition of "had," but that's the past perfect of the verb "to have." It means that at some point in the past the action of his having heart attacks was completed. In the present perfect, "He has had," we would mean that as of now, the action of having heart attacks is completed. The simple past would be "He had." Then, of course, you have the present tense, "He has heart attacks," and the really scary present progressive, "He is having a heart attack." You can review the section on Tense in the Verbs chapter and simply plug in the various forms of have. |
| QUESTION |
| When is a dialogue quotation set as a separate paragraph, and when should other narrative be included in the same paragraph? (I know that changing speakers changes paragraphs, but is the dialogue always in a separate paragraph from the description of the action associated with the speech?) |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Goliad, Texas Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| That's a tough question. The short answer is no, the dialogue is not always in a separate paragraph from the action associate with the speech. But sometimes it is. The only way you can figure this out for yourself is to find a model of a short story that uses a lot of dialogue and photocopy a couple of pages of speech and narrative mixed together. Model your work on that. Find an author you can depend on for good form -- such as Katherine Mansfield, John Galsworthy, Bernard Malamud. |
| QUESTION |
| What is the difference between an expository response and a narrative response? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Bethesda, Maryland Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I'm not sure what you mean by "response" here. Narrative is the kind of writing we use when we recount events or an episode, tell a story. In expository writing, we expound upon an idea -- that is, we attempt to clarify something for our readers. I suggest you look at the various examples in the section on Principles of Composition, particularly the section, say, on Narrative and Argumentative essays. We can use narrative as part of an argumentative essay (or any other kind of expository essay, for that matter). |
| QUESTION |
| Please tell me that what is a "Pseudo cleft sentence". |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Seoul, South Korea Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I'm going to use examples from Quirk and Greenbaums' book here (cited below). You should get hold of this book if you're going to be dealing with questions such as this. A cleft sentence divides a sentence into two parts, each with its own subject-verb relationship. For instance, I could say "John wore his best suit to the dance last night." And then I could focus on the subject of that sentence and create a cleft construction: "It was John who wore his best suit to the dance last night." Or I could focus on the object, "It was his best suit that John wore to the dance last night." I have underlined certain words to show how a cleft sentence tonally emphasizes the part it "sets aside" for special focus. Quirk's definition of a pseudo cleft sentence doesn't do much for me: "It is an SVC sentence with a wh-relative nominal clause as subject or complement. The following are virtually synonymous:
Authority: A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum. Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. 414-417. Used with permission.
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| QUESTION |
Would you say:
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Elmira, New York Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| You're talking about a sum (even though the sum is divided into two categories) and a sum is a singular thing, so you want a singular verb: "has been raised." |
| QUESTION |
| Could you please explain the meaning and use of the phrases "back to back" and "back to the future"? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Somewhere, Pennsylvania Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| "Back to back" means two possible things: you take the back of one book/person and you face that back (that's a paradox for you!) against the back of a similar book/person, etc. Then they're back to back. Another possibility is that you watch one movie/read one book after another and then you've watched/read them "back to back." Back to the Future was the title of a movie several years ago -- a movie of some charm and good humor, as I recall, although that's a personal matter -- in which the characters moved into the future. Perhaps some of them returned to the present and then decided to return to (go "back to") the future; I can't remember. The idea of going "back" to the future doesn't make a lot of sense, and I don't think it made sense in the movie, either. |
| QUESTION |
Which is correct?
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Minneapolis, Minnesota Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| When "neither" is the subject of a sentence, it is always singular, so you want is. It's a bit tricky, because it certainly sounds as though you're talking about two things, but it's sort of like you're saying "neither one of them. . . ." |
| QUESTION |
| Now that you have had time to settle in, we would like to invite you to be our guest speaker at the September 16, 1998, retiree luncheon. Our question is: should there be a comma after 1998? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Baltimore, Maryland Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Yes, the year is treated as a parenthetical element when you have the complete date written that way. Authority: Chicago Manual of Style 14th ed. U of Chicago P: Chicago. 1993. 176.
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