| QUESTION |
I am preparing a program listing speakers and speech titles. Which is correct--to show the speech title (second line) italicized or in quotes?
Mr. Terence Coghlin, Senior Partner and Chairman, Thomas Miller & Co. Ltd.
Shipowners' Liabilities: How will they be Insured in the New Century?
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Unknown  Tuesday, July 14, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I would think that quotation marks would be appropriate for the title of a speech. With italics, the readers of the program might think that is the title of a book that Mr. Coghlin as written (and might, God forbid, read at your assembly).
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| QUESTION |
I was wondering if you need to include a comma when using a conjunction in a sentence that is connecting two predicates modifying the same subject. Here is an example of what I am referring to:
Ethan trades Intel Equity stock options and is a member of The Manhattan Corporate Fund.
Thanks for your help.
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Ann Arbor, Michigan Tuesday, July 14, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Normally the coordinating conjunction is adequate, without the comma, to connect those parts of the sentence. You may have sentences in which the two predicates are lengthy or complex enough so that a comma is useful to avoid confusion, but that doesn't obtain in this sentence.
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| QUESTION |
| In the following example, is it more correct to use lower, lesser, least of or something else.
I will pay you the lower/lesser/least of the following:
- $500;
- The cost to fix your car;
- The cost of a used car.
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Altoona, Iowa Tuesday, July 14, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I'll take "c," and thanks.
Logically, I think "least" is your best bet, but it sounds funny. If we finish off the lead-in clause, it doesn't sound so bad to me:
I will pay you the least [or lowest] of the following amounts:
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| QUESTION |
| Plural of medium
Are multiple recording devices such as audio tapes and compact discs
media, mediums, neither or both?
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| West Des Moines, Iowa Tuesday, July 14, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The things that they record are media (a compact disc or an audiotape, I believe, can be called a medium), but not the recording devices that make those things. A "medium" is something that conveys the information (just as the person who acts as the conduit of communication between you and your dead Uncle Jasper is called a medium). So we could say that a compact disc is a newer medium than audiotape -- but the machine that creates the compact disc or imprints (burns?) the information on it is not a medium.
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| QUESTION |
| This is just a follow-up question on the sentence " All items are produced from advanced equipment."
You said the preposition "with" would be better, and "from" is possible but unlikely. How about "by," would this be grammatically correct?
Thanks in advance.
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Taipei, Taiwan Wednesday, July 15, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The preposition "by" implies that the items are produced through the agency of the equipment itself, as if the equipment did it on its own. This is almost possible, nowadays, with robots, but still rather unlikely. You could say that the items are produced by skilled workers using advanced equipment, but to say that they were produced by advanced equipment would surely be exaggerating the autonomy of the equipment.
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