The
Grammar
Logs
# 387

QUESTION
How does one correctly indicate the possessive when writing a name ending in Jr. or Sr.? For example, is it correct to write, "John Jones, Jr.'s father is John Jones, Sr.?"
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada Tue, May 9, 2000
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
"John Jones, Jr.'s father" would be correct.

Authority: New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage HarperCollins: New York. 1994. Cited with permission. p. 273.
QUESTION
Is it grammatically correct to say,
  • I am going to buy me a car. or
  • I am going to make me a drink?
My daughter's teacher says this. To me it sounds terrible.

Thank you.

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Roanoke, Virginia Tue, May 9, 2000
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Those would be excellent places to use the reflexive pronoun construction: "I'm going to make myself a drink" or "I'm going to buy myself a car." It's a nice shortcut for "make a drink for myself." But there's no place for "me" in either one of those sentences, with all due respect to your daughter's teacher.

QUESTION
May I ask you a question about the usage of "just now"?

Can't we use "just now" with a present perfect tense as in "I have written a letter just now"? In Japan many dictionaries and reference books write that "just now" is never used with a present perfect tense. They say that a sentence such as "I have written a letter just now" is wrong and that we should say "I wrote a letter just now." Such is now very often found in college entrance examinations in Japan. Is it really true? Or is it the position of "just now" in a sentence that matters? If so, is a sentence like "I have just now written a letter" correct? I was wondering if you would kindly answer this question.

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Tokyo, Japan Tue, May 9, 2000
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
There's nothing wrong with using the present perfect tense with "just now." I think the resources you refer to might be forgetting that the present perfect is, in fact, a present tense. It includes the present time, the now. I have never before heard of this objection.

QUESTION
How do you write/spell "time and cost-effectively"? Is it "time- and cost-effectively"?

Example sentence would be:

Our company manages resources time and cost-effectively.
Thanks!
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Chicago, Illinois Wed, May 10, 2000
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
If you really must put the terms together, you're going to need a hyphen after the time (as you have suggested). You might consider just saying that "Our company manages resources well/efficiently."

QUESTION
My original sentence was, "Applicants must decide which projects or service areas they should develop or whether there should be mandatory connections." The better way to write it is probably, "Applicants must decide which projects or service areas they should develop and whether they should have mandatory connections." However, my superiors edited it as follows:
"Applicants must decide such issues as service areas and whether there should be mandatory connections."
This is not correctly written. Is it violating the rule on parallelism? I propose re-writing it:
"Applicants must decide issues such as service areas and mandatory connections."
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Oak Hill, Virginia Wed, May 10, 2000
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I think your final rewrite is a great improvement over what your editors suggested — for reasons of clarity, simplicity, and parallel form. I don't know what any of this means, but I assume I might in context. I'm also not sure about the phrase "decide issues." Do we decide issues? I guess it's OK. Maybe we address them?

QUESTION
I have a friend who insists on using the words "why and for" together in the same sentence. (ex. why you do that for? or why you want to go there for?) If you want to call that a sentence. It drives me insane. He insists that until I show him in writing why this is considered to be an improper sentence he'll continue to use it. Please help.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Somewhere, Florida Thu, May 11, 2000
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I don't know how that "for" gets appended to his questions. I suppose it's a carryover from "What do you do that for?" where the "for" makes sense, being an inside-out (but altogether natural) version of "For what do you do that?" In the sentences you cite, though, the "for" has no purpose and ought to be omitted. The questions work fine without it.

QUESTION
Why is it that 'both of them don't do that' sounds so wrong? I use 'neither of them do ' in preference but is it a rule?
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Somewhere, New Zealand Thu, May 11, 2000
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I think there's some deep seated law of logic that you're obeying here. You would say that "Dr. Davidson doesn't do that" and "Dr. Jacobson doesn't do that," but when you put the two thoughts together, using a pronoun instead of their names, you lean toward the negative pronoun so you can use the positive verb form (instead of the "not do"): "Neither of them do that."

[E-Mail Icon] There must be a clearer way of explaining this, and I will leave an e-mail icon here in case someone can come up with a better explanation.


QUESTION
I work as a technical writer and normally have no problem with grammar, but I was given a draft that included the following:
if any of the required parameters does not exist
I'm unclear on the singular verb in this phrase. I found a discussion of "any" on your page but am still unsure. I think I'll just change this to "if any required parameter does not exist" but I would still like your opinion about that verb. Thanks--
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Plymouth, Minnesota Wed, May 17, 2000
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
If that writer of that clauses wanted us to understand "any" as "any one of . . . ," then he or she should have written it that way. In that context, I think most readers would understand the indefinite pronoun any to be plural, and they would be looking for "do not exist."

QUESTION
I'm familiar with brackets, [ ], but can you tell me what these things are, { }? How should they be used? I have been unable to locate a resource to provide the name or usage guidelines.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Fremont, California Wed, May 17, 2000
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
In the normal preparation of normal text, I don't think these fancy brackets have any use. They are used sometimes in mathematical and scientific/technical writing (where I think they are called "braces"?), but that's another story.

QUESTION
The academic award night at our school is called "Honor's Night". It is my contention that it is incorrect to use the apostrophe. I've looked through the rest of your great site, but my question is too specific. Though it seems perfectly obvious to me, a school full of teachers (K-3) can't reach a consensus.Thanks!
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Valdosta, Georgia Wed, May 17, 2000
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
There's no reason to make that word possessive. Leave out the apostrophe. The apostrophe makes it look like the night belongs to someone named Honor — or the title of a Restoration drama.

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