Do I Forego? Or Forgo?

Kathy Kemp's column in Sunday's The Birmingham News taught me a word usage distinction I'd never thought about before.

Kathy was congratulating Dr. Regina Benjamin who won a MacArthur Fellowship "genius grant" recently. Kathy wrote:

The South Alabama family practitioner, who regularly forgoes a salary in order to serve uninsured patients in tiny Bayou La Batre,....

I don't use the word "forgo/ forgoes" very often, but the last time I did, I probably spelled it wrong because there is another word "forego" that is similar.

After reading Kathy's wonderful column, I did a little checking and will share my answers with you. For the record, in case you ever need to use either of these words:

FORGO (forgoes, forgoing) means to do without or abstain from.

I try to forgo dessert. Dr. Benjamin forgoes her salary so the clinic can survive.

FOREGO (foregoes, foregone) means to go before or precede.

In a good budget, saving foregoes spending. It is a foregone conclusion that it will rain today.

Dr. Benjamin plans to forgo personal use of the $500,000 grant money she will receive, too. She will use it to help complete the new Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic Building. This is a woman who truly deserves our admiration. The philosophy that foregoes everything she does is quite simple: "It's nice to be needed," she says.

If you'd like to know more about this remarkable person, just GOOGLE her name for all kinds of information.

Bailout? Or Bail Out? It Depends on the Sentence.

The news is full of references to a possible bailout of the financial markets. We should know this week whether or not Congress will vote to bail out the Wall Street financial firms that are melting down on a daily basis.

Certainly, the grammar issue is not as important as the financial one, but I'm no expert on the financial issue. I will point out that bailout (one word) is a noun, or possibly an adjective, as in "This bailout will be costly." or "This bailout legislation needs revision." Bail out (two words) is the verb form (bail = verb, out = adverb that describes the verb), as in "If we bail out these firms, who will be next with a request?"

The online NEWS ALERT from The Wall Street Journal got a little hasty with the grammar this week and posted this sentence:

U.S. lawmakers said a tentative deal has been reached to bailout the troubled financial system. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said bailout deal legislation still needs to be finalized, but that "I think we're there" on a deal.

If you put "to" in front of a word, you should be using the VERB form (creating an infinitive). If you use the word to describe a noun, you should use the ADJECTIVE form (used correctly here). The sentence above should read:

U.S. lawmakers said a tentative deal has been reached to bail out the troubled financial system. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said bailout deal legislation still needs to be finalized, but that "I think we're there" on a deal.

Belk's department store had an advertisement in Sunday's The Birmingham News that used "knockout" incorrectly. Knockout (one word) is a noun and should be used as a subject or object (with "a" or "the" in front of it). In the Belk ad, which was promoting the good cause of Wacoal's "FI(GH)T for the CURE" campaign, this was the sentence:

Help KNOCKOUT breast cancer.

Because this sentence should have used the verb form, it should have read as follows:

Help KNOCK OUT breast cancer.

Right next to the ad was an article about Friday evening's Presidential debate that quoted Fox News commentator William Kristol as saying correctly,

"There was no knockout, and maybe no knockdown, but McCain was on the offensive throughout."

The above sentence was correct because both words were used in NOUN slots. To use the VERB forms correctly, Kristol would have to have said something like this:

Although McCain was on the offensive throughout the debate, he did not knock out or knock down his opponent.

Next time you are in the checkout lane at the grocery store, check out the headlines on all those magazines to see if they are correct.

JEOPARDY! Promotes Good Grammar

On the first section of the popular quiz show JEOPARDY! on September 23, one of the categories was "Grammar." The contestants had to guess the questions for answers about things like adjectives and active and passive voice.

This is a good reminder that, in most of your writing, ACTIVE voice is the best choice. "Bob ate the pie." That was the example given on the show. In this sentence, Bob (subject) is DOING something.

The PASSIVE voice example, which I like to refer to as "going around your elbow to say what you mean" was "The pie was eaten by Bob."

A good way to keep yourself in active voice is to avoid writing phrases like "by Bob" or "by the assistant." If there is a "by" phrase in the sentence, get rid of it and promote its object to subject, as in:

The report was written by her assistant.

Her assistant wrote the report.

I hope that helps. If you are not happy with your level of usage and grammar, one good help can be to watch quiz shows that involve words and thinking. JEOPARDY! is a good one. So is WHEEL OF FORTUNE.

Job Hunt Not Going Well? Check the grammar in your resume.

In my travels to various companies and state agencies to do business writing workshops, I often hear HR managers state that their first "cut" to a pile of resumes is to eliminate all those with spelling or grammar errors. As one manager at a prominent Birmingham company told me recently, "I simply won't consider an applicant whose resume has errors."

Dr. Mildred L. Culp writes a syndicated column about workplace issues that appears in The Birmingham News and Mobile's Press-Register on Sunday mornings. She responded to a reader's letter this week with much the same advice about the importance of good grammar and usage in resumes. See what you think of the writing quality of her reader's letter:

...I would your help in maybe redoing my resume because I have been job hunting for over a year without any luck I keep trying to better my education to help but with no luck so if you have time please give me some advice. I am currently enrolled into the H&R Block tax course but I am not sure where to list it at.

Whew! In her response, Dr. Culp referred to the grammatical errors in the letter (missing word, run-on sentences, incorrect prepositions) as "door closers," and I would certainly agree with that. Here are my suggestions for improving this dreadful paragraph:

I would like your help in redoing my resume because I have been job hunting for more than a year without success. I keep trying to better my education, but I am still unable to get ahead. If you have time, please give me some advice. I am currently enrolled in the H&R Block tax course, but I am not sure where to list that on my resume.

Doesn't that read more smoothly?

If you would like to contact Dr. Culp about help with job search, you can access her website at www.modbee.com/workwise. Her sydicated column originates at the The Modesto Bee in central California. You can e-mail her at culp@workwise.net.

A New Wrinkle in the "Its" Fabric

I see examples of confusion about the proper use of "its" (possessive) without an apostrophe and "it's" (contraction of it+is or it+has) with the apostrophe. Today I came across a new one: putting the apostrophe AFTER the "s," which would not ever be correct.

While visiting the Gulf coast, we surfed the Internet this morning for good prices on a round of golf and came across this sentence during our search:

Perdido Bay Golf Club was the former site of the Pensacola Open for 10 years, and continues to hold its' integrity as a premier championship golf course.

There would NEVER be a good reason for putting an apostrophe AFTER the "s" in "its." Also, as I've pointed out in several previous posts, an apostrophe is NEVER used in the possessive form. Therefore, the sentence should read as follows:

Perdido Bay Golf Club was the former site of the Pensacola Open for 10 years, and continues to hold its integrity as a premier championship golf course.

While we are looking at this sentence, let me also point out that the meaning is a little confusing. I believe the writer meant to suggest that Perdido Bay Golf Club was the site of the Pensacola Open for ten years, not the FORMER site for ten years.

In addition, as I have pointed out in many of my grammar workshops, it is not necessary to put a comma before "and" when what comes after "and" is not a complete thought.

How about rewriting this sentence as follows for better punctuation and greater clarity:

Perdido Bay Golf Club was the site of the Pensacola Open for 10 years and continues to hold its integrity as a premier championship golf course.

Now that we have that straight, I hope you are having a great weekend wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

Still having trouble with "its" and "it's"? You are not the only one.

While shopping on the Internet this week, I came across two websites that have not figured out how to use its and it's correctly. The first was the teavana.com website that offers wonderful, high quality green tea at great prices. In advertising their product, someone wrote:

Green tea has long been praised for it's health benefits.

I agree about the tea, but it's WITH the apostrophe is not the possessive form. It can only be used where you can replace it's with "it is" or "it has." That does not work here. You would not say, "Green tea has long been praised for 'it is' health benefits (or praised for 'it has' health benefits). The sentence should read this way:

Green tea has long been praised for its health benefits.

After ordering my tea, I moved on to hydrangeas. We are thinking about putting some in our side yard, and I wanted to check on the best season for planting them. On a website with beautiful photos and great information, I saw the following sentence about the Annabelle variety of hydrangea:

Annabelle seems to be variable in the quality of it's bloom.

This sentence has the same problem as the "tea" sentence. It is referring to the bloom OF THE Annabelle variety. Therefore, it needs the possessive form to show that the bloom belongs to the Annabelle.

Most of us would never consider putting an apostrophe in HIS, HERS, OURS, THEIRS, YOURS, so why do we persist in putting one in ITS when it is possessive? The sentence should read as follows:

Annabelle seems to be variable in the quality of its bloom.

I hope these examples are helpful. It's (It has) been fun trying to explain this grammar rule and its two different usages.

If you must use "oneself," it is one word. But there's a better way.

Here is a sentence from the Sunday, September 14, edition of The Birmingham News.

A recent survey found that 82 percent of respondents considered paid sick leave for ones self a "very important" employee benefit.

You need to make a whole series of corrections to get this one right. First of all, if you must refer to "oneself," it is a one-word pronoun. It is also rather old-fashioned. Even if you did write it as two words, it would need an apostrophe (one's self).

Second, if you are speaking about respondents (plural), the word oneself (singular) is not the best pronoun choice anyway. You need to use themselves (plural) as the pronoun to refer back to the respondents, so the sentence should read this way:

A recent survey found that 82 percent of respondents considered paid sick leave for themselves a "very important" employee benefit.

I hope you agree that these changes make this a much smoother and clearer sentence.

I also hope you share this blog with your co-workers who might consider themselves fortunate to meet me through you!

A Collection--even of MANY outfits--is still just ONE collection.

This morning's "People" section in The Birmingham News has a short piece about the influence of the punk era from the 1970s on the current New York Fashion week. I suppose that helps prove the theory that there's really nothing totally new in the world.

In referring to Rag & Bone designers, the article says, "Their collection Friday wasn't the only ones inspired by the era's nonconformity."

No matter how many designs Rag & Bone showed, if you refer to their collection, it is still just one collection. The sentence should read:

Their collection Friday wasn't the only one inspired by the era's

nonconformity."

So, if you are out shopping this month for new fall fashions, I hope you will conclude that the world of fashion is a place where you can relive whatever era of your life you like the best. If it doesn't come up this season, just wait one or two!

Hey! Let's have Dessert in the Desert Tonight.

We had dinner with friends last evening at a nice little Italian restaurant and really enjoyed the Shrimp Scampi, the Baked Ziti, and the Chicken Pesto Fettucine.

Before we ordered, I reached for the wine menu, but it turned out to be the "Desert" menu. Because my friend knows about this blog, I pointed out the grammar error, and she smiled. "Let's see," she said, "should we try the Organ Pipe with Sand Cream this time or "stick" with the more familiar Saguaro Sorbet?"

Please remember that "desert" with one "s" is that sandy, dry place where cacti grow. If you own an Italian restaurant and want your customers to try the canoli or the spumoni, I'd strongly suggest you offer a "Dessert" menu.

Fortunately for our waist lines, we didn't have time for canoli or spumoni before heading further dowtown to enjoy the hilarious "Capital Steps" review at the Alabama Theater. They do a terrific job of spoofing all aspects of politics, and with the current zany campaign season, they have plenty of material. Besides, it was a great fundraiser for WBHM, which is still my favorite radio station even though I have to sneak over to Tuscaloosa's 91.5 FM if I'm in the mood for classical music in the daytime.