Dear Abby Reader Suggests Closed Captioning to Improve Reading Skills

One of Dear Abby's readers offered a brilliant suggestion this week to parents who want to improve their children's reading skills. I'm sharing this advice here in case any of my home schooling parent readers missed it.

"Proud Parents" explained to Abby that her children often prefer watching television to reading. In trying to address this problem, she and her husband came up with a good compromise. "We mute the television and have the children read the words instead of listening," she wrote. "It works great! Their reading skills have soared, and I have noticed they are now reading more books than they used to."

This clever mother also noted that she enjoys the quiet time when their family "watches" TV.

If anyone cares to comment on this idea, write to http://www.DearAbby.com or PO Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Subject/verb Agreement Again!

This morning's local newspaper reports that the alcohol producers in this country want the federal government to standardize dietary information on the labels of alcoholic products. http://www.discus.org That may be an excellent idea, but the reporter who wrote the story forgot about grammar agreement when creating this sentence:

The Distilled Spirits Council says that there's no consistent labeling rules for beer, wine and spirits to show consumers the serving size, calories and alcohol content per serving.

PERSISTENT REMINDER FROM GRAMMAR GLITCH: When a sentence begins with the word THERE, the choice of singular or plural verb depends on the SUBJECT, which appears AFTER the verb in this construction. Notice that I've highlighted the word "rules" in red in the above sentence. Because "rules" is plural, the reporter should have chosen THERE ARE instead of THERE IS. This sentence should read as follows:

The Distilled Spirits Council says that there are no consistent labeling rules for beer, wine and spirits to show consumers the serving size, calories and alcohol content per serving.

If the reporter wanted to use THERE IS, the sentence could have been written this way:

The Distilled Spirits Council says there is no consistent labeling (SINGULAR) for beer, wine and spirits to show consumers the serving size, calories and alcohol content per serving.

What About "To Whom It May Concern"?

One of my readers asked yesterday if all of the words in "To Whom It May Concern" should be capitalized. My answer was twofold:



1. If you must use this salutation, all of the words should be capitalized. This is my opinion, and it is also the opinion of the Owl at Purdue, which is a good grammar reference. http://www.owl.english.purdue.edu/ Here is what their website says:



"If you don't know a reader's gender, use a nonsexist salutation, such as 'To Whom It May Concern.'"



2. The other part of my answer was that I NEVER use "To Whom It May Concern," and I do not recommend it in my workshops because it is an antiquated form and because I think the writer should make an effort to call or e-mail to find out the name of the person being addressed.

If this is not possible, the writer should create a title that fits the situation. This title (e.g., Dear Director of Human Resources OR Dear Publications Assistant) should be used in the salutation and also on the envelope. It says the writer took some time to prepare, and it also allows the mail room of a large company to figure out where to deliver the letter.



I like what Rachel Zupek said recently in an article titled "Is 'To whom it may concern' the kiss of death?" This appeared on the careerbuilder.com blog called the Work Buzz. http://www.theworkbuzz.com/career-advice/whom-it-may-concern-kiss-of-death/. Here was her comment:



Most job seekers know that, whenever possible, it's best to address your cover letter to the person who has the power to hire you--or at least the person who can bring you in for an interview.



But, all too often, if a name isn't listed on a job posting, the job seeker resorts to an old-fashioned salutation like, "To Whom It May Concern." What they don't know, is that this approach can sometimes be considered the kiss of death.



Impersonal salutations like "Dir (sic) Sir/Madam" or "To Whom It May Concern" show an employer two things: The first is that you lack the initiative to locate the appropriate contact; the second is that you show a disregard for any research needed to be done on your part. In short, employers will think you're lazy and your cover letter will end up in the trash.



I agree completely with this opinion, and I often say so in business writing workshops. I do have a few comments about the punctuation in this comment, and I will address those in my next blog entry.

Miss Manners Knows Agreement as Well as Manners

Judith Martin's Miss Manners column, which appears in newspapers across the country, offers excellent advice on etiquette with a gentle twist of sarcasm from time to time. Her grammar is as impeccable as her manners. You can find her online at http://www.missmanners.com/.



In an answer to a "Gentle Reader" in today's column, Miss Manners created an interesting sentence while explaining how a high school girl can politely refuse an invitation to a school dance. Here is the sentence:



But everyone, even vulnerable young gentlemen in high school, has to learn to deal with whatever hurt is felt if an invitation is declined or a romantic impulse unrequited.



Miss Manners knows that the word EVERYONE is singular, and so, in spite of the inserted phrase (even vulnerable young gentlemen (PLURAL) in high school), she chose the singular verb HAS, which is absolutely correct.



I might gently suggest to Miss Manners that vulnerable readers, who have a tendency to confuse singular and plural agreement situations, would understand this sentence more quickly if she changed the inserted phrase to singular, too. I am NOT suggesting that the sentence is incorrect--just that it might be made clearer for readers with less grammar experience. Here is how I would word it for those readers:



But everyone, even a vulnerable young gentleman in high school, has to learn to deal with whatever hurt is felt if an invitation is declined or a romantic impulse unrequited.



Have a great week, everyone!

Dodgers Broadcaster Watching Grammar After Fall

Here's a little fun with grammar for a Monday morning: Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully fell recently at his home and was knocked unconscious. When reporters asked how this would affect his spring training workload, Scully answered as follows:

"I'm supposed to cut back on dangling participles, and I'm not allowed to split any infinitives for at least another week."


I hope Scully has no other complications from his fall, and I hope all of you have a great week. By the way, cutting back on dangling participles and split infinitives is good advice for your grammar health in ANY week!

Here are a couple of reminders:

DANGLING PARTICIPLE:

While eating lunch yesterday, my cell phone died. (Really? Does your cell phone eat lunch every day?) This sentence should read as follows:


While I was eating lunch yesterday, my cell phone died.


SPLIT INFINITIVE:

I like to occasionally walk to work.

This sentence reads much more smoothly if OCCASIONALLY does not come between TO and WALK. (TO WALK is an infinitive; that is, TO + VERB.)
It should read this way:


I like to walk to work occasionally.

Agreement Issues

As I continue to proofread that ad brochure I received, I see several agreement issue sentences in Brad Watson's column. Here is one example:



Primary eligibility for borrowing are that you must be 62 years of age or older, own the property, and occupy the property as principal residence.



In this instance, the error might be simply a typo/word omission error, but ELIGIBILITY is singular and takes the singular verb IS. The simplest way to fix this one is to add the word REQUIREMENTS, as follows:



Primary eligibility requirements for borrowing are that you must be at least 62 years of age, own the property, and occupy the property as principal residence.



BONUS POINT: I also simplified the wording to "at least 62 years of age..."



Here is another example from the same article:



State and federal funding has received enormous hits....



This appears to be correct because FUNDING is singular, but state funding is one thing and federal funding is another (as any Southerner would be quick to point out). The sentence should read this way:



Both state funding and federal funding have received enormous hits....



Here is one more agreement problem from the same article, this one involving two related sentences:



Many think that reverse mortgages are a debt builder, but that's not the case when used effectively. It can actually settle debts and can keep seniors in their own home where they want and deserve to be.



The word MORTGAGES is plural, so THEY are debt builders (plural). The second sentence refers to MORTGAGES, so the pronoun should be THEY, not IT. The sentence should read this way:



Many think that reverse mortgages build debt, but that's not the case when they are used effectively. They can actually settle debts and keep seniors in their own homes where they want and deserve to be.



Notice the other changes I made to make this sentence flow more smoothly.

Wedding Couple Share the Same Sister??

As I've mentioned before, I enjoy reading the wedding feature in my local newspaper. It's sort of a mini romance novel each Sunday--a column about how two people met, their engagement, their wedding, and hopefully, happily ever after.



This week's featured wedding article contained a curious sentence. The reporter was explaining how the couple met and said this:



Turns out that Tonorey and Aldrich's sister had attended the same high school in Birmingham and he remembered her photo from the yearbook.



Common sense tells me that Tonorey had a sister and Aldrich had a sister and that the TWO sisters went to the same high school. However, the grammar used by the writer does NOT say that. When you have two names with an apostrophe plus S ONLY on the second name, that means that the noun following belongs to BOTH of those people.



Notice, too, that the writer used the SINGULAR of "sister." Whoops! I am guessing that is not at all what she meant. The sentence should read this way:



Turns out that Tonorey's and Aldrich's sisters had attended the same high school, and Aldrich remembered Tonorey's photo from the yearbook.



BONUS POINT #1: Notice that I added a comma before AND in this sentence because the material that comes after AND (Aldrich remembered Tonorey's photo from the year book) is a complete clause.



BONUS POINT #2: Notice also that I changed the pronouns HE and HER to the names of the people. I did this because it is not clear from the context who HE and HER might be.



I hope this helps the next time you need to create a double possessive. I also hope Tonorey and Aldrich live happily ever after!

Ad Brochure Cannot Keep Its "Its" Straight

I'm still proofreading the ad brochure I mentioned in my last post, and I am wondering why people find it so difficult to distinguish between ITS (belonging to an IT) and IT'S ( short for IT IS or IT HAS). Brent Watson did a column about reverse mortgages and said this:

The nation's elderly population is at it's highest in history and will be that way over the next several years.

Whoops! This sentence calls for the possessive form (IT referring back to the population). The sentence should read this way:

The nation's elderly population is at its highest in history and will be that way over the next several years.

I'll share some more sentence gems from the reverse mortgages column tomorrow, but the Subaru ad at the back of the brochure contains this sentence:

It truly has a flagship sedan that offers better performance, passenger volume, fuel economy, and standard AWD at a better price than it's FWD competitors.

Whoops again! This sentence also calls for the possessive form (IT referring back to the sedan). The sentence should read this way:

It truly has a flagship sedan that offers better performance, passenger volume, fule economy, and standard AWD at a better price than its FWD competitors.

HAS? HAVE? Pick one only, please!

I received a colorful ad brochure magazine in my mailbox this week. It contains many ads for upscale shops in my area. The graphics and the photography are quite attractive, but the feature articles about businesses are riddled (yes, riddled!) with glaring Grammar Glitches. Whoever is writing these pieces is either careless or does not have a good grasp of common writing rules.



I'll share three examples this morning--all from the same short article. The first is a parallel structure issue in this sentence:



Lucy's even has a school spirit department for all the Vestavia Rebel fans and have recently created a Teen Advisory Board.



The writer started the sentence assuming correctly that "Lucy's" is ONE store and used the singular verb HAS. Then, maybe because Lucy's offers "Gifts, Toys and a Whole Lot More," the writer switched to the plural verb HAVE in the second part of the sentence. Hm-mmm. Maybe the writer made this mistake because the word FANS (object of the preposition FOR and NOT the subject for the verb HAVE) was just too close to the verb, and she could not resist.



Whatever the reason, the writer was creating two verb phrases that both refer back to the singular subject LUCY'S. The sentence should read as follows:



Lucy's even has a school spirit department for all the Vestavia Rebel fans and has recently created a Teen Advisory Board.



The same short article contains two more Grammar Glitches. One is a run-on sentence:



When you have the time you will want to go in the store and shop, they have convenient front door parking and specialize in great gifts for every budget.



This is not easy to read because the one comma in the sentence (which should be two sentences) is in the wrong place. The comma should come after the five-word introductory clause WHEN YOU HAVE THE TIME. There should be a period after SHOP. It should read as follows:



When you have the time, you will want to go in the store and shop. They have convenient front door parking and specializde in great gifts for every budget.



The other Grammar Glitch is another comma placement error:



Owner, Tahara Evans is a Vestavia graduate as well as a resident of Vestavia Hills.



The writer needs to make up her comma mind on this one. Either she wants to set off the owner's name with a comma in front of it AND a comma after it OR she should streamline, journalism style, and not set the name off from the OWNER title at all. The sentence should read this way:



Owner Tahara Evans is a Vestavia graduate as well as a resident of Vestavia Hills.



When you put a person's title BEFORE the name, it is not necessary to use the commas. The writer would only have needed commas if she had written it this way:



Tahara Evans, owner of Lucy's, is a Vestavia graduate.

Whoops! As I was proofreading this blog entry, I noticed yet another Grammar Glitch in this same short article. Here it is:

Lucy's reopened in their new location on September of 2009.

Lucy's could reopen ON a specific day in September or IN September. It is not necessary to add the word OF. This sentence should read as follows:

Lucy's reopened in its new location in September 2009.

BONUS POINT: I am sticking with the writer's first usage--that Lucy's is SINGULAR--and changing THEIR to ITS in this sentence!

I'm Not Sure How You ALLUDE a Police Officer

A young shoplifting suspect ran a red light yesterday in Birmingham and caused a crash that killed one person and left another seriously injured. The police had stopped chasing him, but he was still racing away. What a sad situation.

The article in The Birmingham News stated that the suspect was charged with the following:

...felony attempting to allude a police officer, theft, reckless driving and several traffic violations...

I HOPE that the police manual refers to this first charge as "felony attempting to ELUDE a police officer." Just a reminder for all of my Grammar Glitch readers: ALLUDE means to make an indirect reference to something, as in:

The professor often alluded to his own poetry.

The judge would not allow the attorney to allude to the defendant's former crime.

The word ELUDE is needed here. It means to evade or escape from, especially by a daring move. The suspect reference should read as follows:

...felony attempting to elude a police officer, theft, reckless driving and several traffic violations.....

BONUS POINT: I did not add a comma between "driving" and "and" in this series because it was part of a journalism article in a newspaper. Although the comma after "and" in a series is highly recommended in business and literary prose, it is usually omitted by journalists.