Good vs. Well

 The words good and well have been in English since its earliest incarnation.

When Beowulf finds the ancient sword in the underwater cave of Grendel’s mother, one of the words used to describe it is good.

Likewise, when the Beowulf poet contemplates the afterlife, he says, “Well [i.e., “in a state of good fortune”] is the person who after death seeks the Lord.”

Entries for both words in the Oxford English Dictionary are extremely long, encompassing numerous shades of meaning, many of them now obsolete.

Both words can function adverbially, but the use of good as an outright adverb declined in British English in the seventeenth century. It resurfaced in the nineteenth century as an Americanism, as noted in Bartlett’s American Dictionary (1859):

English travellers have repeatedly noticed the adverbial use of this word [good]. ‘He cannot read good.’ ‘It does not shoot good.’

Careful twenty-first century speakers and writers—Americans included—take care to avoid using good as an adverb in formal speech and writing, but colloquially (and in writing about sports), good is frequently used in place of well to modify a verb:

Nonstandard: We did pretty good sticking to our dinner plan this week except for one evening. (charlotteobserver.com)
Preferred: We did pretty well sticking to our dinner plan this week except for one evening.

Nonstandard: It doesn’t matter how good you played or how bad you played, did you win or not? (dailyherald.com)
Preferred: It doesn’t matter how well you played or how badly you played, did you win or not?

Nonstandard: He played good the first half of the bowl game, but he didn’t in the second half. (tennesean.com)
Preferred: He played well the first half of the bowl game, but he didn’t in the second half.

Nonstandard: Craig Anderson played great in net and the defense played good all the way out. (newsobserver.com)
Preferred: Craig Anderson played extremely well in net and the defense played well all the way out.

Apart from the clear situation in which well is preferable to good when modifying a finite verb, idiomatic uses exist in which good can be used adverbially without incurring disdain.

Idioms with good that function adverbially:

as good as
He as good as admitted that he was lying.
(“virtually, practically, in effect”)

good and
The principal was good and mad.
(“very, entirely”)

good-paying
Some speakers, knowing that we mustn’t say that a job “pays good,” go out of their way to change the acceptable idiom “good-paying” to the odd-sounding “well-paying.”

Note this sentence from a site called “geteducated”:

With only a minimal amount of classes and no previous experience, you can land this well-paying job.

Seems to me the sentence would sound more “educated” this way:

With only a minimal number of classes and no previous experience, you can land this good-paying job.

a good many
We’ve been glorifying wealth as the road to happiness for a good many years now.

Merriam-Webster defines “a good many” as “a lot,” but in the phrase, good modifies the adjective many—ergo, it’s being used adverbially.

sumber

Read More

Loose or Lose?

There's no formula for what I do," said King, who added that if he tried to analyze and formulate his approach to writing, he might loose his touch.

The word "loose" in this quotation from a site about publishing is incorrectly used. King might lose his touch.

The words lose and loose are often confused. Here are examples to illustrate their uses.

"Lose" is a verb.

The Cubs didn't lose today's game.
They lost the one yesterday.
They have lost three in a row.
I don't like it when they are losing.

The word "loose" can be used as more than one part of speech.

"Loose" can be a verb:

Loose the dog from its chain.
The man loosed his pit bull on the intruder.
We have loosed all the raccoons from the traps.
The activists are loosing the monkeys from the lab.

"Loose" can be an adjective:

He prefers to wear loose clothing when exercising.
This screw is loose.

"Loose" can be an adverb:

The rancher turned the horses loose.

One more thing: The two words have different pronunciations. The "s" in "lose" has the sound /z/. The "s" in "loose" has the sound /s/.

sumber

A common writing error is the use of loose in a context that calls for the verb lose.

As a verb, loose means, “to set free; to release from restraint.” For example, “The Kaffirs loosed the dogs before seeing the elephants.” 

Lose, on the other hand, means “to become deprived of,” “to miss from one’s possession.” For example, “They lose their keys at least once every day.”

I’m never surprised to find the loose/lose error in such contexts as fan fiction, social media, or readers’ comments on news sites. I am, however, disappointed when I find it in texts written by journalists, medical professionals, and others who boast university credentials or professional expertise.

Most of the errors I found online occurred with the idioms “to lose one’s way” and “to lose sight of, but it also appears in free constructions:

INCORRECT: Everyone would like to be happy. Sometimes we loose our way or forget how happiness feels.—Therapist advertising in Psychology Today directory, graduate of Rutgers University.
CORRECT : Everyone would like to be happy. Sometimes we lose our way or forget how happiness feels.

INCORRECT: And if we do loose our way, it is easy to ask ourselves, “Where are we going, what is our purpose?”—Graduate student essay, University of Michigan.
CORRECT : And if we do lose our way, it is easy to ask ourselves, “Where are we going, what is our purpose?”

INCORRECT: When this happened [blockage of blood vessels] the neutrophils seemed to loose their way.—Science Daily, report on study done at University of London.
CORRECT : When this happened [blockage of blood vessels] the neutrophils seemed to lose their way.

INCORRECT: Take responsibility for your learning, don’t loose sight of what you want to learn, resolve or get out of therapy, and don’t talk about material you know is irrelevant.—Clinical psychologist offering his services.
CORRECT : Take responsibility for your learning, don’t lose sight of what you want to learn, resolve or get out of therapy, and don’t talk about material you know is irrelevant.

INCORRECT: It’s easy to get caught up in project details and loose sight of the bigger picture.—Vanderbilt University.
CORRECT : It’s easy to get caught up in project details and lose sight of the bigger picture.

INCORRECT: When you loose your concentration, start the exercise again from the beginning.—Meditation Workshop.
CORRECT : When you lose your concentration, start the exercise again from the beginning.

INCORRECT: He said the audit showed Lincoln’s basic business had been loosing money for two years…—The Washington Post.
CORRECT :  He said the audit showed Lincoln’s basic business had been losing money for two years

Read More

When to Use a Colon: Rules and Examples

The colon can be a tricky punctuation mark. You’ve probably grasped periods, question marks, exclamation points, and commas – but the rules surrounding colons may seem a bit trickier.

There are two main ways to use colons:

• To introduce an item or a series of items.
• To replace a semi-colon between two independent clauses: the second clause should explain or expand on the first in some way.

As you can see, I’ve used both types of colon above.

Colons can trip writers up, though. Perhaps you’re not sure whether to use a capital letter after a colon, or you’re unsure how to structure a list of items that follows a colon.

We’re going to go through some key rules that will hopefully clear things up.

Rule #1: Use a Colon to Introduce One or More Items, When Punctuation is Required

Here are some examples of colons being used correctly, preceding an item or multiple items when the sentence requires punctuation at that point.

I needed just one thing: courage.

(Not “I needed just one thing courage.”)

Bring the following equipment: a torch, warm clothing, and waterproof boots.

(Not “Bring the following equipment a torch, warm clothing, and waterproof boots.”)

However, you should not use a colon if the sentence does not require punctuation.

For instance, the following sentences are correct without a colon:

I needed courage.

(Not “I needed: courage.”)

You should bring a torch, warm clothing, and waterproof boots.

(Not “You should bring: a torch, warm clothing, and waterproof boots.”)

Rule #2: Use a Colon Before Listing Items with Bullet Points

It you’re listing items line by line, you should use a colon to introduce the list – even if that same colon wouldn’t be required for a list in sentence form. Here’s an example:

You should bring:

• A torch
• Warm clothing
• Waterproof boots

Rule #3: Be Consistent With Punctuation of Bullet Points

When using a colon to introduce a list in this way, capitalization and ending punctuation aren’t always necessary.

If each item on the list is a complete sentence, you should always capitalize the first letter and finish with a period (or question mark or exclamation point, if appropriate). In other cases, though, it’s up to you whether or not you want to capitalize and use periods – just be consistent.

You should bring:

• A torch.
• Warm clothing!
• Waterproof boots.

This example is consistent because each item ends with a punctuation mark: either a period or an exclamation point.

Rule #4: Carefully Consider Capitalizing a Complete Sentence After a Colon

Some editors believe that it’s always best to capitalize a complete sentence that comes after a colon, like this:

He asked for help: He got it.

Others believe that you should generally avoid capitalizing in this way, instead preferring:

He asked for help: he got it.

Some would say that you don’t need to capitalize if the clause after the colon bears a close relationship to the clause before the colon, but would capitalize a general or formal statement, such as:

Remember what your mother taught you: If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

In these cases, it’s best to either consult the style guide for the publication you’re writing for, or to create a consistent style guide for your own work.

There are a couple of cases in which you should always capitalize the sentence after a colon, though.

When it’s a Complete or Full Sentence Quotation

The chair made an announcement: “This meeting will have to be postponed.”

In that example, “This” has to be capitalized because it’s the start of a full sentence quotation.

When the Information After the Colon Requires Two (or More) Sentences

The rules were inflexible: No running in the corridors. No shouting. Always walk on the right.

In this case, it makes sense to capitalize the first “No” because it’s the first of three full sentences.

Rule #5: Use a Colon to Introduce an Extended Quotation

Whether you’re writing an essay, a non-fiction book, or a blog post, there’ll be times when you want to quote someone else at some length (more than a sentence or two). This means using a “block quotation” that goes in its own standalone paragraph. This should normally be preceded by a colon, and should be indented from the left margin – some style guides also indent from the right margin.

 In 26 Feel-Good Words, Michael wrote:

Some writers neglect the power of emotion when communicating their ideas, valuing logic more than others do, and assuming that everyone thinks like they do – that careful reasoning is enough to convince readers and make points. But even the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who was no enemy of reason, taught that stimulating emotion in your audience can be the key to persuading them.

Rule #6: Use a Colon After the Salutation in a Business Letter (Depending on Where You Live)

In American and Australian usage, the salutation (greeting) should be followed by a colon in formal correspondence – this applies whether you’re using someone’s surname or first name:

Dear Mr Richardson:

Informal or personal correspondence uses a comma in place of this colon.

In British English, though, you should use a comma after the salutation – never a colon – for formal business letters as well as for informal letters.

Sumber: https://www.dailywritingtips.com/when-to-use-a-colon/

Read More

5 Problems with Parenthesis

Parenthesis is the strategy of setting a word, phrase, or clause off from a sentence to interject additional information into that statement. Despite the name, parenthesis can be accomplished with two commas or a pair of dashes as well as with a brace of parentheses. However, several problems can occur when writers attempt to parenthesize: The punctuation employed is not appropriate, the parenthesis is not framed with complementary punctuation, the parenthesis is misplaced in the sentence, the inclusion of the parenthesis is grammatically faulty, or what appears to be a parenthetical element is in fact something else. The following sentences illustrate these five problems respectively.

1. He took it from me, stole it, really, years ago.

Really is a parenthesis subordinate to “stole it” (a parenthesis can follow rather than interrupt the phrase or clause it supplements), and “stole it, really” is a parenthesis subordinate to “He took it from me years ago,” so a hierarchy of punctuation should be employed to clarify the sentence organization. Because dashes are more emphatic than commas, they should assume the major parenthetical role; the comma separating “stole it” and really remains as a marker of the secondary parenthesis: “He took it from me—stole it, really—years ago.”

2. Extra money and facilities must be focused on, not away from the disadvantaged.

The writer intended “Extra money and facilities must be focused on the disadvantaged” to be the main clause, with “not away from” as the parenthesis, but the second of a tandem team of punctuation marks is missing: “Extra money and facilities must be focused on, not away from, the disadvantaged.” (Often, a main clause or a parenthesis also lacks one or more words because the writer failed to be vigilant about making the two sentence elements complementary, rendering the sentence grammatically flawed; search for “interpolated coordination” on this site for posts about this related issue.)

3. Attacks relating to phishing fraud attempts have been very common in recent times (e.g., someone posing as an organization’s CEO emails its chief financial officer to request an urgent payment transfer).

A parenthesis should be directly adjacent to the element of the sentence it pertains to. This parenthesis relates to “attacks relating to fraud attempts,” not to “recent times,” so it should immediately follow the former phrase: “Attacks relating to phishing fraud attempts (e.g., someone posing as an organization’s CEO emails its chief financial officer to request an urgent payment transfer) have been very common in recent times.”

4. The financial services industry has raised concerns related to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s (BCFP) authority to take action against financial institutions.

When using a term that will be subsequently referred to by an acronym or initialism, introduce the abbreviation in parentheses immediately following the spelled-out term. However, avoid doing so when using the term possessively and following the parenthesis with a noun that is a referent of the possessive; recast the sentence so that the possessive form of the term is not employed: “The financial services industry has raised concerns related to the authority of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP) to take action against financial institutions.”

5. But the battle has not been lost—the battlefield keeps changing and continuing to evolve—as one door closes, another is opened.

This sentence is punctuated as if “the battlefield keeps changing and continuing to evolve” is a parenthetical statement interrupting the framing sentence, but the statement that remains when the parenthesis is omitted is “But the battle has not been lost[;] as one door closes, another is opened.” The resulting sentence makes sense, but when the omitted phrase is reinserted, the final clause reads as if it is an offshoot of the reinstated phrase, rather than a parenthetical phrase interrupting the two clauses. In other words, this sentence’s syntax does not support a parenthetical phrase.

Each dash, by itself, correctly signals that a shift in syntax is imminent (another function of the dash besides parenthesis), but so that the two dashes are not misinterpreted as bracketing a parenthetical comment, another punctuation mark should replace one dash or the other; any of the following solutions are suitable:

A. “But the battle has not been lost—the battlefield keeps changing and continuing to evolve; as one door closes, another is opened.”
B. “But the battle has not been lost—the battlefield keeps changing and continuing to evolve. As one door closes, another is opened.”
C. “But the battle has not been lost: The battlefield keeps changing and continuing to evolve—as one door closes, another is opened.”
D. “But the battle has not been lost. The battlefield keeps changing and continuing to evolve—as one door closes, another is opened.”

Any of these revisions will resolve the issue; I prefer either of the two that result in two sentences: examples B or D.

Sumber: https://www.dailywritingtips.com/5-problems-with-parenthesis/

Read More

7 Flawed Sentences Redeemed by Commas

The simple insertion, deletion, or relocation of a comma (or two) can alter a sentence’s meaning, so when writing or editing a sentence, carefully analyze it to determine whether the punctuation (or lack thereof) serves its intended meaning or whether it creates grammatical confusion. The following examples illustrate the significant difference punctuation can make; discussion after each sentence explains the problem and provides a solution.

1. Relaxed capital and leverage requirements are favorable to depository institutions as they allow institutions to put more of their capital to work and may even provide consumers with more access to credit.

Punctuation helps readers recognize the meaning of a word that, in identical syntactical arrangements, can have distinct meanings. In this sentence, as appears to function as a synonym for while in the sense of referencing a simultaneous occurrence. However, the clause that follows as is an explanation—here, as is a synonym for because—and is therefore a dependent clause, which means that it must be preceded by punctuation: “Relaxed capital and leverage requirements are favorable to depository institutions, as they allow institutions to put more of their capital to work and may even provide consumers with more access to credit.”

2. It is a never-ending campaign to stay in step with adversaries, and wherever possible, anticipate their next move.

In this sentence, the intended function of the commas is to set off a parenthetical phrase, but the placement of the first comma erroneously suggests that its purpose is to separate two independent clauses. The parenthetical phrase is “wherever possible,” not “and wherever possible”—test this fact by temporarily omitting each alternative from the sentence and seeing which statement is still grammatically valid—so the first comma must follow, not precede, and: “It is a never-ending campaign to stay in step with adversaries and, wherever possible, anticipate their next move.” (Because the phrase that follows and is not an independent clause—there is no subject—no additional comma is required before the conjunction.)

3. I consider movies, such as Get Out, examples of artwork that provoke discussion about our society.

The commas bracketing “such as Get Out” imply that that phrase is expendable—that the sentence is valid without it. But the writer is referring to a category of movies that the film Get Out exemplifies in some quality, so that phrase is essential to the sentence and therefore cannot be treated as a parenthetical phrase: “I consider movies such as Get Out examples of artwork that provokes discussion about our society.” (If movies were qualified with an adjective, as in the phrase “movie that allegorically pertain to racism,” then “such as Get Out” would be valid as a parenthetical phrase because it suggests an example of a specified category of film, rather than just one film in the all-encompassing category of “movies.”)

4. Getting the right information, to the right people, at the right time, is intrinsically valuable to any organization.

The segmentation of the first three phrases in this sentence is unnecessary and obtrusive. The writer of this sentence assumes that punctuation is required to distinguish the three factors referenced sequentially in this sentence, but the prepositions to and at serve this function: “Getting the right information to the right people at the right time is intrinsically valuable to any organization.”

5. Directors can’t get the information they need to make critical decisions because the company’s ability to effectively measure and report on key risks is limited.

If this sentence continued after limited, with an alternative explanation for why directors can’t get the information they need (following a semicolon), then the phrase “because . . . is limited” would be essential to the sentence. But in the sentence as written, “because . . . is limited” is a subordinate (and therefore nonessential) clause, and it should be set off from the main clause (“directors . . . critical decisions”): “Directors can’t get the information they need to make critical decisions, because the company’s ability to effectively measure and report on key risks is limited.”

6. It’s kind of scary actually.

When an adverb appearing at the end of a sentence is intrinsic to the sentence, do not include intervening punctuation, as in “We visit them annually.” (Without annually, the sentence “We visit them” would not convey the intended information—the frequency with which they visit—so annually is essential to the statement.) But in this case, actually merely serves as an informal form of emphasis—it merely strengthens the admission but does not add meaning—so it is set off from the main clause: “It’s kind of scary, actually.” (Also, actually should be set off if it precedes the main clause—“Actually, it’s kind of scary”—but no punctuation is necessary if the adverb is inserted within the clause: “It’s actually kind of scary.”)

7. What’s different is they came of age at a difficult time.

The subject of this sentence is they, and what comes before is a dependent introductory clause, which must be set off from the main clause by a comma: “What’s different is, they came of age at a difficult time.”

Sumber

Read More

3 Types of Sentence Errors Resulting from Missing Articles

In each of the following sentences, lack of an article (a, and, or the) results in a grammatically flawed sentence. Discussion after each example, followed by a revision, identifies the problem.

1. In 2006, The Simpsons television show paid tribute to the 1974 Oakland A’s in an episode.

The first instance of the article the, as an element of a composition title, cannot do double duty as an article that performs a grammatical function in the sentence, and the statement must be revised so that it includes such an article: “In 2006, an episode of the television show The Simpsonspaid tribute to the 1974 Oakland A’s.” (However, if “television show” were omitted from the original sentence, no further revision would be necessary.)

2. During our discussion, we’ll hear insights from a chief financial officer, investment banker, and others.

“Chief financial officer” requires the article that precedes it, while the plural pronoun others does not need one. But “investment banker” is left in the lurch; it cannot share the article that precedes the first item in the list: “During our discussion, we’ll hear insights from a chief financial officer, an investment banker, and others.” (Even if a specific designation were to replace others, an article would have to precede each item: “During our discussion, we’ll hear insights from a chief financial officer, investment banker, and chief risk officer” implies that one person with three roles, rather than three people who each have one role, is being identified.)

3. Live Nation bought a majority stake in Austin City Limits Music Festival, Bonnaroo, BottleRock, Lollapalooza, Governor’s Ball, and Electric Daisy Carnival.

Here, some of the listed event names do not require an article, but those that end with a word describing a type of event do: “Live Nation bought a majority stake in the Austin City Limits Music Festival, Bonnaroo, BottleRock, Lollapalooza, the Governors Ball, and the Electric Daisy Carnival.”

https://www.dailywritingtips.com/3-types-of-sentence-errors-resulting-from-missing-articles/

Read More

Words Ending in “-ly” Aren’t Always Adverbs

Ask anyone to name a distinguishing characteristic of an adverb, and the reply might be that such a word ends with -ly. Although that is often true, some adverbs, such as fast, lack the ending. For this reason, they are known as flat adverbs. In addition, many words ending in -ly aren’t adverbs.

Many adjectives end in -ly (which means—and is cognate with—“like”), including some that are also adjectives in their “flat” form. For example, dead and deadly are both adjectives. Deadly may look like an adverb, but one cannot say that one person stared deadly at another person; a correct treatment would be to employ deadly as an adjective and use the noun form of stared: “He gave her a deadly stare.” A more prominent error is to use timely as if it were an adverb, as in “She was instructed to complete the report timely.” But it is an adjective, and should be treated as such, as in “She was instructed to complete the report in a timely manner.”

Some words ending in -ly serve as both adjectives and adverbs, such as friendly, likely, and stately. (Other adjectives that look like adverbs but serve only the former function include costly and worldly.) Others, which do not have root words, include earlyand ugly (both adjectives and adverbs) and burly and grisly (which are only adjectives). Occasionally, an adjective ending in -ly can be converted into an adverb by changing the ending to -lily, but words like friendlily and uglily are rare in writing and almost unheard of in speech.

Many adjectives are merely nouns referring to people and with -ly attached, as in the case of brotherly, neighborly, and scholarly, or pertaining to time (for example, monthly) or direction (for example, northerly). Note that many other nouns also end in -ly, such as assembly (based on the verb assemble) and bully (where the ending is a result of the pronunciation of the source word from another language), and some verbs do, too, such as complyand reply.

Sumber

Read More

Confusion of a Thing and Its Name

Revise each of the following sentences so that the name of the thing, not the thing itself, is defined.

1. He coined the term “the Silk Road,” a network of Eurasian roads and trade routes.

2. Polygyny translates to “having many wives.”

3. We were introduced to the precocious child Prof, short for “Professor.”

4. Karaoke, which means “empty orchestra,” is singing along to a recording of a song in which the original vocals have been deleted.

5. A resume, or a CV (which means “curriculum vitae”), basically a more detailed resume, is the most important document in your job search.

Answers and Explanations

1.
Original: He coined the term “the Silk Road,” a network of Eurasian roads and trade routes.
Correct : He coined the term “the Silk Road” to refer to a network of Eurasian roads and trade routes.

The term “the Silk Road” is a not a network of Eurasian roads and trade routes; it is the name for such a network.

2.
Original: Polygyny translates to “having many wives.”
Correct : “Polygyny” translates to “having many wives.”

The word polygyny is used to describe a concept. However, the concept is not translated to “having many wives”; the word for it is so translated. (The correction encloses the word in quotation marks because the tool for constructing these exercises does not allow italics for the sample sentences; the word should be italicized rather than set in quotation marks.)

3.
Original: We were introduced to the precocious child Prof, short for “Professor.”
Correct : We were introduced to the precocious child Prof, whose nickname is short for “Professor.”

The child is not an abbreviation of Professor; his or her name is. Here, too, Professor should be italicized rather than framed in quotation marks.

4.
Original: Karaoke, which means “empty orchestra,” is singing along to a recording of a song in which the original vocals have been deleted.
Correct : Karaoke (the name means “empty orchestra”) is singing along to a recording of a song in which the original vocals have been deleted.
Alterna.: Karaoke — the word is Japanese for “empty orchestra” — is singing along to a recording of a song in which the original vocals have been deleted.

The name for karaoke, not the activity itself, means “empty orchestra.”

5.
Original: A resume, or a CV (which means “curriculum vitae”), basically a more detailed resume, is the most important document in your job search.
Correct : A resume, or a CV (the initials stand for “curriculum vitae”), basically a more detailed resume, is the most important document in your job search.

The initials for the document, not the document itself, represent the term “curriculum vitae.”

Sumber

Read More

How Long Is A Novel?

Before the advent of ebooks, modern fiction writers concerned themselves chiefly with two lengths: long (novels) and short (short stories).

With the advent of digital publishing, the termsnovella and novelette have taken on a new significance.

In the 17th century, the word novel referred to a book-length story shorter than a romance. Indeed, the English word novel derives from an Italian word for a short story: novella, a term Boccaccio used in reference to the short stories collected in the Decameron. At first, novel andnovella were used interchangeably in English to describe a short fictitious narrative. Nowadays, anovel is longer than a novella:

novel noun: an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience through a connected sequence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting.

How long is “considerable length”?

On average, a printed novel contains about 80,000 words. For some genres, like mystery, the minimum may go as low as 40,000 in the guidelines for some contests, but 60,000 is probably a more marketable length.

In the old days, writers estimated word count by figuring 250 words per page. According to this way of calculating, a 70,000-word book corresponds to about 175 printed pages; one with 125,000 words, 312 pages. Now, word processors keep a running total for the writer.

NOTE: A printed paperback may have as many as 400 words per page, depending upon font size and book dimensions.

Length matters in a book that has a spine to which pages must be attached. Print publishers rarely accept books that are excessively short or excessively long. Digital publishing, on the other hand, is not constrained by size.

Although popular wisdom suggests that people who read ebooks prefer them short, Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, analyzed a thousand of his best-selling books “across all genres and categories” and discovered that the top fifty sellers published via Smashwords average 106,000 words in length.

Some readers love long novels; others don’t. Novelists who publish digitally can help readers find what they are looking for by categorizing their works according to length:

novel: 60,000 words and above
novella: 20,000 to 50,000 words
novelette: 7,500 to 20,000 words

Here are five recent fiction titles and the number of pages they have in paperback:

Sycamore Row, John Grisham (642 pages)
The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd paperback (384 pages)
Concealed in Death, Nora Roberts/J. D. Robb (384 pages)
Reviva,l Stephen King (416 pages)
The Burning Room, Michael Connelly (400 pages)

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-long-is-a-novel/

Read More

Verb Review #1: May and Might

The auxiliaries may and might are often used interchangeably. Most of the time, interchanging them doesn’t seem to matter.

Strictly speaking, might is the past form of may, but may often occurs in past tense constructions, and might is used in sentences about the present or future.

Both may and might are used when the speaker is not sure about something:

I may watch a movie tonight.

I might watch a movie tonight.

The use of may in the first sentence implies a stronger possibility than might, but for many listeners, the choice between may and might barely registers in this context.

May and might are used to show that something has possibly happened in the recent or distant past.

They’re late. They may have forgotten our address.

They never arrived last night. They might have forgotten our address.

The may in the first sentence suggests that the people are still in transit, their arrival remains imminent, and there’s still a possibility that they have not forgotten the address.

The might in the second sentence places the expected arrival in a more distant past and the forgetting of the address is more likely to be past as well.

Again, most speakers would probably not notice if may and might were interchanged in these contexts.

There is, however, a context in which the use of may in place of might leaps out as glaringly incorrect. Here are examples, with corrections.

INCORRECT: His letter from New York may have been too late to prevent a dissection, but Kroeber had been passionate about respecting Ishi’s wishes for a proper burial.—Ishi’s Brain, W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.
CORRECT : His letter from New York might have been too late to prevent a dissection, but Kroeber had been passionate about respecting Ishi’s wishes for a proper burial.

The letter was too late. The dissection was performed. The only correct choice is the past tense form, might.

INCORRECT: Seattle school shooting killed one — but it may have been much worse if not for ‘hero’ guard with pepper-spray—Headline, National Post.
CORRECT : Seattle school shooting killed one — but it might have been much worse if not for ‘hero’ guard with pepper-spray.

The attacker was in fact prevented from killing another person.

INCORRECT: If not for Joseph’s bravery and quick actions, his brother may have been killed.—Do The Right Thing site.
CORRECT : If not for Joseph’s bravery and quick actions, his brother might have been killed.

Thanks to Joseph’s actions, the brother was not killed. May suggests that the brother was perhaps killed.

INCORRECT: Another child may have been the next victim if it hadn’t been for a woman [who alerted police].—Announcer on Inside Edition.
CORRECT : Another child might have been the next victim if it hadn’t been for a woman who alerted police.

The perpetrator was apprehended before he could attack another child.

Distinctions between may and might continue to weaken, but for the present, careful speakers may wish to pay attention to their use with constructions relating to the past.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/verb-review-11-may-and-might/

Read More

Verb Mistakes #1: Heard on Television

Quite apart from stylistic errors involving redundancy and inapt word choice, television can be a rich source of grammatical errors. Here are four examples.

INCORRECT: Gin was drunken out of necessity, not choice.—Documentary narrator
CORRECT: Gin was drunk out of necessity, not choice.

The forms of the verb drink are:
Present: drink/drinks
Simple past: drank
Past participle: (has/have) drunk

Drunken is an adjective: “He has a reputation as a drunken, lazy lay-about.”

Drunk is also used an adjective: “He was drunk as a lord.”

INCORRECT: [She] has announced she wasrunning for Senate yesterday. —News reporter
CORRECT: [She] announced yesterday she isrunning for Senate.
CORRECT: [She] has announced she is running for Senate.

“Has announced” is a verb in the present perfect tense. Adverbs of time like yesterday are not used with this tense. Even if the announcement was made in the past, the fact of the candidate’s campaign for the Senate exists in the present.

INCORRECT: [Context: Three meat inspectors were murdered at a sausage factory.] Each of them were shot several times.”—Radio announcer
CORRECT: Each of them was shot several times.”

Each is singular and requires a singular verb.

INCORRECT: What kind of things would they bein the market of buying?
CORRECT: What kind of things would they be in the market to buy?

There is no hard and fast rule that would guide an ESL speaker to choose an infinitive over a participle in this construction. There are, however, certain abstract nouns that are always followed by an infinitive. For example: ability,desire, need, wish, attempt, failure, opportunity,chance, and intention. In the expression “to be in the market,” market is abstract.

Possible responses to the question “What are you in the market to buy?” might be “I’m in the market to buy a house” OR “I’m in the market for a house.

Sumber

Read More

Usage Mistakes #1

The sentences below illustrate various types of mistakes in wording born from (not “borne out of”) ignorance or carelessness.

1. All the progress we have made to educate people about the hazards of smoking may be for not.

The writer, perhaps unfamiliar with the termnaught, assumed that the last word of the sentence is intended to denote negation rather than futility: “All the progress we have made to educate people about the hazards of smoking may be for naught.”

2. President Obama traveled to Cuba for a historical visit.

A historical visit is one that occurs in history, though one should not refer to a visit this way;historical is superfluous. The writer meant to state that the visit is historic; that word means “of significance to history” (though it sometimes refers simply to something established or existing from the past): “President Obama traveled to Cuba for a historic visit.”

(But shouldn’t it be “an historic visit”? No, because the correct pronunciation of historic is to sound the h, though many people, including me, believe it is easier to use an and treat the first letter of the following word as silent.)

3. His speech was a load of dribble.

Some people seem to think that references such as the one here are to someone’s writing or utterance being worth no more than drool, but the correct word for foolish or silly talk (which can refer to slavering but is etymologically unrelated) is drivel: “His speech was a load of drivel.”

4. The list is virtually a whose-who of prominent community members.

The pronoun whose has no place in this sentence. The phrase “who’s who” (the contraction is of “who is”) refers to a roster of notable people or things or summaries about them, or to such a group collectively: “The list is virtually a who’s who of prominent community members.” This usage—without a connecting hyphen—stems from publications with titles modeled on the phrase, such as Who’s Who in American Art.

5. Where does the US Jewish population predominately live?

Predominate is a verb; the correct adjectival and adverbial forms are predominant andpredominantly: “Where does the US Jewish population predominantly live?”

Sumber

Read More

3 Cases of Too Many Commas

This post illustrates several types of sentences that incorporate excessive punctuation. Each example is followed by a discussion and a revision.

1. Much of what happened between the moment Jones sat on a bench to enjoy the view and police opened fire and killed him, has been the subject of contentious debate.

A verb is preceded by a comma only when that comma is one of a pair that frames a parenthetical phrase: “Much of what happened between the moment Jones sat on a bench to enjoy the view and police opened fire and killed him has been the subject of contentious debate.” (An example of the type of exception noted is “Much of what happened between the moment Jones sat on a bench to enjoy the view and police opened fire and kill him, and why the police reacted the way they did, has been the subject of contentious debate.”)

2. The stakes are high because, without effective management of regulatory risks, organizations are reactive, at best, and noncompliant, at worst, with all of the attendant consequences.

The punctuation bracketing the phrases “at best” and “at worst” is optional, but because they, in combination with the required commas that set off the sentence’s parenthetical phrase and its subordinate clause, create a cluttered effect, it’s best to omit the discretionary ones: “The stakes are high because, without effective management of regulatory risks, organizations are reactive at best and noncompliant at worst, with all of the attendant consequences.” (Note that in the case of “at worst,” only the preceding comma can be deleted, because the one that follows it serves double duty, setting off the subordinate clause as well.)

3. He would replace conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.

This sentence is punctuated as if “Justice Antonin Scalia” is an appositive of conservative—that is, as if the phrase and the word are equivalent to each other—meaning that the parenthetical phrase could be omitted without affecting the validity of the sentence’s grammatical structure. However, the result would be the flawed statement “He would replace conservative, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.”

Conservative is simply part of a descriptor providing additional information about the person named; therefore, no intervening punctuation is necessary: “He would replace conservative justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.” (Note that because the descriptor is “conservative justice,” not simply conservative, justice is not a job title and is therefore not capitalized.)

A revision of the sentence that incorporates an appositive and thus validates the parenthetical punctuation, is “He would replace a conservative justice, Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.” (Here, “Antonin Scalia” —and the framing punctuation—could be omitted without damage to the sentence.)

Sumber

Read More

How Long Should a Sentence Be?

A few years ago, I wrote a post titled “How Long Should a Paragraph Be?” which argued that various pronouncements that dictate paragraph length (expounded for the benefit of beginning writers, who presumably are aided by the introduction of a circumscribed formula for success in composition) should be ignored in favor of a commonsense approach to organizing paragraphs according to the ideas expressed within; the correct answer, I argued, is that a paragraph has to be long enough to reach its end, meaning that a paragraph can be as short or as long as is required for a writer to express an idea.

Did the preceding paragraph seem too long? It’s not especially lengthy, but if it exhausted you to read it, that’s because it consists of a single sentence that is more than a hundred words long. Although I am known to write long, complex sentences, that one, which I deliberately stretched out to an excessive extent, is an example of a statement that could use some reorganization.

How long should a sentence be? Like a paragraph, it should be long enough to reach its end, but, as with a paragraph, that objective should be balanced with aesthetic considerations. A sentence can consist of one word or be infinitely long, but what will serve the reader while expressing a complete thought?

Generally, it’s more productive to provide a sequence of sentences of naturally varied length than to dictate how many words one is permitted to use in a given sentence; a succession of sentences of equal or similar length will distract readers, as will a series with wildly divergent word counts. Take care not to repeatedly overwhelm sentences with multiple forms of parenthesis (interjecting words or phrases—or entire sentences, for that matter, using commas, parentheses, or dashes). The previous sentence includes the three basic forms, but note that, aside from a single semicolon, I have refrained from introducing anything more complicated into this paragraph.

Don’t overthink the issue, of course. Write naturally, but when revising your work, attend to sentence length and combine or separate sentences that seem too abrupt or unwieldy (unless that is the effect you want to create). If you want a ballpark figure, go with a range of twenty to twenty-five words as a benchmark, though average length will vary depending on the literacy of your readership.

Sumber

Read More

How to Get Your Writing on the Road to Being Read and Spread

Know your audience. Know your product cold. Research. Nail the headline. Write plainly, in the language of your audience. Research more. Write great bullets. Craft a great offer. Include a strong call to action. Et cetera.

These elements are the standard. They get the job done.

But this little truth I’m about to tell you is the foundation that makes all the rest of it work, and it’s the answer to getting you on the road to getting your writing read and shared.

So, try this on for size …

Every sentence you write should make them want to read the next sentence you write.

Simple, huh?

Yes, this entire business of creating content in order to build an audience (people who will potentially buy from you) can be boiled down to that stupidly simple statement.

The headline only exists to get the first sentence read.

The first sentence only exists to get the second sentence read. And so on, pulling your reader right on down through your page, story, bullets, and call to action.

It’s that simple. And it’s that difficult.

The secret is in the line.

A great headline is followed by a single, compelling sentence that engages the reader’s interest. And then another, followed by another, and another.

You won’t be able to pull this off all the time. Hell, you won’t even pull it off most of the time.

But if you keep the raw horsepower of The Single Line in your mind as you work, you might make something good enough to be read and shared … maybe even shared widely.

This is foundational because even if you employ every bullshit “content distribution” trick and tip in the book, and your writing is bad, it won’t get you anywhere.

Write well. Line by line.

If you’re able to work in this way, all of those lines will begin to add up, and then they’ll go to work for you, day and night, for a long, long time on this thing we call the internet.

So yes, write urgent, unique, ultra-specific, and useful headlines.

Yes, demonstrate the benefits, not the features.

Yes, make them an offer they can’t refuse.

But do it all by deliberately crafting each sentence to honestly, accurately, and entertainingly tell the story you want to tell.

Difficult? Sure.

But, to quote someone that I could not confirm the identity of … that’s why they call it work.

Image source: Mathias Herheim via Unsplash.

Sumber:

Read More

31 PRACTICAL TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING OVERNIGHT

1. IMPROVE YOUR INFORMATION GATHERING

As they say, “garbage in, garbage out.” You can’t write good stories if your information gathering is flawed.

2. READ EVERYTHING

Good writers are avid readers. Making time to read every day will improve your writing, whether what you read is well written or not. You’ll have more ideas and model positive examples while avoiding negative ones.

3. KEEP AN IDEA FILE

You can’t write if you don’t have a topic to write about.

Organize your ideas by writing them down, clipping them out, etc., and storing them in one location. Having an idea file will ensure that you always have something to write about.

4. WRITE EVERY DAY

You must make time to write every day because you cannot become a better writer without writing.

5. CONSIDER YOUR AUDIENCE

Don’t just think about the group of people you’re writing for. Writing for demographics won’t work. Instead, picture one person who is in your targeted audience. Write for/to that person. Doing this will help you find your voice.

6. UNDERSTAND YOUR TOPIC

Your writing tends to become bogged down when you don’t really understand what you’re writing about. Make sure you understand the topic as well as you can before you start writing.

The other side of this is that you shouldn’t spend so much time researching that you use is as an excuse not to write. Understand the topic, then write.

7. WRITE, DON’T EDIT

You won’t do yourself any good by writing three words and deleting one. Write first, then edit afterward. Just let the words flow, don’t worry about whether they’re good. In other words, allow yourself to write the shitty first draft, then move on.

8. IDENTIFY YOUR FLOW

Some writers work best in the morning, while others work better at night. Discover the time and place that creates a flow state for you and stick with it.

9. WRITE WITHOUT DISTRACTION

We all have friends who can write, read or study with the television on or a bazillion things going on around them. I’m not that person. Find out what you need to write without distraction. Shut down social, turn off your phone, find a quiet room… do whatever you need to do to create a productive writing environment.

1O. CONSIDER FORMAT

Writing really is about plugging information into a formula.

11. WRITE AND REWRITE YOUR LEAD

The lead determines whether people will keep reading. You have to make sure those opening sentences interest and entice readers.

12. USE ACTIVE VOICE

Active voice makes your writing stronger. The best way to write in active voice is to use subject-verb-object sentence construction.

13. USE WORDS YOU KNOW

Never use a word you don’t understand. Spread truth, not ignorance. If you use a complex term, be sure to explain it to your readers. As soon as you include information you don’t understand in your writing, your editor will ask you what it means and you’ll feel foolish.

14. USE OFFICIAL TITLES

Ask every source to spell his/her name and provide his/her official title. Always use those official titles when identifying them on first reference.

15. ATTRIBUTE SECOND

You should always have at least two sources for each story. After that, how you organize information from those sources is important. When you’re attributing information, be sure to put the attribution at the end of the sentence whenever possible. For example, Kenna said blah, blah, blah reads so much better when it is Blah, blah, blah, Kenna said.

16. USE SAID

People don’t explain, exclaim, reveal, etc. Get comfortable with using said. It lacks bias and is the only word you should use for quote attribution.

17. DELETE HABIT WORDS

Everyone has words they use too much. Determine yours and delete them from your writing. Hot contenders include that, now, currently, literally, and very.

18. CUT THE FAT

See how many words you can delete before you hit publish. I like to tell students to pretend every word costs $1 and save your money. Concise writing is clear writing.

Phrases worth cutting include in order to and in the process of.

19. WRITE IN TIME, DATE, PLACE ORDER

Write everything in time, date, place order. For example, the meeting is at 10 a.m. Saturday in Room 151.

If the place is a business, always include the address.

Don’t start sentences with days or dates. When it happened rarely is more important than what happened.

20. AVOID CLICHES

There’s no place for cliches in your writing. They’re lazy.

21. AVOID CLAUSES

Don’t start sentences with long clauses that only delay the action. If a clause requires a comma, move it to the end of the sentence.

22. AVOID SEMICOLONS

Semicolons are for complex and/or compound sentences. Simple sentences make for the best writing. Break complex or compound sentences into two sentences instead.

23. USE STATES OF BEING CORRECTLY

Above, below and around are states of being. Use them literally and correctly.

24. USE STRONG VERBS

Print your story. Circle the verbs. Replace every “to be” verb with an active one.

25. PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Give your readers enough details to enhance the story, but not so many details that they get lost in them. Show, don’t tell, but delete any description that doesn’t advance the story.

26. AVOID WORD COUNTS

Never write to a number. Write until you’re done. When the story is told, stop writing.

27. SPELL CHECK AND PROOFREAD

You all know about how spell check doesn’t catch everything, but you still need to use it. Spell check your work, then proofread it carefully.

28. CHANGE FORMAT

Printing your story or reading it out loud helps you find errors. It also helps you better understand how your writing will sound to your readers.

29. SAVE YOUR COMMAS

Don’t throw around commas like they don’t matter. Instead, pretend you only have so  many commas to use for the rest of your life. If you run out of commas, you’re destine to a life of run-on sentences. If in doubt, leave it out.

30. MEET DEADLINES

Deadlines are there for a reason. Not only does meeting deadlines make you look more professional, many times it gives you time to make necessary revisions.

31. JUST WRITE

Stop talking about or thinking about what you’re going to write. Put your rear in the chair and write.

To become a better writer, you must write. Following these writing tips will move you beyond just putting words on paper and help you write better, faster.

Sumber

Read More

5 Errors in Noun-Verb Agreement

As shown in the examples below, when writers craft sentences with more than one noun or pronoun in the subject, they sometimes misidentify the key noun or pronoun and assign the wrong verb form to it. Discussion and revision in each sentence describes and solves the problem.

1. “Five days are too short for a vacation.”

The singular form of the verb “to be,” rather than the plural form, is appropriate here because of the context—the writer is referring to a collective unit of time consisting of five days, not to five units of time consisting of a day each: “Five days is too short for a vacation.”

2. Which of the following statements best describe your situation?

The verb in this sentence refers not to statementsbut to one of several statements—represented by the pronoun which—each of which is, in turn, being contemplated on its own, so the verb form should be singular: “Which of the following statements best describes your situation?”

3. Each of the top five priorities identified this year are technology related. 

Just as in the previous example, the first word in this sentence is a place-holder representing one priority. The five priorities are being considered in isolation, one at a time, so a singular verb is appropriate: “Each of the top five priorities identified this year is technology related.”

4. We believe that a diversity among people and perspectives create high-performing organizations.

Diversity, not the combination of “people and perspectives,” is the operative noun here, so the verb form should be singular: “We believe that a diversity among people and perspectives creates high-performing organizations.”

5. A combination of these factors, along with a number of wider digital transformation and economic trends, have focused attention on regulatory technology as a topic.

Combination, not factors, is the noun that the helping verb is associated with (and the parenthetical phrase located between factors and the verb is irrelevant to the verb form): “A combination of these factors, along with a number of wider digital transformation and economic trends, has focused attention on regulatory technology as a topic.”

Some people may disagree, arguing thatcombination, like descriptive words such as couple,majority, and variety, calls for notional agreement (or notional concord), in which plural nouns that modifying phrases that include collective nouns are associated with, rather than the collective nouns themselves, are considered the “target” of the verb. However, usage strongly favors singular concord, in which the verb concords, or agrees, with the collective noun (the “notion”).

Sumber

Read More

5 Types of Unnecessary Hyphenation

The sentences below, each followed by a discussion and a revision, illustrate various ways in which a hyphen is used extraneously.

1. He adds that cities should be forced to follow a federally-defined law pertaining to what kinds of benefits restaurants should be required to provide to their employees.

Because adverbial phrases such as “federally defined” (where the adverb federally modifies the adjective defined, which in turn modifies a noun) so closely resemble adjectival phrases such as “little known” (where the adjectives little and knowncombine to modify a noun), and phrases in the latter category are usually hyphenated before a noun, adverbial phrases are also often (incorrectly) hyphenated.

Here, as in the case of all adverbial phrases ending in -ly, “federally defined” is not hyphenated: “He adds that cities should be forced to follow a federally defined law pertaining to what kinds of benefits restaurants should be required to provide to their employees.” (However, flat adverbs—those lacking the -ly ending—are hyphenated to an adjective when the adverbial phrase precedes a noun, such as “high ranking.”

2. Most of them are small- and medium-sized cities many people may never have heard of.

Small is followed by a hyphen here as if it constitutes a case of suspended hyphenation, where a repetition (in this case) of sized is implied, but the two elements modifying cities are not “small sized” and “medium sized,” but rather small and “medium sized,” so the hyphen after small is erroneous: “Most of them are small and medium-sized cities many people may never have heard of.”

3. The film was among the highest-grossing that year.

A phrasal adjective is generally not hyphenated when it follows the noun it modifies: “The film was among the highest grossing that year.” (Alternatively, retain the hyphen but insert a synonym for the noun after the phrasal adjective, as in “The film was among the highest-grossing releases that year.”)

4. The developers proposed to phase-in that part of the project over the course of several years.

“Phase in” consists of a verb and a preposition, which have no need of a hyphen to signal their interrelationship: “The developers proposed to phase in that part of the project over the course of several years.” (This error likely exists as a result of a confusion of the phrase with its use as an adjectival phrase, where a hyphen is valid, and as the nounphase-in, similar to built-in.)

5. Jones is a past-president of the organization.

In this sentence, past is an adjective modifyingpresident, and as such, it should not be attached to the word it modifies: “Jones is a past president of the organization.”

Sumber

Read More

Proses penulisan cerpen

My Short Story Writing Process – In 12 Easy Steps http://flip.it/.JLKJ_

Read More

3 Sentences That Cause Confusion

In each of the following sentences, a word or phrase is an obstacle to comprehension. The discussion and revision that follows each example suggests a path to clarity.

1. Technology companies have a very different mind-set to traditional financial institutions.

Comparisons structured as one is in this sentence should employ from rather than to, and note the insertion of the phrase “that of the” to indicate that the comparison is between mind-sets and not the entities that have the mind-sets: “Technology companies have a very different mind-set from that of traditional financial institutions.”

2. The agency found that contrary to its claims, World Wide Wickets failed to employ reasonable and appropriate measures to protect data.

This sentence has an unclear antecedent: The pronoun its appears to refer to “the agency,” because no other entity has yet been identified, but it is a reference to the company subsequently mentioned. For clarity, use a specific proper noun (for example, “World Wide Wickets”) or a specific common noun (for example, “(the) company”) first, then a pronoun (or, in this case, use a proper noun on first reference and a common noun on second reference, bypassing the need for a pronoun at all): “The agency found that contrary to the claims of World Wide Wickets, the company failed to employ reasonable and appropriate measures to protect data.”

3. Jones faces criticism of others who oppose his policy positions, as does opponent John Smith and many others.

This sentence is ambiguous—it could mean that Smith and many others face the same criticism as Jones, or the phrase “as does” could apply not to the verb faces but to the verb oppose. (In this case, the latter option applies.) To eliminate possible confusion, chose a clearer word or phrase in place of the nebulous “as does”: “Jones faces criticism of others who oppose his policy positions, including opponent John Smith and many others.”
Sumber

Read More