• About Finishedright
  • Grammar Tips
  • Writing Biographies
  • Interesting Facts about Medical Practice 1880-1930

finishedright

~ a proofreading service for self-publishers

finishedright

Tag Archives: pronouns

Treasure Hunt #1

21 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by Nancy Clark in Grammar Tips, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

English grammar, homophones, pronouns, proofreading, sound-alikes, Spell Check, spelling, troublesome words

HomophonesAs promised last week, I’m posting the first of several proofreading exercises to give you practice in finding your own errors. We’ll start off with one that focuses on only one kind of error: words that are pronounced the same (or nearly the same) but are spelled differently and have different uses. Our English spelling system contains a number of these word pairs (or triplets). They are often a stumbling block for writers and are hard to pick out when proofreading because Spell Check doesn’t flag them. Examples include your/you’re, whose/who’s, though/through, to/too/two, and than/then.

So here’s a short essay for you to proofread for only that kind of error. The challenge is to find the 15 words that are used incorrectly and replace them with the correct words. Take as much time as you want. Accuracy is more important than speed! I’ll be posting the answers next week so you can see how well you did. Now put on those reading glasses or grab that magnifying glass and begin your search!

The Cemetery

Your not going to believe this, but I was once offered the position of manager of a cemetery. The Charles Baber Cemetery in Pottsville, PA was willed to Trinity Episcopal church by Charles  Baber, a member who had established the cemetery many years before. I didn’t no weather to accept the job or not. It was not quite what I was used to, but then it was the only offer I had, so I took it.

The first week on the job I took a tour though the cemetery and the beautiful chapel that had been built opposite the entrance. The cemetery was located on rolling hills just off the center of town and reminded me of  a quite park. There were many different varieties of trees and the remains of a pond were children used to ice skate in the winter. An old barn originally housed the funeral carriage and it’s team of white horses that pulled it in funeral processions passed rows of silent spectators.

In the office of the church, I found several very large books that contained the burial records for the cemetery. The entries dated back to the 1800s and every entry was handwritten. I had too handle the books with great care because some of there bindings were lose. It was also hard to tell sometimes who’s body was in which plot because the plot numbers in the book didn’t always correspond to the map of the cemetery.

Even through the job lasted only a year, I was more then satisfied with what I learned about the history of the cemetery and the people buried there. Its not every day that a job opens up to manage a place that people are dying to get into!

***

Feel free to share this exercise with friends or use it in your classroom. It’s an original essay I wrote a number of years ago and describes a real job I had. Students in my developmental writing classes struggled with it, but those who spent the most time found the most errors. Persistence pays off!

Share this:

  • Share
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

The He/She Dilemma, Part II

12 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Nancy Clark in Grammar Tips

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

18th cent grammarians, 3rd person singular pronouns, Betty Friedan, English grammar, he and she versus they, pronouns, women's movement

It’s all Betty Friedan’s fault. Around the 18th century, grammarians decided that since indefinite pronouns like “everyone,” “someone,” each,” and gender neutral nouns like “person,” “friend,” and “student” used singular verbs, the pronouns following them should also be singular. The fact that English doesn’t have any gender-neutral third person singular pronouns didn’t bother them. All the grammarians were men, as were all the important people in society, so their obvious choice was to use the masculine forms to refer to both men and women. Many of us “older folk” grew up with teachers who pounded that pattern into our heads and never gave it another thought.

Then along came the women’s movement of the 1960s, fueled by Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique, and demonstrations — lots of them — demanding equal status for women in American society. English language users caved to the pressure. It was no longer politically correct to use he, him, and his to refer to both men and women. But what could be used instead? Aye, there’s the rub!

Various options began to emerge. One was to use a combined form, he or she (sometimes written he/she or s/he). Example: The instructor spent many hours each week planning his or her classes. Another option was to rewrite the sentence using all plural words. Example: The instructors spent many hours each week planning their classes. Other English users decided to resurrect a structure from the 16th century that ignored the mismatch of singular with plural. Example: The instructor spent many hours each week planning their classes.

A final option I’ve seen occasionally involves using he, his, and him alternately with she and her –sometimes within the same document — in order to give both sexes equal consideration.

My answer to the dilemma is to use whatever form you’re most comfortable with. Over time, one option may emerge as the dominant one or several choices may prevail. Language, after all, is the creation of the people who use it. As long as it remains stable enough to communicate ideas, feelings, and dreams clearly, English will continue to reflect the norms of the society that uses it and will evolve as needed.

Comments are welcome!

For a further discussion of this issue, go to http://www.blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/06/he-or-she-versus-they/

Share this:

  • Share
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

The He/She Dilemma

10 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by Nancy Clark in Grammar Tips

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

3rd person singular pronouns, English grammar, he or she, pronouns

Okay, all you English teachers and writers, here’s a topic that will create instant mayhem! If you were writing the following sentence, what pronoun would you put in the blank:

The manager of a fast-food restaurant should always be aware of ___________ responsibility to provide a pleasant environment for the customers. The choices are     (a) his, (b) her, (c) his or her, (d) their.

I’m testing the waters here to see if there’s any agreement and look forward to your responses. It will also be helpful if you comment briefly about why you chose your answer.

Stay tuned for more explanation as to how we — and the English language — got into such a quandary.

Share this:

  • Share
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Blog Stats

  • 2,066 hits

Previous Posts

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 24 other followers

Blogs I Follow

  • A Church for Starving Artists
  • Charity Singleton Craig
  • Giselle Roeder
  • http://five2onemagazine.com
  • The Historical Diaries
  • My Mysterious Musings
  • G-Lines - Updates/Thoughts
  • siuquxemovies
  • Power Plant Men
  • Squirrels in the Doohickey
  • Jay Leeward
  • finishedright
  • The WordPress.com Blog
  • SheepCarrot
  • Writing Naturally
  • The Daily Post

Blog at WordPress.com.

A Church for Starving Artists

Jan Edmiston writes things here.

Charity Singleton Craig

Chasing Wonder through Stories of Faith, Hope, and Love

Giselle Roeder

Relating to Books by Giselle Roeder

http://five2onemagazine.com

The Historical Diaries

My Mysterious Musings

Where you never know what you're going read.

G-Lines - Updates/Thoughts

a proofreading service for self-publishers

siuquxemovies

thriller,spy,action,drama,detective,medical thriller,horror,mystery and paranormal movies

Power Plant Men

True Power Plant Stories

Squirrels in the Doohickey

...and other profound observations of the absurd

Jay Leeward

Hard at work (hardly working?) at The Salt Mine

finishedright

a proofreading service for self-publishers

The WordPress.com Blog

The latest news on WordPress.com and the WordPress community.

SheepCarrot

The Random, Uncensored Musings and Writings of Eliza Winkler

Writing Naturally

Inside, Outside and from Within!

The Daily Post

The Art and Craft of Blogging

Cancel
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: