15

Tips on Usage

Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. Thatis to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.

'- Erza Pound

Let us do these things not to satisfy "rules" or to gratify thewhims of a pedagogue, but rather to express ourselvesclearly, precisely, logically, and directly-and to cultivatethe habits of mind that produce that kind of expression.

'-Theodore Bernstein

aCCOIDIDo&aibe Regularly misspelled "accomodate." This word gets myvote as the most frequently misspelled word in American English.Just remember: two c's and two ms. Two o's as well!

affed-effed Few word pairs can rival these terrors for the headachesthey breed. Bad enough that they sound alike, but each word alsohas both a noun and a verb form. And one of the verbs, affect, evenhas two different definitions itself. Worse still, it uses the other word,effect, in one of them. And when affect works as a noun, it has an en-tirely new pronunciation ("AFF -ect")! No wonder everybody's con-fused. Let's sort out the principal meanings here:

affect (verb) = to influence, have an effect on ("That movie deeplyaffected me")

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affect (verb) = to feign ("She affected indifference, but I know she cared")affect (noun) = emotional reaction ("The patient showed no affect")effect (noun) = an influence or impact ("California had a big effect

on me")effect (verb) = to bring about ("To effect any change here, we'll

need Superman")

Dr. Mary Knatterud, an editor friend and research associate in theSurgery Department of the University of Minnesota, offers a sen-tence she once devised for a colleague to clarify four of the five mean-ings: 'The effect of the patient's affect was profound: it deeplyaffected her mother and effected a change in their relationship."

aRRriglbtll All right is right; alright is wrong. So many people don't knowalright is wrong, though, that eventually it will be accepted as Stan-dard English. And it should be. It's quicker than all right and says thesame thing. Nothing would be lost except surplusage. (Shortenedforms that resemble it, and that no longer raise alarm, are already,altogether, and although.) Meanwhile, however, I suggest you stickwith all right. It will spare you being labeled a poor speller.

a ROil: It's written as two words, not one. Many people, though, would pre-fer that you not write it at ail, at least in serious prose. They view it as"colloquial"-i.e., too informal. But one of my own favorite usage ex-perts, Theodore Bernstein, in his invaluable The Careful Writer, noteshow much more relaxed even most serious writing has become thesedays. He thinks the term "colloquial" has outlived its usefulness; it'stoo restrictive, he says, even misleading. He proposes redefining ex-pressions like "a lot" as "casual, in the sense of relaxed, easy, familiar,"and defends their frequent appropriateness. If not a green light, hesays, give these "casualisms" (as he calls them) an orange light. I agreewith him. It's interesting how the chatty looseness of a lot, for exam-ple, seems to vanish in certain contexts: it will be such a good fit thatyou won't even notice it, and if by chance you did, it would defy criti-cism. Flip back to the Updike passage near the end of Chapter 6 andyou'll see what I mean. The typical alternatives-many and much-simply wouldn't work there. Conclusion: Let your ear and good sensebe your guide. And take time to think through every good writer's in-evitable question: Who do I want to sound like? Quentin Crisp put iteloquently. "Style is being yourself," he said, "but on purpose."

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and/oif And/or is, to many readers, an ugly coinage associated with in-come tax prose. Its sole virtue is convenience. Without it one wouldhave to say "X or Y, or both"-itself something of an unwieldy mon-strosity, in my opinion. Use it sparingly, if at all. And always ask your-self if or alone won't suffice.

assure=ensure-dnsnre All three words mean "to make certain or safe."Use assure with persons, ensure with things, and insure when talk-ing about money and guarantees (e.g., life insurance).

beitweeilll-21moilllg When speaking of just two persons or things, use be-tween; of three or more, use among. But if a tight relationship is im-plied, use between regardless of the number: "The quarrel betweenMike, Jim, and Larry still rages"; "The flights between London, Gene-va, and Berlin have been canceled."

cannot Cannot trumps can not.

consensus The word means "collective opinion" or "general agreement."Since it already includes the idea of opinion, the phrase consensus ofopinion is redundant. So, too, the general consensus. Simply say, forexample, "The consensus is that the bill will pass the Senate."

ICJr:llteJrioilll-cifitteJri21 You can have but one criterion. But you can havetwo or more criteria. Moral: Don't use criteria when you're speak-ing of just one thing. Some allied words, all Latin derivatives:

datum-datamedium-mediamemorandum-memoranda

phenomenon-phenomenastratum-strata

dJiffeJreillllt fJrom-dJiffenmit: ttlh21lill Since one thing differs from another,say different from except where it creates a cumbersome or wordyclause after it, in which case different than is not only acceptablebut preferable ("The temptations there are different for adults thanfor kids").

dlisililltteJresit:ed-lLnInlJiInllteJresit:ed If you are disinterested, you are unbiasedor impartial. If you are uninterested, you aren't interested. The dif-ference is so radical that it's worth making a point of rememberingwhich word says which.

effed-21JfJFed See the entry for affect-effect.

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eqlLll21liliy Use it alone ("Hugh and Stu are equally talented"). Don't tackon the redundant as ("Hugh and Stu are equally as talented").

f21cit

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Ray-He The verb lay means "to put or set down," as in "I'll lay the babyin her crib" or "Please lay the book on the table." Basically, then, laymeans "to place," which is a good memory tip, since lay and placeshare the same vowel sound. The past tense of lay is laid, as in "1laid it there only yesterday." Note that lay, in all its forms, alwaystakes a direct object, even when it uses its alternate meanings, suchas "to arrange" ('Tlliay the table for dinner") or "to produce and de-posit" ("Our hen laid three eggs last week"). Lay is declined like this:lay, laid, laid, laying.

Lie, on the other hand, never takes a direct object. Lie means"to recline'v=-note the near rhyme-as in "Let's lie down for a bit."Here are examples of its other tenses: "They lay down" (past); "Theyhad just lain down when the phone rang" (past perfect); "They werejust lying down when the phone rang" (past progressive).

Iike-as If no verb follows your comparison, use like. But if a verb fol-lows it, use as. Compare: "Molly giggles like her sister" versus"Molly's a gem, as I knew she would be." Note, however, that whenlike means as if, a verb may follow it: 'Write like you're actually talk-ing to that friend."

Roaitlh.e-Roaitlh. You may loathe a bad habit, yet still be loath (unwilling) togive it up.

loose-lose If a button is loose, you're apt to lose it.

neither See that it's followed by nor, not or. Example: "Neither Billnor his father ate the turnips with relish." Use or only with either.And let the number of the verb following a neither .. nor con-struction agree with the noun closest to it. Both of these sentencesare correct:

Neither Jack nor Susan was happy about it.Neither Jack nor his roommates were happy about it.

none Is it singular or plural? Well, it can be either. If it's followed by asingular noun, it's construed as singular; if by a plural noun, it's con-strued as plural. Thus:

None of the work was done.None of the guests were here when we arrived.

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If no noun follows it, simply decide whether you're talking aboutmore than one and pick your verb accordingly. If you want to em-phasize the fact of singleness, substitute no one or not one: "Not oneof his shots was good."

on1y Here's my nominee for the most commonly misplaced modifier inAmerican English. Be sure to put it immediately adjacent to the wordit actually modifies. Compare:

Sam only plays golf on weekends.Sam plays golf only on weekends.

The first version implies that Sam does nothing each weekend butplay golf-he doesn't mow the lawn, take the family out, come hometo eat, nothing. The second version implies that the only time Samplays golf is on weekends.

oral-verba] If it's spoken, it's oral (e.g., "oral contract"); if it's in words,it's verbal (e.g., "verbal contract"). An oral reply is always verbal (un-less it's wordless), but a verbal reply isn't always oral. (And do you seehow parentheses breed?)

~ Although it seems illogical, the proofreader's symbol for a new para-graph is ~, not a "P" with an extra leg.

jplJr'e

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shall-will When your grandparents were in school, they were taught thevital difference in usage between these two words. But they forgotthat difference along with nearly everybody else-apparently it wasnot so vital after all-and now the words are interchangeable. Shall,though, sounds slightly fussier and more bookish to the average ear,so if you're aiming at a conversational style, use will instead. The ex-ception would be a first-person interrogative: "Shall we dance?" "ShallI pick her up at the station or will you?"

so Many people believe that so is an intensifier synonymous with very("This coffee is so hot"). It isn't, however, at least not in grown-upprose. Note that when you write a sentence like my example, read-ers will unconsciously-and properly-expect a that clause to fol-low: "This coffee is so hot that I can't drink it."

§lIJljpljplo§edi ito In conversation it's hard to hear that final d, but it'sthere-or should be-since it's the past participle of the verb sup-pose. Thus, say "1was supposed to leave today," not "1was supposeto leave today."

ilielf

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1Lililllnq[1Llle If a thing is unique, it's the only one of its kind. The condition isan absolute one, like perfection. Thus you can't logically talk aboutunique in terms of degree. You can't say, for example, "rather unique"or "the most unique" or "very unique." A thing is either unique or it'snot unique, just as a woman is either pregnant or she's not pregnant.When writers misuse unique, they usually mean "uncommon," "un-usual," or "rare." "A rather unique invitation," for example, shouldread "a rather unusual invitation."

usecl to As with supposed to, we're dealing with a silent d again-thepast participle of the verb use ("to be accustomed to"). Say "I usedto work there," not "I use to work there."

whether Use it alone. Don't tack on the redundancy or not as in the sen-tence, "He doesn't know whether or not to go." The or not is neces-sary only when you mean to convey the idea of regardless of whether.Example: "We're going biking today whether it rains or not."

I would be most content if my children grew up to be thekind of people who think decorating consists 11wstlyof build-ing enough boolcshelves.

.- Anna Quindlen