In Print Is Forever

Having trouble viewing this message? [Click here to view it online.] [Right-click here to download pictures. Jane Straus] Hi, {NAME}. Welcome to your [GrammarBook.com] e-newsletter. Your [GrammarBook.com] website is very helpful and educational. —Yusef D. The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation is really good. Thanks for the weekly e-newsletters as well. —Nicole S. I love getting your e-newsletter every week. It keeps me on my toes. —Yvonne C. In Print Is Forever Oh, the things we see in print these days … From Time magazine: “General David Petraeus asked a famous question: ‘Tell me how this ends?’ ” Did you catch it? Here’s a clue: tell me how that’s a question. If Petraeus had asked a question, it would have been something like, “Tell me, how does this end?” But in Time’s sentence, “tell me” is a request, so delete the question mark. A school district official was quoted as saying, “We have been appraised of all the relevant issues …” The word appraise means “decide the value of.” The gentleman clearly meant “we have been apprised,” i.e., informed. A bungled sentence from a representative of educated America is not the message our embattled schools want to be sending. But that’s minor compared to this mindlessness from “a leading Latin American scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies” who reportedly said, “My personal view is, it’s us who is more responsible than Mexico.” The more forgivable of this man’s two howlers is “it’s us.” OK, he was trying to sound like a regular guy. But “it’s us who is”? That would even make a regular guy nervous. And this is an esteemed expert speaking on the record. We don’t want to have a beer with him; we want him to speak to us in a manner befitting his authority. He should have said “it’s we who are more responsible.” A while back, an e-mail to the Associated Press website asked, “Is there a rule about the use of ‘a’ versus ‘an’ when used in front of a word beginning with a vowel?” I still can’t believe it’s come to this, but then I read things like: “There could be a independent or special prosecutor” and “has allowed it to linger as an mitigating factor.” So my sympathies go out to the e-mailer, who probably has read enough of those illiteracies to doubt his own linguistic sanity. Compare that with “plans to use a $850 million loan commitment” and “LG showed off a 84-inch monitor.” All you have to do is say those aloud to know it should be “an $850 million loan commitment,” “an 84-inch monitor.” I’m guessing these writers outsmarted themselves: The rule is that an goes before a vowel, and there’s technically no vowel in “$850” or “84.” But this wrongly assumes that when we see words on the page we don’t simultaneously hear them in our heads. The moral of the story: Know the rules, but use your head. (As we note in our [Confusing Words and Homonyms] section, “Use an when the first letter of the word following has the sound of a vowel.”) Because of the e-newsletter’s large readership, please submit your English usage questions through [GrammarBook.com]’s “Grammar Blog.” Free BONUS Quiz for You! {NAME}, because you are a subscriber to the newsletter, you get access to one of the Subscribers-Only Quizzes. [Take Your FREE Bonus Quiz] to take an A vs. An Quiz and get your scores and explanations instantly! --------------------------------------------------------------- More Good News for Quiz Subscribers We are pleased to announce that we have added even more quizzes to help you challenge yourself, your students, and your staff. We added quizzes to existing categories and created some new categories such as “Confusing Verbs,” “Subjunctive Mood,” “Comprise,” “Sit vs. Set vs. Sat,” and “Spelling.” We reviewed and strengthened every quiz on our website to ensure consistency with the rules and guidelines contained in our eleventh edition of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation. 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Get Amazon’s No. 1 Best-seller in Four Categories! No. 1 in Grammar No. 1 in Reading No. 1 in Lesson Planning No. 1 in Vocabulary The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus, Lester Kaufman, and Tom Stern The Authority on English Grammar! Eleventh Edition Now Available [Have You Ordered Your Copy Yet?] An indispensable tool for busy professionals, teachers, students, homeschool families, editors, writers, and proofreaders. Available in print AND as an e-Book! Over 2,000 copies are purchased every month! [Order Your Copy Today!] - Hundreds of Grammar, Punctuation, Capitalization, and Usage Rules - Real-World Examples - Spelling / Vocabulary / Confusing Words - Quizzes with Answers The publisher of The Blue Book, Jossey-Bass, A Wiley brand, is offering a 35 percent discount for those of you who order the book through [Wiley.com]. Shipping and tax are not included. Simply go to [bit.ly/1996hkA] and use discount code E9X4A. *Offer expires December 31, 2017. --------------------------------------------------------------- Wordplay --------------------------------------------------------------- [68 One-Minute English Usage Videos] [English In A Snap: 68 One-Minute English Usage Videos FREE] Learn all about who and whom, affect and effect, subjects and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and much more by just sitting back and enjoying these easy-to-follow lessons. Tell your colleagues (and boss), children, teachers, and friends. [Click here] to watch. --------------------------------------------------------------- Forward this e-newsletter to your friends and colleagues. [Newsletter] If you received this FREE weekly e-newsletter from a friend, [click here] to have it sent to you each week. Look for more Hot Tips from [GrammarBook.com] next week. [Miss a recent newsletter? Click here to view past editions.] Lester Kaufman, P.O. Box 472, Mill Valley, CA 94942, United States You may [unsubscribe] or [change your contact details] at any time. [Powered by:][GetResponse]