Writing well (for the rest of us): No Grammar. No Rules. Just Common Sense. (6 page)

A
recurring
role on television.

Something
reoccurring
happens again, but not
necessarily again and again and again.

The area suffers
from
reoccurring
tornadoes.

There are more mistakes, but these are the major ones.

Here are common mistakes that are a little more advanced. If
you’ve managed to get through this book and are still alive, read on.

Between you and me
Confusion about which pronoun to use when using the word “between” is
common.

First, it’s never “between you and I.” It’s “between you and
me.”

Here’s why: when a pronoun is receiving something, it’s an
object
 pronoun
. Object pronouns include
her, him, it, me, them, us,
and
you
.

The “between” in the sentence is a preposition, and “me” is
the object of the preposition.

The easiest trick is just to take out the other party to see
if it sounds right. “Between ____ I” or “Between _____ me.” well, “me” is
clearly the winner.

Lay and lie
 
(This section is not about the word “lie.” as in “to tell something that’s
not true.” which is rarely a source of mistakes.)

The best writers get the difference between “lay” and “lie”
wrong all the time. It’s really hard to remember the rules.

However, I have, perhaps, a really simple way to look at it:
Lie and lay have different meanings.

Lie
means to recline (“lie down”).

Lay
means to put down (“lay your pen on the paper”).

If you understand these two meanings, it will make things
simpler.

If you’re going to “lay your daughter down.” you’re going to
put her down
. You wouldn’t “lie her down.”

It gets confusing when you’re talking about the past,
though.

Here’s a simple table. It’s not complete, but covers most of
the mistakes you can make: 

Try your best. No one will kill you if you don’t get it right. You can always
check online for the correct use.

Ending sentences with a preposition
Prepositions – words that show relationship (such as
at, in, on, below,
under, above, over, about
) aren’t supposed to be at the end of a sentence.
However, this rule has been broken so much, no one cares, and the reason behind
the rule is idiotic anyway.

There’s an old joke my brother Stephen loves to tell about
ending a sentence with a preposition:

A Texas boy walks into Harvard and
asks a student for directions to the bathroom.

“Hey, buddy, where’s the bathroom
at?” asks the Texan.

 “Sir, we at Harvard do not end our
sentences with prepositions,” the Harvard student responds, with a superior
look.

 “Okay, where’s the bathroom at,
jerk?” says the Texan.

The whole “ending sentences with a preposition is evil” came
out of trying to make Latin rules work in English. Preposition, in Latin, means
“put before.” and in Latin, a proposition is always placed
before
what
the preposition is relating to.

Well, in case you haven’t noticed, English isn’t Latin. So,
it’s not something to fuss
over
. Or worry
about
.

Agreement
This section also may be a bit difficult. However, if you want to write
well, you should try to understand it.

Words must all line up and “agree” with each other.

This means that the correct verbs and
pronouns are used if there is a singular or plural subject.

This sounds complicated, but it’s not. It’s common sense and
if you speak English well, you already have all of your words in agreement. 

The key to understanding agreement is whether or not the
subject of the sentence is singular or plural.

Singular is
one
thing.

A
boy
.

Plural is more than one thing.

Two
boys
.

Verbs and pronouns are used differently if the subject is singular or plural.

Look at how the verb changes if the subject is
singular or plural:

A boy
is
eating ice cream.
Two boys
are
eating ice cream.

Pronouns change based on singular or plural:

The girl left
her
purse
inside.
The girls left
their
purses inside.

The key is to remember that if it’s a plural, plural verbs and plural pronouns are used. If it’s singular, singular verbs and singular
pronouns are used.

You have to think a bit sometimes to write this correctly.

For example:

One
of the
cars
are
open.

This is incorrect.
One
is the subject,
not
cars
. We’re talking about
one
of the cars. The subject is
singular, so, you would use a singular verb:

One
of the
cars
is
open.

Another example:

He
don’t
like it.

Don’t
is actually
do not
. Would you actually
say “he do not like it”? Of course not. Instead, you would use the verb used
for singular subject,
does
:

He
does not
(
doesn’t
) like it.

Another example:

Either
are
correct.

Either (
one
thing) is singular. So the sentence is
incorrect. It should be:

Either
is
correct.

You have to get the idea of singular and plural for this all
to make sense. For example, words like
the news
is singular, because we
think of it as one thing.

The news
is
on at 6 pm.

I’m not going to list out all the verbs and
pronouns for you, or give you a big list of rules (you can look these up online
if you like). Common sense will get you very far.

Split infinitives
You have to be a grammar dork to care about this issue, and I certainly
don’t.

An infinitive is a verb which has the word “to” in front of
it.

To serve
you is our goal.

You’re not supposed to split the infinitive – meaning –
don’t put a word in between “to” and the verb:

To
better
serve
you is our goal.

Instead, it is supposed to be:

To serve
you better is our goal.

However, you’ll find examples of split infinitives regularly
used in the English language these days, and it’s not a big deal. I’m careful
with it, but I also realize that following this rule sometimes makes my writing
less interesting.

I wouldn’t worry about it.

English
 is a Subject Verb Object language
As a final note, it might be helpful for some to understand that English is
a language in which sentences have a pattern:

Subject Verb
Object

In other words:

Tom hit Bill.

So, it’s called a Subject Verb Object language (or,
SVO).

This is useful to know only because some foreign language
students have a really hard time with English. I’ve done a lot of one-on-one
tutoring work with foreign language students, and have experienced their
confusions first hand. They come from countries which have a different pattern.

German, for example, is a Subject Object Verb (SOV)
language:

              Tom Bill hit.

Realizing that there many languages have different patterns
may help you if you’re an ESL student, or if you’re teaching ESL.
There are plenty of references on the net with regard to SVO, SOV, and other
patterns that are not worth getting into in this simple book.

Most dictionaries include information on writing business
letters. There are also plenty of references online. However, below is a brief
overview.

The simple business letter
The easiest type of business letter is all lined up on the left.

Start with your name and address.

Below that, the date.

Below that, the address of the
person you’re writing to.
Then, the greeting (called the “salutation”):

Then, the text of the letter.

Then, the closing (“Sincerely.”
“Yours truly.” etc.)
And finally, your name.

It should look something like this example when you’re done:

John Doe
Account Manager
Industrial Sales, Inc.
23 Doe Street
Boston, MA 02108

March 28, 2015

John Roberts
Purchasing Manager
Acme Supplies
55 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10012
Dear John,

It was a pleasure meeting you on Friday about our new
industrial samples. I have included our latest brochure for your review.

I look forward to continuing our discussion.

Sincerely,

John Doe
Account Manager

(Of course, if you have a corporate letterhead, you would
not write your address on the top, as it would already be written on the
letterhead.)

Salutations can have a colon after them, or just a comma.

Dear Mr. Roberts:
Dear Mr. Roberts,

If you are writing to a woman whom you know is married, use
Mrs.
If you’re writing to a woman whose marriage status is unknown, use
Ms.

Dear Mrs. Roberts,
Dear Ms. Blakemore,

These days, it’s usually acceptable to use the first name in
a business correspondence with someone you are already in communication with
(especially in America).

Dear John,
Dear Janet,

However, you would not address a person in a position of
authority using their first name, unless it was an informal letter. The
decision to use the first name or last name comes down to common sense and
judgement.

If it’s a formal letter where you don’t know the name of the
recipient, you can use any of the following:

Dear Sir or Madam:
To whom it may concern:
Dear Hiring Manager,

If you’re writing someone in a position of authority
(congressman, mayor, judge, royalty, etc.), search online for the correct
salutation. There are too many different rules to include in this simple book.

There are different closings you can use:

Yours truly,
Sincerely,
Sincerely yours,
Respectfully,
Regards,

It would be incorrect to capitalize both words in the
closing:

Yours Truly,

Only the
first
word is capitalized.

               Your truly,

However, keep it simple. It’s fine to just close with
“Sincerely.” You don’t need to get fancy. 

Business emails
Just because you’re using email doesn’t mean all the rules of proper
behavior go out the window.

Some pointers:

Make sure
your
name (in the FROM field) is
professional.

Not “j doe.” but
“John Doe.”

Make sure the recipient’s email address is professionally
written (in the TO field).

Not “j roberts.”
but John Roberts.

If you don’t know the person, address it formally.

Dear Mr. Roberts,

If you have already spoken to the person, you can be more
informal.

John,

Don’t use fancy formatting. Stay away from colors. Stay away
from different types of fonts. No pictures of unicorns, rainbows or any other
such silliness. Keep it very, very clean.

Write normal, full sentences. Just because it’s an email
does not mean it’s a free-for-all in casualness.

Your closing is just like a business letter.

Sincerely,

For informal communications, skip the closing. Just write
your name.

Keep your signature simple. No pictures of your kids,
flowers, huge and unnecessary graphics and other clutter. Remember that
graphics often just become attachments, so use them carefully – if at all.

Of course, your LinkedIn information and typical business
contact info is totally fine and expected.

John Doe
Industrial Sales, Inc.
23 Doe Street
Boston, MA 02108
Phone: 617-555-1212
email:
[email protected]
www.industrialsalesinc.com
(Don’t use http:// in your website.)

The website
www.businessemailetiquette.com
has some
useful additional pointers.