Get the Message About Proper Grammar

BY BARBARA EATON

Grammar is always with us, insinuating itself into our program descriptions and our press releases, slithering across our grant proposals and our board reports. The only way to survive professionally is to confront our grammar problems and to whip them! Here's a start.

• The most common grammatical error in the English language is the failure to make the subject and verb or pronoun agree. "The media is being attacked" illustrates a subject/verb disagreement. Media is plural and is is singular. "The City Council voted themselves a pay raise" contains a noun/pronoun disagreement; council is singular and themselves is plural. When in doubt, look it up.

• There is a difference between that and which. If the phrase or clause is essential to the sentence, introduce it with that. If it is not essential, introduce it with which. "This is the rule that people break most often." "These are the currently accepted rules, which people often break."

• Learn the difference between that and who. Agencies are that, and members of the agencies (people) are who.

• Avoid tacking prepositions onto verbs. Close, not close up; sit, not sit down.

• Don't start a sentence with there is or there are. These words are ineffectual; they have no punch.

• Learn the difference between compared to and compared with. When you liken somebody or something to someone or something else, use compared to. When you are contrasting something, use compared with.

• Between can involve only two things; if three or more are involved, we must use among.

• Dilemma by its definition can also only involve two choices. If three or more alternatives are involved, it's still a problem, but it can't be a dilemma.

• Complimentary means giving praise. Complementary means something added to something else.

• The use of myself seems to confound us all. "The group will include three teachers, 40 students and myself." Does that sound right? It should be "three teachers, 40 students and me." Avoid myself as much as possible. Even when it's correct, it sounds awkward.

• Avoid automatic modifying that leads to redundancy: completely destroyed, true fact, general public, free gift.

• Stand out from the crowd, and don't turn nouns into verbs. Conference is a noun. Conferencing is not a word.

BARBARA BATON
is the public information coordinator for the Wheaton Park District. This article was reprinted with permission horn Gel the Message, a publication of the Illinois Park and Recreation Association's Communication and Marketing Section.

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