GrammarCheck: April 4, 2000

April 4, 2000
TITLES
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If you're like most of us, you forget whether to reference titles of works with an underline, italics, or quotation marks. Here's one way to remember how to reference a title:

#1: Titles of "larger" works are underlined or italicized.

EXAMPLES: Newspapers, magazines, journals, movies, television programs, radio programs, musical or comedy albums, cassettes, compact discs, DVDs, works of art, and software. (We would give an example here, but plain text e-mail doesn't underline or italicize.)

Remember the "L" in "Longer" links to the "L" in underLine or itaLicize.

#2: Titles of "shorter" works or portions of a larger work are enclosed between quotation marks.

EXAMPLES: Book chapters (part of a longer work), song titles (shorter work), poem titles (shorter work), magazine articles (part of a longer work), and episodes of a TV or radio series (part of a longer work).

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MORE ABOUT TITLES

Capitalize the first letter of the first word of a title. The first letter of all other words in a title also are capitalized except for articles ("the," "an," etc.), prepositions ("to," "on," etc.), and conjunctions ("and," "but," etc.).

EXAMPLE: "The Raven" (a poem by Edgar Allen Poe)
(Even though "The" is an article, the "T" is capitalized because it's the first word.)

EXAMPLE: "The Birds of Paradise" (a chapter title)
(The word "of" is not capitalized because it's a preposition and not in the first-word position.)

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Titles are rarely, if ever, designated by capitalizing every letter in each word. Exception: Some e-zines (like GRAMMARCHECK) may capitalize every letter since plain text e-mail letters cannot be underlined or italicized.

Some writers also choose to bold and italicize referenced titles in their writing.

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PAST ISSUES AVAILABLE ON-LINE

Subscribers to GrammarCheck can now read past issues at the following web site address: http://www.grammarcheck.com/archives

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WRITING TIP: SENTENCE COMBINING

We conclude our series of sentence combining writing tips with Part Three. New subscribers: for more information about sentence combining, read last week's edition of GrammarCheck, now posted on-line at http://www.grammarcheck.com/archives/ [.]

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HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN TO COMBINE SENTENCES?

During the past two weeks, we reviewed four patterns that may indicate the need for sentence combining: (a) look for word repetition, (b) look for phrase repetition, (c) look for pronoun references at the beginning of a sentence, and (d) look for choppy sentence patterns. This week we'll look at two more patterns.

PATTERN #5: LOOK FOR SENTENCES BEGINNING WITH CONJUNCTIONS--AND, OR, BUT, ETC.

Back then the snow was always deep on Christmas day. SO I couldn't ride the sled.

Notice how the second sentence begins with the conjunction "so." Some people have learned that beginning a sentence with a conjunction is incorrect, but that's not true. Sentences can begin with conjunctions, but many times it would be better to avoid doing so. Why? Keep reading.

COMBINED INTO ONE SENTENCE:

ORIGINAL: Back then the snow was always deep on Christmas day. So I couldn't ride the sled.

COMBINED: Back then the snow was always deep on Christmas day, so I couldn't ride the sled.

Which sentence reads more smoothly? Notice how there's no reduction in text length when combining sentences in this example, but the sentence-combined text is more efficient for readers because a "period" requires a longer reading pause than a "comma" requires. For readers, that split second makes a difference, especially when combined with the efficiency that other sentence-combining opportunities bring to a text. In pragmatic terms, the combined sentence "sounds better." Remember: neither of the examples above are incorrect, but before you begin a sentence with a conjunction, ask yourself why you're doing so. If you want that longer reading pause, use the conjunction; if not, combine sentences.

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PATTERN #6: LOOK FOR "THIS" (WITHOUT A REFERENCE) AT THE BEGINNING OF A SENTENCE

Using "this" without a reference ("This smells great" vs. "This flower smells great") is one of this writer's pet peeves. Some researchers claim that using "this" without a reference is okay in writing, but sometimes writers don't know what "this" refers to, creating problems in reading. Whenever you find "this" without a reference, ask yourself whether sentence combining is necessary.

EXAMPLE: There was the rotating light that sat on the floor, reflecting shades of green, gold, red, and blue. This reminds me of just how beautiful Christmas can be.

As a reader, I don't know whether "this" refers to the light sitting on the floor, the reflection of the colors, or the entire scene. (I have a general idea, but the writer's intention is not clear to me.) Let's assume the writer is referring to the entire scene. The use of "this" at the beginning of the sentence should cause one to consider combining sentences.

COMBINED INTO ONE SENTENCE:

There was the rotating light sitting on the floor, reflecting shades of green, gold, red, and blue, a reminder of just how beautiful Christmas can be.

As a result of sentence combining, the original two sentences were combined into one sentence, resulting in a nearly 10% reduction in text length. Notice how much better the revised passage sounds to readers.

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FOR PRACTICE:

1. Choose a one-page letter or one page from a multi-page document you have written and find instances of word repetition, phrase repetition, pronoun references at the beginning of a sentence, choppy sentence patterns, sentences beginning with a conjunction, or "this" at the beginning of a sentence. Combine sentences if necessary.

2. Find a newspaper or magazine article and look for instances where the author could have used sentence combining to make the article more efficient.

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NEXT WEEK: Putting it all together--eliminating "words to avoid" and implementing sentence combining.

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YOUR GRAMMAR AND WRITING QUESTIONS:

QUESTION: Here is an example of a case where a "period" is placed after a quotation mark. Any time you use MLA to cite a passage, it is correct to put the author's name (if not used in the text), and the page number in parentheses followed by a period.

Example: Davis reports that a chimp at the Yerkes Primate Research Center "has combined words into new sentences that she was never taught" (67).

Thanks for the great ideas. I tutor college students with learning disabilities and forward your ideas to them every week. Several have printed them and put them in their notebooks for easy reference. They are short, concise, and very useful.

GRAMMARCHECK: Thank you for sharing this great idea. Teachers--feel free to forward (or copy) editions of GrammarCheck for your students. You're also correct about periods (or commas) and quotation marks when used with MLA (or APA) citations. Our previous discussion about periods and commas always going inside quotation marks only involved instances where the period (or comma) and quotation mark immediately follow one another. In such cases, the period (or comma) always goes before the quotation mark. It wouldn't hurt for us to make this distinction, so here it is:

When a period (or comma) and quotation mark immediately follow one another, the period (or comma) ALWAYS goes first.

INCORRECT: The best things in life are "free".

CORRECT: The best things in life are "free."

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QUESTION: I have often heard from songs the combination of "he" and "don't" or "he" and "do" (for example, "He do me good" or "He don't love me"). Is this intentional or is there any justification in using this noun and verb combination?

GRAMMARCHECK: Popular music often reflects common speech used by everyday folks. As a result, song lyrics can include dialect or regional expressions (informal speech or slang) as opposed to formal, correct speech. "Ain't Gonna' Rain No More" is one example. Is the slang intentional? We hope so! Is there justification in using this noun and verb combination? Not necessarily, but can you imagine singing, "It isn't going to rain any more, any more"?