Wrong Punctuation?

Readers will be confused or even annoyed reading sentences which are incorrectly punctuated.




Here at the Research Centre, innovation never stops. Because we need to continue unlocking all the secrets in food.

The above is taken from a full-page advertisement appearing in a popular national English daily.

Is is more discerning to separate the message into two parts, the second part being not a complete sentence?

It is obvious the two can be joined together into one complete and grammatical sentence conveying the same message: Here at the Research Centre, innovation never stops because we need to continue unlocking all the secrets in food.


It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
-- Aristotle

Ambiguity will emerge if any writer (experienced or not) is not careful

Most people would like to have the favour of reading messages written straight to the point.





An office worker, who declined to be named, said the staff claimed that someone had illegally entered the building to try and commit suicide after two glass panes on the ground floor were found shattered by a security guard.

The above is a paragraph taken from a news item in a popular national English daily.

It appears from the paragraph that two glass panes on the ground floor were found shattered by a security guard. Obviously, this is not the intended meaning.

The paragraph needs to be recast to do away with ambiguity to show the intended meaning as follows:-

An office worker, who declined to be named, said the staff claimed that someone had illegally entered the building to try and commit suicide after a security guard found two glass panes on the ground floor shattered.

Here is another example : Learn how you can use design to drive business at The Design School. It is an advertisement inserted by a college in a newspaper.

Such construction can give you the meaning : Learn how you can use design to drive business at The Design School. You know for sure that this is not the intended meaning of the advertiser who actually wants the message to be understood as : At The Design School, learn how you can use design to drive business.

Vigilance is, therefore, the key to proper writing.

Chance favors only the prepared mind.
-- Louis Pasteur

Sentence without a subject

Apart from having an interesting subject matter, a piece of writing must be grammatically sound to be a good read for readers.




Many a time you have seen a sentence being written without a subject - a common error quite frequently committed by writers (experienced or otherwise).

Take for instance the sentence "Just because you've retired, doesn't mean your life and health have to go downhill" which appears on the front page of a pullout of a popular English daily.

If you hear the sentence in a speech, you may not find anything wrong with it.

On analysis, you will detect the error. 'Just because you've retired' is an adverb clause (expressing cause and effect). As you know, an adverb clause can be placed elsewhere in the sentence not necessarily at the beginning. Care, however, must be exercised not to misplace it or else, the sentence will become ungrammatical or a different meaning or ambiguity will emerge.

In this case, if you shift the adverb clause to the end of the sentence, its meaning will not be changed; but in doing so, you will realize that the sentence has no subject - doesn't mean (the main clause) your life and health have to go downhill just because you've retired.

A subject is, therefore, required to be added in front of the main clause to make the sentence complete. Such a subject should be in the form of a preparatory pronoun (it): "Just because you've retired, it doesn't mean your life and health have to go downhill."

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
-- Galileo Galilei

Concord Failures unnoticed by many a very experienced writer

When books do not provide anwsers readily, engaging in dicussion may.





“If we don’t take these opportunities now, the windows will close, others will seize it, and we will miss the opportunity.”

The above is the corrected sentence taken from the answers to Will + base form of verbs under This, next and the coming Monday appearing in your column on Thursday November 6, 2008.

Do the 'it' and 'opportunity' both stand for/represent 'taking these opportunities'? If so, is the sentence well constructed?

Or, should the sentence be “If we don’t take these opportunities now, the windows will close, others will seize, and we will miss the opportunities.”

The above sentences form the text of an e-mail written by me to the Editor of Mind Our English of The Star who has in reply provided the answer (reproduced below) given by the writer writing (or to be exact, recasting) the sentence in question:-

Fadzilah Amin answers your question(s):

Thank you for pointing out that the word "opportunities" should not have "it" as its pronoun. It was an oversight on my part. Another reader has also pointed this out to me and with the help of his suggestion for a better sentence, I formulated another sentence to replace the original reader’s. It reads:

"If we don't take these opportunities now, others will seize them, or the windows will close."

The editor may publish that correspondence together with this, to show the reasons for the changes, or let you have a copy of it at any rate.

You will note from the reply that the faulty sentence has been recast in a manner different from my suggested approach which is advocated in a good book teaching people to write and speak better English.

Much have I learned from my teachers, more from my colleagues, but most from my students.
-- Talmud

Typesetting errors?

Slips/errors still occur even though a lot of guards are in place.

The two adjoining sentences below are taken from the advice/solution provided for a reader’s problem in It’s her choice to make (which was among the TOP 5 MOST VIEWED STORIES ONLINE on its day of publication).

“The early months of romance are always more exciting and remarkable. Especially when the lady is in distress, seeks you out to the rescue.”

The second sentence has in its first part an adverb clause, ‘Especially when the lady is in distress’. What follows is the main clause, ‘seeks you out to the rescue’; but there is no subject in this main clause. The sentence is, hence, incomplete or ungrammatical. A subject (which is ‘the lady’ or a pronoun ‘she’) must be added before 'seeks'.

Alternatively, the two sentences can be merged into one as ‘The early months of romance are always more exciting and remarkable especially when the lady is in distress and seeks you out to the rescue.’

The above mistake/s may be due to a ‘mis-set’ in typesetting and may not be attributed to the writer, however.

Pronoun and Symmetry Problems contine to plague Experienced Writers

Don't let water or anything good go to waste!

(1) Great leaders of Malaysia would be remembered as those who gave every Malaysian, regardless of their race and religion, a chance.

(2) Eight months have gone by and four years is hardly light years away.

The sentences enumerated above are taken from the article Change, don’t end up as history.

The pronoun 'their' in the first sentence can stand for or represent 'great leaders'; but obviously that is not the intended meaning. It has, therefore, to represent 'every Malaysian' which is singular in number. Perhaps, it is used by the writer to avoid the cumbersome 'his or her' to achieve fluency. Such, however, is still a disputed usage. To leave out the pronoun will make the sentence better as 'Great leaders of Malaysia would be remembered as those who gave every Malaysian, regardless of race and religion, a chance.'

In the second sentence, we notice the use of 'eight months' being followed by a plural verb 'have' in the first part with the unsymmetrical use of singular verb 'is' to match 'four years'. The sentence should correctly be 'Eight months have gone by and four years are hardly light years away.'

Nevertheless, the article will definitely be a good read as it contains the writer's good analytical knowledge of its subject matter.

Adversity brings knowledge, and knowledge brings wisdom.
-- Welsh Proverb

Editing/Typesetting Error?

If a mistake can slip through watchful eyes, further measures need be taken.






Zeti (Central Bank Governor now appointed in UN financial panel), however, remains pragmatic about over the impact of the US financial crisis, and resulting global economic downturn, on Malaysia but is confident the country will be able to ride out the storm.

The above sentence is taken from the Cover Feature Malaysia is good for now, the first part of the assessment of a series (under different headlines) of issues surrounding the domestic and international economy disclosed by the Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia) in an interview.

Such first part has, among other measures, mentioned that the central bank has taken the step to guarantee all deposits in Malaysia reassuring investors (and consumers as well) that the banking system is strong enough to withstand the financial turmoil. This has confirmed what has been stated in my earlier post Not a correct clause - or a matter of perception or prejudice?

As for the sentence in the first paragraph, it has been found to contain an additional preposition 'over' which can conveniently be discarded without changing its meaning as Zeti, however, remains pragmatic about the impact of the US financial crisis, and resulting global economic downturn, on Malaysia but is confident the country will be able to ride out the storm.

No endeavor is worse than that which is not attempted.
-- Mexican Proverb

Not a correct clause - or a matter of perception or prejudice?

Malaysian Government is formed by a coalition of political parties voted into power.

Malaysia is one of those countries that guarantee all bank deposits in their respective banking systems to contain the effect of the global financial crisis.

Besides, oil prices have been reduced four times by the Malaysian Government who has been fighting for price reduction of goods especially essential goods by fixing lower ceilings and calling traders to effect reduction of the prices of their goods.

Unless there is a need to find out which leaders, politicians or political parties have done the above jobs, I would rephrase the following sentence in the article Please grow up, will you?

"Ahead of the bad times, Malaysians are looking to our politicians for leadership and assurances – which seem to be lacking."

at the worst (not that I back any leader, politician or political party but to present a fairer assessment) to be

"Ahead of the bad times, Malaysians are looking to our politicians for leadership and assurances – which do not seem to be adequately provided."

Nonetheless, there are further goodies announced by the government for the people after publication of the said article, which may have been one of the vital catalysts for such early follow-up announcement.

Even professional writers also succumb to such danger

Keys are to secure propriety - what then is to prevent errors in professional writings? Vigilance, of course!






The weekly pullout of a popular national English daily has the following sentences in two separate articles written by professionals on the same day:-

1) Our companies are well positioned to not only weather the storm but to seize the many opportunities that present itself during these times.

2) The focus is on ties this week and we love how it dresses your work wear up in just a few twists and turns.

Are you able to detect anything wrong with the two sentences enumerated above? Just in case you are unable to do so, you may wish to take a second look at my earlier articles Inconsistency/Concord Failure/Noun-Pronoun Disagreement and Lurking danger of pronouns to assist you.

By now, I am sure you can realize that in sentence 1, '...opportunities that present themselves (and not itself)... and that in sentence 2, '...we love how they (and not it as the ties are referred to) dress your work wear up...'

Be careful of reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
-- Mark Twain

Nonstandard usage

Nobody likes homework, but sometimes, it is inevitable especially to avoid mistakes/embarrassments in writing.



The word 'learned' is very rarely used in the passive voice except in the nonstandard usage to mean instructed or taught; but I notice such a usage in one of the three articles by Luke Teoh (Sept 3: Don’t pronounce everything! Sept 17: Grape Britain? Gedoutahea! and Sept 18: Don’t be afraid to elide) appearing in Mind our English.

That has prompted me to write the following e-mail.

Quote

Associate Editor
Editor of Mind our English
The Star

Dear Sir,

Luke Teoh has indeed written three eye-opening articles in your column, first of which was ranked number one in the TOP5 MOST VIEWED STORIES ONLINE on its day of publication.

Sept 17: Grape Britain? Gedoutahea!
It's a shame that some of us in Malaysia with a very impressive command of spoken English tend to speak as though we were addressing a public meeting. It shows that we have not been learned to understand an informal style of speech.

Reproduced above is the first paragraph of the second article. I am rather surprised to notice in the second sentence therein, the nonstandard usage of the word 'learned' in the passive voice.

There must be a good reason for such usage which, will, hopefully, be disclosed.

Thank you.

Unquote

The following self-explanatory reply has been received:-

Quote

Sorry, that was an error in editing. The word "been" should not have been there.

Thank you for pointing it out.

Best wishes,
Associate Editor
Editor of Mind our English
The Star

Unquote

More means better?

In fishing, more in the catch is the desired result; but in writing, the expected outcome cannot be achieved by mere use of more words.


They are singing songs of hope, a hope to be of help to those in distress through Befrienders' phone counselling.

The above sentence is the frontpage headline of a pullout in a popular national English daily.

The said headline can be recast with fewer words without loss of its intended meaning as under:-

They are singing songs of hope aiming to help those in distress through Befrienders' phone counselling.

Examine what is said, not him who speaks.
-- Arab Proverb

"Revert"

Are answers to all questions available in books?




In my earlier article Annoying mistakes, I have shown the discussion of the usage of the word "revert".

The discussion has again appeared in The Star's MIND OUR ENGLISH section, and that has prompted me to write an e-mail to its editor.

Below is the editor's e-mail reply received by me:-

Quote

Fadzilah Amin answers your question(s):

The fact that big organisations in Malaysia have allowed their staff to use “revert” to mean “reply” and “revert to” to mean “reply to” or “get back to” for 50 years, has not changed the meaning of this word in the English language.

I have scoured several reputable dictionaries of British and American English, including the comprehensive 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, and nowhere is “revert” defined as “reply” or “revert to” defined as “reply to” or “get back to” in current or past usage.

“Revert” meaning “to come back to a subject” ,which you mentioned, is used, for example, in:

1) “To revert to what we were discussing before we were interrupted, why do you think Roger Federer is the greatest ever tennins player?”

It would be wrong to use it in the following way:

2) “The bank would would revert to you with an explanation and/or decision soon.”

“Revert to” as used in sentence 1) means “go back to (a former subject of discourse) (OED, meaning 6 a.) But unfortunately, in Malaysia, it is often used wrongly when someone wants to say “get back to/reply to (someone)”.

The following are two examples from the Internet of the word “revert” used correctly to mean “to go back to a former condition or practice”. The first example comes from the website of the Bank of England, while the second is from that of Bank Negara Malaysia:

The model assesses the contribution of investment, acquisitions, cash flows and market-to-book values to the determination of debt, and also the tendency of debt to revert to its optimum level.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/workingpapers/wp317.pdf

ATM services would continue to be provided for at least 5 continuous hours from 7.00 am to 12 noon. From 1 January 2000 onwards, the ATMs will revert to their normal operating hours from 7.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m.

http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=8&pg=14&ac=607

Unquote

In fact, my edited question and the said reply were published in MIND OUR ENGLISH under the sub-headline But ‘revert’ has been used a long time.

The answer may have discounted the following points raised (in 'Annoying mistakes'):-

1) The fact that the British people have used “revert” in correspondence calling for a response, and

2) urbandictionary.com (which has given the meanings/definitions as) write back, reply: in other words divert my attention back to you. Indian English - (as) I will revert to you in due course. (sign-off for a business letter)

If you take answers with a grain of salt, you may learn more.
- Anonymous.

Lurking danger of pronouns

We need to be vigilant in a seemingly calm situation.






Using pronouns is a good way of avoiding bad repetition of a word or a phrase. However, there is always the lurking danger awaiting the unwary writer of slipping into ambiguity.

The mother and daughter are obviously very close. She is very sweet. These two adjoining sentences are taken from a popular national English daily.

Those are two simple sentences easily understood by anybody, but who can be sure that whom the 'she' is representing or referring to?

We have always to be careful in our writing so that our readers need not do any guesswork to understand us.

Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterward.
-- Anonymous

Good writing

Documents in good writing can easily accompany anyone round the world without giving any communication problem.








Invariably, all English language reference books are teaching their readers to construct sentences that are well structured and grammatically correct and capable of conveying their messages sucessfully with the right tone and style. Sentences are, therefore, not merely words strung together.

Now, look at the following sentence taken from an advertorial of a popular national English daily and see whether it depicts the techniques shown above:-

This gives us the unique position of presiding over the production and ingredients every step of the way from our healthy cows to finished products, to guarantee our customers absolute food safety, security and traceability.

The sentence does not appear to be well constructed. What do you understand by presiding over the production and ingredients...?

Obviously, a recast of the sentence is necessary to reflect its intended meaning/message.

One of the ways is : This gives us the unique position of supervising every step of the production process including choice of ingredients from our healthy cows to finished products and thus enabling us to guarantee our customers of absolute food safety, security and traceability.

No one is without knowledge except him who asks no questions.
-- West African Proverb

‘Distant’ vs ‘Distance’

It will be a bad day if you cannot differentiate which is correct and which is wrong between the two.






It is best to distant yourself, keep busy with your own life and try not to indulge in fantasising about her.

Do you notice anything wrong with the above sentence which is taken from a popular national English daily?

What about the following one which is taken from the same daily a few days later?

The American economic free fall played havoc with John McCain’s campaign, as he tries to distance himself from the unpopular Bush administration and walk away from his own history as a champion of government deregulation.

‘Distant’ is an adjective while ‘distance’ is a noun which can, however, be used as a verb.

By now, you should have realized that the first sentence is wrong as ‘to distant yourself’ therein should have been ‘to distance yourself’ as used in the second sentence picked from the same newspaper.

No endeavor is worse than that which is not attempted.
-- Mexican Proverb

Subject-verb disagreements

Environment requires a clean-up frequently and so do publications that constantly contain grammatical errors.






Major powers’opposition to trade talks are too strong.

The rising violent, sexual crimes against children in the country is alarming.

The by-election will be a close call and the hostilities on nomination day was a sign of how serious both parties are about taking the seat.

The above sentences are taken from a same national English daily on three different days. All the subject-words and verbs are highlighted to enable easy detection of the therein-contained grammatical mistakes which are somewhat concealed by the enlargements of the subject-words. Obviously, the verb-choices must have been erroneously based by the writers on the nouns immedately preceding the chosen verbs.

Such mistakes which are called 'subject and verb disagreements' are very frequently seen in its publications which should need a clean-up to achieve the first step towards good writings.

Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I may not remember. Involve me and I'll understand.
-- Native American Proverb

The more, the merrier?

When one is enough, why give two?






Lapses and delays are inevitable when it comes to implementing new policies.

The above is one of the sentences in a Notice/Advertisement/Advertorial of the Government in a popular national English daily.

The sentence can be recast with fewer words without any change in meaning as follows:-

Lapses and delays are inevitable when implementing new policies.

When fewer words are used, fewer mistakes will be committed, and your readers will need lesser time to understand you.

Infinitives vs Gerunds

A bridge is like writing providing communication with the former conveying physical movements while the latter, flows of ideas.





Sometimes, you have to be attentive and logical to discover the common faults in writing.

Below is an example.

A group of people get together for no reason other than to do things in unison - and to have fun, of course.

The above sentence is taken from the OVERVIEW section of a popular national English daily.

At a glance, you will not notice anything wrong with the sentence.

Now, if you take out the phrase no reason other than, what remains is: A group of people get together for to do things in unison - and to have fun, of course.

Then, you will see that the sentence is unsound or ungrammatical - after the preposition for you cannot have an infinitive to do but you need a gerund doing (verbal noun) as the function of a preposition is to express some relation between two persons or things. In this case, it shows the relation between people and doing and should be followed by having, another verbal noun (instead of the infinitive to have).

The whole sentence should, therefore, have been: A group of people get together for no reason other than doing things in unison - and having fun, of course.

However, if you wish to retain the two infinitives, to do and to have, then we can make them noun-infinitives (to be in apposition with the noun reason) to define the reason and recast the sentence as follows:-

A group of people get together for a reason - to do things in unison and to have fun, of course.

Inconsistency/Concord Failure/Noun-Pronoun Disagreement

The writer will feel it to be a great job accomplished when a good piece of writing is completed.






One of the attributes of good writing is correctness of usage and grammar including consistency.

More often than not, the first few sentences will give an indication of good writing or otherwise.

Below is the subheading of a news item in a popular national English daily:-

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and so the comedy troupe again uses the same formula for their latest romatic comedy.

In such a short passage, you can see the irregularity highlighted in the subject: the word 'troupe' is treated as a singular noun with the use of a singular verb 'uses' but later as a plural noun with the use of the plural pronoun 'their'.

Such inconsistency (already touched upon in my earlier post Asymetrical sentence) is often seen in newspapers. If it is not due to poor command of English, editorial vigilance is the only solution.

Newspapers need to leave no stones unturned to achieve the required improvements lest the public especially students be misled into following such uses.

Natural but Ungrammatical or Grammatical but Unnatural

When coming to a crossroad, you have to make a choice. But, in writing, you can have the third possibility.

In writing, sometimes you will come to a situation of being natural but ungrammatical or grammatical but unnatural. What choice will you make? Read on and you will know the answer which is the best choice.






Below are extracts from Mrs Malaprop at work? under which title is a question and answer session in The Star's MIND OUR ENGLISH Section to illustrate the subject matter.

Question
WHICH of these sentences should be accepted?
A) The fish’s tail is hurt.
B) The fish tail is hurt.
C) The tail of the fish is hurt.

Answer
Although it is acceptable to say (A) since you are presumably talking about a living fish, and (C) is technically not incorrect, it is best and most natural to say “The fish has hurt its tail.”

Another Question
Over the last five days, my appreciation for nature grew stronger. Waking to beautiful birdsong and listening to the river water rushing by ___ awesome.
A) is
B) are
C) was
D) were

Answer
Strictly speaking, “were” is the correct answer there, since the narration is in the past and there are two activities that form the coordinated subjects of the sentence, i.e. “waking to beautiful birdsong” and “listening to the river water rushing by”. But to my ears, “was” sounds so much better.
We can argue that the two activities are part of one listening experience on waking up, but this could be better justified if we change the sentence to:
“Waking to beautiful birdsong and the sound of the river water rushing by was awesome."
Then there’ll be only one subject, i.e. “waking to .. .”

Mistakes in Newspapers

No matter how busy you are, you must write properly.




The staggering waves of investors and business owners investing in the project confirms its massive potential for success.

The above sentence is taken from a print advertisement (in a national English daily) featuring a property development project.

The word 'waves' is in plural and 'owners', another plural noun. Both these nouns are joined by the conjunction 'and', and then they (plus enlargements which are those words in bold enlarging the meanings of the two nouns there) have become the subjects of the verb in the sentence.

Everybody knows that a plural verb should be used, but a singular one has instead been used in the advertisement.

Given hereunder is another example taken from a different national English daily.

If one is to choose books that were written with friendship as its main topic, there are probably a million of them. But below are the five easy reads that were written on friends and how their friendships, very often, happen accidentally and lasts a long time, if not a lifetime.

Is there anything wrong with the second example? Yes, there is. In fact, there are two mistakes.

Plural noun 'books' is accompanied by a singular pronoun 'its'; and another plural noun 'friendships' has two verbs following it with the first one 'happen' being a plural verb and a correct one but not the second 'lasts' which is a singular verb.

The above mistakes have been touched upon in my earlier posts, Subject-Verb Agreement Error and Double Superlative? , Concord failures/noun-pronoun disagreements?‏, Extra Verb and Asymetrical sentence.

Words that are necessary must be used

If two essential ingredients in the recipe are left out, do you think the cooking result will be good?





In the HEART & SOUL column of a popular national English daily, the columnist answers readers' questions of personal problems.

Try again so that you can love again, a happier man.

How do you understand the above sentence which is taken from one of the answers?

You will take that the reader is advised to try again so that the reader can love again and be a happier man.

The meaning will be changed if you drop the comma in the sentence: Try again so that you can love again a happier man.

That particular reader is noted to be a man, so the second assumption is not the correct interpretation.

Accordingly the actual sentence should have been, "Try again so that you can love again and be a happier man", which (if originally used) would have saved readers' time in the conjecturing work.

This clearly reaffirms the saying that if writers take more efforts in making their writings easily comprehensible, their readers will need less time to enjoy and appreciate their works.

Since the above also touches on an unwanted comma, it has relevance to my earlier post, "Unwanted comma and word causing problem".

Pronouns can sometimes be misleading

Watch carefully and hit accurately




Pronouns are used for clarity, but if inappropriately used, they can cause confusion.

Look at the following example, which is a highlighted section of an article appearing in a newspaper:-

Fathers who spend time playing with their children can increase their intellectual and physical competency.

What is the second 'their' (which is highlighted in bold) referring to - fathers' or children's?

Obviously, the sentence can be rewritten to reflect the intended meaning unambiguously as follows:-

Fathers who spend time playing with their children can increase the latter's intellectual and physical competency.

Further explanations can be found in my earlier post :

Dr Mahathir or Pak Lah?

"Who"/"Whom" and Symmetry‏

Proper arrangements must be made as to who should play which part so that there will be a symmetrical piece to have a good rendition




It has been said that the correct use of "who"/"whom" has confused a lot of writers including very experienced ones. Symmetry is another aspect often overlooked.

I am inclined to believe that the following is one such case.

A truck door that says our drivers are "safe" drivers could make you wonder whether that company does indeed define "safe" differently from everyone else – besides leaving you wondering who they are trying to convince, when safe-driving behaviour alone should do the trick.

The highlighted "who they are" in bold should have been "whom it is".

The sentence in question is taken from an article titled How to shout about it appearing in the column of Mind Our English of The Star on Wednesday May 14, 2008.

Above is the email writtten by me to The Editor, Mind Our English of The Star seeking The Editor's comments, and since more than two months have elapsed, I (having faced such similar situation a few times before) feel that no response will ever be forthcoming.

This post has relevance to my following previous postings:

An error common even among experienced writers,

Asymetrical sentence

Symmetrical sentences and

"Who" or "Whom" (relative pronouns)

SALOON VS SALON (PART TWO)

'Saloon' and 'Salon' having the same meaning?






In my earlier post SALOON VS SALON showing the picture/flyer (again added herein) of PETZ SALOON, I mentioned about shops' names not necessarily reflecting the natures and/or activities of the shops.

I was inspired to create such a post after someone commented in The Star Online: Blog (Citizen's Blog) citing the Oxford (dictionary) that "hair saloon" or "hairdressing saloon" should be correct refuting the claim that it should be "hair salon" in Opinion Page of THE STAR NEWS by another person.

Now, according to the 'Question and Answer' Section about English usage under the headline "Is 'saloon' all right, too?" in THE STAR, 'salon' and 'saloon' can be used interchangeably as a result of comparing definitions and uses in a few dictionaries and Internet sites stated therein.

Be careful with modifiers

Right ingredients and colours will make it nice and tasty!




Adjectives and adverbs (including their respective phrases and clauses) will help make your sentence/s look nice and clear in meaning.

They are called modifiers and they can achieve the desired results if placed correctly. If not, you may have misplaced/dangling modifiers when your sentence/s will become awkward or you may have ambiquity.

Look at the following headline of a news item in a popular national English daily:-

Groups stage protest against costly petrol in Ipoh ("in Ipoh" being an adverb phrase, a modifier).

Costly petrol is not only found in Ipoh (city) but the whole country.

To reflect its intended meaning, the headline should have been “Groups stage protest in Ipoh against costly petrol” or “In Ipoh, groups stage protest against costly petrol.”

An error common even among experienced writers

Get help if you are not sure.





But both .........are asking American voters to believe in them,..............

The above is part of a paragraph of an item of news appearing in a popular national English daily.

The said item of news is headlined "Who can Americans believe in?"

The first word in the headline is the interogative pronoun which is referring to the "them" in the first sentence above.

"Them" is in the objective case and so must the interogative pronoun in the headline be.

The headline, therefore, should have been "Whom can Americans believe in?" - such error being very common even among experienced writers.

Additional word/s required for clarity

Car care or car repair? Proper text required if either.....




Contrary to the previous post of "Fewer words are sometimes better", the following sentence requires the addition of one or more words to make it clearer:-

He wins RM8,000 motorcycle using his hand to play ping pong.

It is a sub headline for an item of news in a newspaper.

To anyone, the sub headline suggests that the 'he' wins in a normal table tennis competition.

However, the news write-up says that the participants were playing with their bare hands (that is, without any bats).

To create a clearer impression, the sub headline should have been "He wins RM8,000 motorcycle using his bare hand to play ping pong" or "He wins RM8,000 motorcycle using his hand to play ping pong without any bat".

Fewer words are sometimes better

Don't mask your writing with unnecessary words.


It's fresh, it's juicy and full of tasty fresh fruit goodness.

The above sentence is taken from a print advertisement.

Notice that a comma is used to connnect two complete sentences.

A comma splice has occurred or the sentence is regarded as a run-on sentence.

The sentence willl not only be grammatical but also sounds much better if rewritten as follows:-

It's fresh, juicy and full of tasty fresh fruit goodness.

It has always been a good advice: You will have fewer grammatical errors if you leave out a word that can be left out.

Wrong Choice of Word

Choice of colours in painting is like choice of words in writing. Both must show their end results reflecting the meanings intended.




Below is one of the two items of news under a common headline appearing in a popular national English daily:-.

Quote

In another incident, police are looking for a 23-year-old drug-addict who strangled his mother after she refused to give him money.

In the 9.30 am incident yesterday, the man turned violent and begun assaulting his 51-year-old mother during a commotion at their home in Kampung Pulau Serai, Dungun.

Supt Khairi said the suspect’s 57-year-old father lodged a report at the Dungun police station.

He said the victim was sent to the Dungun Hospital where she received outpatient treatment.

Unquote

Do you notice anything wrong between the two groups of words highlighted in bold?

"Strangled" means "killed by squeezing windpipe". In other words, the news says that his mother was killed but later in conclusion, she received outpatient treatment only. What a contradiction has that created?

It all boils down to the wrong choice of one word, and that section should have been "drug-addict who attempted to strangle his mother".

Further, the last word "begun" in the second paragraph of the news should have been "began".

Passive voice preferred sometimes

Writing is like painting, its theme must be clear






Cops shoot
dead robbers

The above is the headline of an item of news appearing in a popular national English daily (the headline being as shown above in bold print in two lines without any punctuation mark).

The headline is constructed in the active voice. If you try to rewrite the sentence in the passive voice, two ways are possible depending on how you understand the sentence.

The first way is:"Dead robbers are shot by cops" and the second:"Robbers are shot dead by cops".

Obviously, the second way is the intended meaning.

This gives us an indication that sometimes a sentence or sentences need be in the pssive voice in order to avoid ambiguity.

Asymetrical sentence

Even an Atom has a symmetrical appearance.....





The sentence below is taken from the OVERVIEW of the Business Section of a popular national English daily.

EPMB (the contracted name of a company) has a three-pronged strategy to keep profits affloat by increasing our export sales, global sourcing and growing its water meter business agressively.

A company can be treated as a singular or plural noun. By the use of "has", the writer has treated it as singular but has continued the sentence with "our" (a first party plural pronoun) and allowed the sentence to be followed by "its" (a third party singular pronoun). How asymmetrical is this sentence?

Rewritten the sentence should be "EPMB (the contracted name of a company) has a three-pronged strategy to keep profits affloat by increasing its export sales, global sourcing and growing its water meter business agressively."

Besides, common usage has required the compound adjective "three-pronged" to be "three-prong".

Incomplete sentences as a writing style

When writing, better follow the rules of grammar.




In the OVERVIEW of a popular national English daily, it states, "In the eyes of Myanmar's military rulers, everyone is a potential enemy. Even foreign aid workers."

The statement consists of a sentence and a phrase.

Everybody knows that in writing especially a formal one, the message must be conveyed in a complete sentence or sentences.

However, nowadays incomplete sentences can be seen everywhere in articles, newspapers and even reference books guiding their users to better speaking and writing of the English language. This is perceived as a writing style not to bore the readers and aiming for clarity and emphasis; but clearly that is done at the expense of the basic grammatical rule.

This arguably effective style disregards that 'every sentence must have a full verb and can stand on its own', such rule having now become only the schoolroom rule, which, without any doubt, must nevertheless be observed by students.

In cases where you can use grammatical sentences to arrive at an effective style, why don't you follow the rules and be safe?

Like the aforesaid statement, it can be changed into a grammatical (or grammar-compliant) sentence without sacrificing clarity and emphasis: In the eyes of Myanmar's military rulers, everyone is a potential enemy - even foreign aid workers.

As can be seen, this is done by joining the sentence and the phrase by means of a dash which is used to suggest a note of surprise or an emphasis.

Relative pronoun/conjuction

Loving her discouraged









In the HEART AND SOUL column of a popular national English daily, readers write in for advice of personal problems.

The following paragraph appears in one such letter written by a female student in her final year at university asking for guidance to solve her predicament of being unable to get over her feelings for a girl who has rejected the student's advances for a relationship.

The paragraph which has in one sentence an omission of "me" added in brackets states, "Two years ago, I told you that I was in love with my best friend, a girl, which made (me) feel like a lesbian. She went abroad to study and I couldn't get over her."

Any reader will have a doubt that what made the writer feel like a lesbian - the writer being in love with her best friend or her best friend, the girl. If it is the latter, the relative pronoun "which" used therein should have been "who"; and if otherwise, that particular sentence would have to be re-written as "Two years ago, I told you that I was in love with my best friend, a girl, and that that made (me) feel like a lesbian."

You will notice that the re-written sentence has three "that's". The first and the second ones are each a conjunction used to introduce a subordinate clause as object of the principal verb (told) as the necessary complement to a statement made. The third one is a pronoun used to indicate a state or event mentioned before.

Past Continuous Required But Past Simple Used

Left or just leaving?





They paid for their purchases and left the mini-market together. Eh Poh Nim was manoeuvring her shopping cart down the ramp when she saw a man running along the road. He was headed in her direction.

The above is a paragraph taken from a newspaper Article, Life in the idioms, which is a narative account of events happening in the writer's encounter with her neighbour at a mini-market.

The hightlighted verb "left" indicates a completed act of leaving, but the next sentence still talks about the process of leaving.

Such verb should be in past continuous tense to avoid a lapse in logical sequence.

Re-written the paragraph should read as "They paid for their purchases and were leaving the mini-market together. Eh Poh Nim was manoeuvring her shopping cart down the ramp when she saw a man running along the road. He was headed in her direction.

Double Negatives?

Research Not Producing Any Desired Results.....





Never been this fun

“WITH Compaq, staying home has never been this fun.”

The above is a sentence taken from a print media advertisement.

Shouldn’t the intended meaning have been rendered this way: “Without Compaq, staying home has never been this fun”?

– Kengt, Penang

The expression “staying home has never been this fun” is not a negative one. The emphasis is on the present “this fun” – a high degree of fun! It is a more emphatic way of saying “staying home is most fun”. So, the sentence from the advertisement – “With Compaq, staying home has never been this fun.” – does convey its intended meaning, that Compaq makes staying at home so much fun.

A negative version of “staying home has never been this fun” would be “staying home was never much fun”. This can go with “Without Compaq, staying home was never much fun.”, where you get the double negative from “without” and “never”.

The above question and answer are taken from The Star's MIND OUR ENGLISH dated April 10.

The question is posted by me, but I am not quite satisfied with the answer; and I have done a little research trying to convince myself of the answer given.

Instead, I have found that in standard English, "never" is used for a period of time but not a specific occasion.

I hope to chance upon or be directed to an authoritative source which can confirm the usage as explained in the answer.

Extra Verb

Why two? One is enough!







What right has the newly elected Mentri Besar or Chief Minister have to dispense such generosity at the expense of the tax/rate payers?

The sentence/question is taken from a letter in VIEWS of SUNDAY STAR of March 23 under the caption of No authorisation for fines-waiver policy.

If you are asked verbally the above question, you may not find anything wrong with it; but if you examine it again carefully, you will find that the sentence/question is not grammatically correct.

The long subject, "the newly elected Mentri Besar or Chief Minister" (which may obscure your detection of the mistake), is a singular subject which requires a singular verb "has". The other verb "have" is, therefore, redundant.

Figures of Speech

Too many of a kind?








Have you noticed that The Star's MIND OUR ENGLISH has been publishing periodically articles which invariably contain figures of speech (mostly similes and methaphors) abundantly, the most recent one of such articles being dated April 9 titled Shuffle off this mortal coil?

If you fancy and think of adopting such style of writing, perhaps you should take a look at the book, "HOW TO WRITE AND SPEAK BETTER" (compiled/edited by more than ten experts and published by The Reader's Digest) which has advised in its section on Style and Structure, "A succession of metaphors or similes drawn from different fields of comparison sometimes produces a laughably clashing effect...... Beware of overspicing......Overuse is an obvious danger, then, but it is not the only one."

Dr Mahathir or Pak Lah?

Trying to figure out?









The Star's MIND OUR ENGLISH contains an article (reproduced below) in its April 2 issue.

The article shows a very common error committed by writers.

Wednesday April 2, 2008
Ambiguous pronoun reference
By OH TEIK THEAM
LOOK at these little “stories” and see if you can find a mistake in each:

The credit card

Steve called David one evening while he was on vacation.

After they had talked awhile, Steve said, “My wife’s credit card was stolen.”

“Did you report the theft?” David asked.

“No,” said Steve. “Unlike my wife, the thief is not good at spending.”

The antecedent of a pronoun must be unambiguous. In the first sentence of the story, the pronoun “he” has two possible antecedents – “Steve” and “David”.

Rewrite: When Steve was on vacation, he called David one evening.

Muddy shoes

“Remove your muddy shoes before you enter the house,” the mother said to her son. “Yesterday the maid removed the carpet from the living room and cleaned it.”

The little boy, who had been playing football with his friends, replied, “Mum, I’m not wearing any shoes!”

The pronoun “it” in the story has two possible antecedents – “carpet” and “living room”. To prevent ambiguity, the sentence can be recast in one of two ways (depending on which meaning is intended):

Yesterday the maid cleaned the carpet after removing it from the living room.

Yesterday the maid cleaned the living room after removing the carpet from it.

Now, look at the following paragraph taken from a letter in VIEWS of The Star of April 3.

Although Pak Lah is perceived as a weak leader and has much to be blamed for the fiasco at the last election, he must be given another chance to redeem himself even though Dr Mahathir has constantly called for his resignation. He is not playing the game fairly.

The He in the last sentence is referring to Dr Mahathir or Pak Lah? Only the writer knows for sure.

To improve the situation, "former" or "latter" can be used or the name of the person playing the game be mentioned.

Ambiguity

Double







If two different nouns including proper nouns or pronouns or a mixture of them are placed before an infinitive (i.e. to plus a verb to signify a certain action) in a sentence, there is always the likelihood of uncertainty concerning who the actual doer of the action is. This can be seen from the following sentence taken from a national English daily in its overview section.

Australian Geoff Ogilvy held off the challenge of world number one Tiger Woods to lead by a shot after the second round of the WGC-CA Championships on Friday. Uncertainty has arisen as to who actually led by a shot: Australian Geoff Ogilvy or Tiger Woods?

Such ambiguity can be eradicated to arrive at the actual meaning in the news by amending the sentence as follows:-

Australian Geoff Ogilvy held off the challenge of world number one Tiger Woods and led by a shot after the second round of the WGC-CA Championships on Friday.