Ellipsis must be applied correctly

Ellipsis is regarded as a figure of speech and used in all writings practically by all writers.

Without ellipsis, English language will be cumbersome as there will be a lot of repetitions of words, phrases and clauses.

Sometimes, we see quite often sentences with the application of ellipses do not sound fluently or do not appear to be idiomatic.

Hailstorm kills 14, thousands homeless. This is a newspaper headline published by a popular national English daily. Grammatically, the headline is elliptical for "Hailstorm kills 14, hailstorm kills thousands homeless".

Hence, it is more appropriate to convert it to be a compound sentence that will be easily understood by everybody: Hailstorm kills 14 and makes thousands homeless.

A full stop must be placed where it is due

I have noted the following news in brief having been highlighted on its front page by a popular national English daily:-

The 64th birthday of Myanmar's democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, was marked by people around the world with birthday cakes, demonstrations and good deeds. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Beatles legend Paul McCartney and US actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts offered support while in Malaysia, activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir and actor Harith Iskandar joined an event to mark the birthday.

Readers will very likely be led to understand that those people who offered support did so while in Malaysia; but this is not the case according to the news proper.

A recast (as follows) appears necessary to bring the news in brief to be in line with its news proper.

The 64th birthday of Myanmar's democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, was marked by people around the world with birthday cakes, demonstrations and good deeds. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Beatles legend Paul McCartney and US actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts offered support. While in Malaysia, activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir and actor Harith Iskandar joined an event to mark the birthday.

Grammar is important

I don't know how you can learn English without knowing grammar.

The above is the statement made by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia who is also the Education Minister and highlighted on the front page of the Star (The people's paper) of 9th June, 2009.

I recall having written a short article and published by the same paper in their column, MIND OUR ENGLISH. In fact, I have posted such article in this blog earlier, but I consider it relevant to repeat hereunder (an abridged version of) such article which is in line with the above statement:-

Monday, February 4, 2008
Grammar is most important/Basics must be learned first


Quote
Basics must be learned first
I REFER to the article ‘Expand Lit component’ by The Owl (July 6).
Just concentrating on Literature and writing will, without any doubt, improve one’s grasp of the language, resulting in ease of expression (whether in proper English or not).
But a lack of a strong grammatical background will lead one nowhere as one may not understand the literary texts fully and also be unable to write proper sentences since one is not aware of what constitutes a correct sentence.
Grammatical rules are very important and schoolchildren should be taught and given exercises on it so that they know the rules to understanding and writing good English.
If a person does not know that a complete sentence must consist of a subject and a predicate which must have a verb, how can such a person be expected to write good English?
By keying in the word “dictionary” in any of the Internet search engines, one will be led to many free sites where grammatical rules are explained in detail, exercises are provided, and a channel is even available for discussion.
Should one be doubtful about the explanations, one can always discuss them with friends or seek clarification from one’s teacher (if one is still in school) or even write to Mind Our English for help (as so many have done).
Those who aim for quicker progress can seek assistance from professional bodies or tutors. – Kengt, Penang
Unquote

Misplaced modifier and relative pronoun in the wrong case

Nicknamed the Bard of Avon, his plays have been translated into dozens of languages and continue to be adapted for new audiences.

This expression is used by Lady Macbeth to describe her husband whom she fears is too nice to push his way onto the throne of Scotland.

The above two sentences are taken from an article in a column promoting the correct use of English published by a popular national English daily.

To the editor of the column, I have sent my following comments which have received no response:-

I would recast the first sentence as "Nicknamed the Bard of Avon, he has written plays that have been translated into dozens of languages and continue to be adapted for new audiences" to avoid a misplaced modifier and the second as "This expression is used by Lady Macbeth to describe her husband who she fears is too nice to push his way onto the throne of Scotland' to correct the relative pronoun which should be in the subjective case.

Mistakes we often see in newspapers

Writing like skating abounds with pitfalls.





The following sentences are taken from messages published in a popular national English daily on the same day:-

1) She is a piano teacher but the only sound one hears in her house are the cries and screams of her five-year-old son, who she has been abusing for the past three years.

2) Notice is further given that any person or firm or company which without permission of the owner produce, manufacture, distribute, sell or offer for sale the said products using original packing and bearing the above depicted trade marks and/or any other similar mark is infringing the rights of the owner and is committing an offence under the Trade Description Act 1972.

3) Movie lovers, make your way to the cinema for a fun carnival this school holidays.

In sentence 1, if we turn the last part which is an adjective clause into a sentence. It will become "She has been abusing him for the past three years". Hence, the relative pronoun 'who' (which is in the subjective case) should have been 'whom' (which is the objective case) to make the sentence grammatically correct.

In sentence 2, 'and' before 'bearing' is not necessary. Besides, plural verbs are used after the relative pronoun 'which' referring to 'company', but singular(instead of plural) ones are inconsistently used thereafter in "is infringing" and "is committing". Consistency requires verbs in a sentence having the same subject to be in the same form (that is either singular or plural depending on the situation).

In sentence 3, the adjective 'this' (singular in nature) is used to pinpoint a plural noun 'holidays' and consequently, 'these' should have been used instead of 'this'.

Practice is the best of all instructors.
-- Publilius Syrus