Assess Your Grammatical Acumen
Contents
1. nary socializing and flirtation struck him as a unitary con cept like the compound looking but singular meaning subject of this sentence Having your cake and eating it too is a delectable impossibility Offices across the land would be very different places though if there were no dis tinction between saying hello to a co worker and blow ing him or her a kiss It is prudent and courteous to honor that difference and grammatically correct to write the plural verb fail In Sentence 2 the writer mistook the subject letting the noun closest to the verb determine the verb s num ber What type of damages are available for recovery against a builder under these circumstances The problem is that the grammatical subject is not the plural damages but the singular type You can avoid this routine error by remembering that the object of a preposition cannot be the subject of the verb This rule disqualifies damages recovery builder and circumstances all of which follow prepositions By process of elimination you re left with type a choice that is semantically as well as grammati cally accurate The correct pairing of singular subject and singular verb clarifies that the writer is interested in the categories of damages not in the dollar amount of the plaintiff s possible award In response to her ques tion she expects actual damages or perhaps punitive dam ages not 50 000 Agreement maximizes the likelihood that she ll get the2. as the subject of the verb which noun a pronoun replaces or which word another word phrase or clause modi fies Readers who encounter a few such errors may gen erously sort them out Readers who encounter many may reach uncharitable conclusions about the writer s care courtesy or command of the language Writers who bother to get the grammar right clarify their mean ings and ease their readers tasks To this large extent grammar always matters It is the user s manual that no serious writer ever discards 1 Lewis Carroll Jabberwocky in A Victorian Anthology 1837 1895 Edmund Clarence Stedman ed Cam bridge Mass Riverside Press 1895 available at lt www bartleby com 246 846 html gt 2 Abrams v United States 250 U S 616 630 1919 34 Journal September 2004
3. more than the chilly virtue of correctness It makes intelligible the inter change between writer and reader in which lawyers daily engage Here s the quiz You can check your answers on page 33 GRAMMAR QUIZ Identify and correct the errors in the following sen tences 1 Ordinary socializing and flirtation fails to satisfy the severity test of a valid sexual harassment claim 2 What type of damages are available for recovery against a builder under these circumstances 3 Once a moving party meets their burden the bur den shifts 4 Formal title to the property would remain with the wife which may be unpalatable to the husband 5 Whether due process was honored whether the parties rights to be heard and represented were fully exercised whether the court s discretionary ruling was reasoned or arbitrary This can be determined only on a case by case basis 6 Bradley s client said she understood the charges a few times during the conversation 7 To prove actual malice the defendant must have known the statements were false or published them with reckless disregard despite knowing they were false 8 Neither the report of Dr Farragut nor Dr Rider contains the requisite information 9 In the case of the Loan 1 there is an express loan 2 the terms of which are set forth in the Note 3 which interest rate exceeds the permissible rate of 20 10 Like Sheffield the adoptive parent contracted oral l
4. noun and none tells us what the husband may find unpalatable the writer must rephrase to eliminate the meaningless which Formal title to the property would remain with the wife an arrangement that the husband may find unpalatable Or Formal title to the property would remain with the wife The husband may dislike this arrange ment Unlike Sentence 4 s which which has nothing to refer to Sentence 5 s this has more to refer to than it can rea sonably handle In the long subclause the writer speci fies a three pronged test of a court s just dealing Whether due process was honored whether the parties rights to be heard and represented were fully exercised whether the court s discretionary ruling was reasoned or arbitrary He meant the singular this in the main clause to refer to all three prongs something that a singular pronoun can not do This can be determined only on a case by case basis There are good and better ways to solve this problem The plural These would be clearer than the singular This but not perfectly clear Demonstrative pronouns this that these and those require for clarity the demonstra tion that their name specifies At the fish market for instance the proprietor knows what you mean when you say I ll take six of those because you can point to the salmon fillets The identical instruction over the tele phone would certainly prompt a request for clarifica tion In writing as in telephoning
5. Writing Clinic Assess Your Grammatical Acumen By SUSAN MCCLOSKEY rammar is the user s manual that comes with a G language It helps writers shape their thoughts into sentences that mean something to readers You may not often consult this manual for the very good reason that you don t need to Even if you have forgotten what a past participle is or cannot distinguish a coordinate from a subordinate conjunction you prob ably use these grammatical elements accurately more often than not So whether you picked up grammar on the fly or learned it by diagramming sentences under Miss Grundy s watchful instruction you may be thinking right now that the last thing you want to do is read this essay Before you act on that thought however take the Grammar Quiz The errors represented in the quiz are those I encounter in almost every document I review for my clients no matter what their practice area or level of experience Think of them as the Lawyers Top Ten If you recognize what is awry in every sentence and can set things to rights read no further But if even one sen tence looks just fine to you or if you re curious about the grammatical errors that other legal writers repeated ly commit read on For the grammarphiles among you I ve provided a Bonus Question to test your recall of the parts of speech and their functions in sentences Along the way perhaps even grammarphobes will conclude that grammar fosters something
6. d not build this sentence in the word phrase clause order I ve suggested but he needed all three kinds of modifiers as he wrestled with his thought and pinned it to the page One of the pleas ures of writing springs from these transformations of vague notions into precise ideas Of all the exercises of judgment that inform the crafting of a fine sentence few require more care than the writer s decisions about which elements of a sentence to modify how to modify them and how extensively to do so In legal prose carelessness on this score shows up most often in misplaced and dangling modifiers Sentence 6 of the Grammar Quiz represents the prob lem of a misplaced phrase Bradley s client said she under stood the charges a few times during the conversation The 32 Journal September 2004 modifying phrase a few times during the conversation should tell us how often and in what circumstance the client said in its current place in the sentence it tells us instead about the client s intermittent comprehension of the charges As soon as the writer moves the modifier closer to what it actually modifies the sentence makes a different sense in this case one more flattering to Bradley s client A few times during the conversation Bradley s client said she understood the charges Sentence 7 contains a dangling modifier a problem so common in legal prose that even skillful writers slip into it now and then To prove actual
7. e In the case of the Loan the terms of which are set forth in the Note or In the case of the Loan which interest rate exceeds the permissible rate of 20 When the writer uses 1 as a template for 2 and 3 he solves the problem In the case of the Loan 1 there is an express loan 2 its terms are set forth in the Note and 3 its interest rate exceeds the permissible rate of 20 The revised sentence has three independent clauses each of which makes sense with the opening phrase A final problem of coordination appears in Sentence 10 where the writer tries to compare incomparable things not just apples and oranges but apples and chimpanzees Like Sheffield the adoptive parent contracted orally but not in writing to raise his wife s child as his own But the adoptive parent is not at all like a legal case To solve the problem the writer has a choice She can write Like the adoptive parent in Sheffield the adoptive parent in the present case or she can do the job more efficiently As in Sheffield the adoptive parent in this case Almost always traceable to haste this particular error suggests a writer s willingness to embrace logical impossibility an inclination that a client or a judge may find particu larly alarming Writers who bother to get the grammar right clarify their meanings and ease their readers tasks To this extent grammar always matters The Role of Grammar These problems whether of a
8. e to match the other in form To be or not to be Many structures widely used in legal prose call for matches as exact as Hamlet s famous infinitives You need parallel constructions when words phrases or clauses are 1 joined by and or or 2 linked by the cor relative conjunctions either or neither nor both and and not only but also and 3 presented as items in a series or a list In Sentence 8 the writer missed the signal for matching structures that the correlative con junctions neither nor were sending her way Neither the report of Dr Farragut nor Dr Rider contains the requisite information Here the problem is at once grammatical and semantic After neither comes Dr Farragut s report Answers to Grammar Quiz 1 Subject and verb disagree Ordinary socializing and flirtation fail to satisfy the severity test of a valid sexual harassment claim 2 Subject and verb disagree What type of dam ages is available for recovery against a builder under these circumstances 3 Noun and pronoun disagree Once a moving party meets his or her burden the burden shifts 4 Relative pronoun which lacks a clear ante cedent Formal title to the property would remain with the wife an arrangement that may be unpalat able to the husband 5 Demonstrative pronoun this lacks a clear antecedent Whether due process was honored whether the parties rights to be heard and repre sented were fully exercised w
9. greement modification or coordination obscure the relationships between and among the words phrases and clauses on which the meaning of a sentence depends As writers we may conclude that an occasional obscurity a dangling mod ifier here or a pronoun without an antecedent there will cause no lasting harm As readers though we may not feel so sanguine Sometimes we need all the gram mar we can get The Bonus Question illus trates this circumstance The opening stanza of Lewis Carroll s Jabberwocky contains words whose meanings we can only guess at as Carroll fully intended But that we can guess that we can even begin to make sense of these words depends on our knowledge of grammar We know for instance that borogoves is a noun because only nouns take the article the as a modifier We know that it is a plural noun because it ends in s and takes the plural verb were The clause All mimsy were the borogoves may call to my mind an image utterly unlike the one you see But grammar lets us confidently agree that we re read ing about certain things borogoves existing in a certain state of being mimsy Out of Carroll s delightful non sense in short grammar goes a long way toward mak ing sense Our job as writers is to turn our sense into someone else s A writer does this job poorly whenever the read er stumbles over sloppily coordinated elements in a sen tence or cannot easily discern which word functions
10. hether the court s dis cretionary ruling was reasoned or arbitrary These elements can be determined only on a case by case basis 6 The modifying phrase is misplaced A few times during the conversation Bradley s client said she understood the charges 7 The modifying infinitive phrase dangles To prove actual malice the plaintiff must show that the defendant knew the statements were false or pub lished them with reckless disregard despite know ing they were false 8 Parallel structures are lacking The report of neither Dr Farragut nor Dr Rider contains the requi site information 9 Parallel structures are lacking In the case of the Loan 1 there is an express loan 2 its terms are set forth in the Note and 3 its interest rate exceeds the per missible rate of 20 10 The terms of the comparison cannot be com pared As in Sheffield the adoptive parent in our case contracted orally but not in writing to raise his wife s child as his own 11 Bonus Question brillig predicate adjective modifying expletive it contracted in Twas slithy attributive adjective modifying toves toves noun subject of the compound verb did gyre and gimble compound verb wabe noun object of the preposition in mimsy predicate adjective modifying borogoves borogoves noun subject of the verb were mome attributive adjective modifying raths raths noun subject of the verb outgrabe outgrabe verb Journal Se
11. in which the writer has mishandled the modifiers that elaborate the sentence s core meaning and 3 problems of coordination in which the writer has mismatched structures that should match or tried to compare incomparable things Sorting the problems in this way makes them easier to recognize once you ve recognized them solving them is a snap Problems of Agreement Subject and Verb 1 2 Among the rules of grammar those pertaining to agreement are fundamental Every reader is confused every time a writer obscures the relationship between a sentence s functional elements its subject and verb or its pronouns and the nouns they replace Even the grammar checking program on your computer reacts to simple instances of these problems sending out green squiggles to summon you to greater care The first rule of agreement requires that the subject and verb of a sentence agree in number A singular sub ject takes a singular verb a plural or compound subject a plural verb In Sentence 1 of the Grammar Quiz Ordinary social izing and flirtation fails to satisfy the severity test of a valid sexual harassment claim the writer broke this rule by giv ing a compound subject ordinary socializing and flirta tion a singular verb fails This error is especially puz zling because the writer almost certainly would never write Paul and Fred wishes to jettison their voluble silent partner Why did he slip into an error here Perhaps ordi
12. malice the defendant must have known the statements were false or published them with reckless disregard despite knowing they were false Surely the last thing the writer expects the defendant to do is to prove his or her own actual malice That task falls to the allegedly libeled plaintiff who doesn t appear in the sentence except as the implied subject of the infinitive phrase For the sentence to make sense the implied subject and the stated subject of the main clause must correspond The easiest solution is for the writer to alter the main clause by replacing defendant with plain tiff To prove actual malice the plaintiff must show that the defendant knew the statements were false Most legal writers need to keep in mind only two rules about the grammar of modification 1 Give every modifier something it can reasonably modify and 2 place modifying words phrases and clauses as close as possible to what they modify Then you ll be able to express even your most intricate thoughts with Holmesian exuberance and not lose your reader along the way Coordination Parallelism 8 10 When grammatical elements in a sentence perform the same function they should take the same form Even without brushing up your Shakespeare for instance you know that Hamlet did not say To be or stop being that is the question That sentence just doesn t sound right The conjunction or links a pair of alternatives and you expect each alternativ
13. ptember 2004 33 but after nor comes Dr Rider himself apparently with out the necessary goods The writer can repair her gram mar and clarify her meaning by making the nor phrase match the neither phrase but the result is cumbersome Neither the report of Dr Farragut nor the report of Dr Rider contains the requisite information The match works better in reverse The report of neither Dr Farragut nor Dr Rider contains the requisite information Or Neither Dr Farragut s nor Dr Rider s report contains the requisite information To make the structures match in other words you some times have to experiment But the experiment is always worthwhile and often reveal ing Logically dissimilar ele ments for instance will resist your efforts to coordi nate them a reliable sign that you need to rethink what you re trying to say Sentence 9 presents a related problem of paral lelism this time in a staple of legal prose a list The writer uses his list to present facts about a loan but the grammatical structure of the facts does not match In the case of the Loan 1 there is an express loan 2 the terms of which are set forth in the Note 3 which interest rate exceeds the permissible rate of 20 Each item taken separately should cooperate with the opening prepositional phrase to state a fact about the loan The independent clause of 1 does so but the dependent clauses of 2 and 3 do not What does it mean to writ
14. re about the sentence s essential elements of subject verb and object Observe the Zen like statement The good is reached grow through modification into one of Justice Holmes s most famous sentences First the noun good acquires two modifying adjectives The ultimate good desired is reached This clause then takes on a pair of prepositional phrases The ultimate good desired is reached by free trade in ideas Then the modifying clauses arrive to elbow the thought toward increasing clarity First a new clause absorbs and subordinates the existing clause Men may come to believe that the ultimate good desired is reached by free trade in ideas This new clause shoots forth a subclause they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ulti mate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas When this modified main clause finally yields a pair of appositive subclauses Holmes s thought is expressed When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safe ly can be carried out Justice Holmes certainly di
15. response she is seeking Problems of Agreement Nouns and Pronouns 3 5 Like subjects and verbs pronouns and the nouns they replace must agree in number But the second rule of agreement is more complicated than the first because the pronoun must also agree with its antecedent in per son and gender A pronoun in the second person cannot for instance replace a noun in the third as here Ifa per son wants to thrive in solo practice you had better get used to long hours and unpredictable revenue Nor as a growing consensus holds can a pronoun of one gender replace a noun that includes both genders in its meaning The illustrative sentence above becomes grammatically accurate but politically suspect when you replace person with only the masculine he or only the feminine she The writer of Sentence 3 ran up against this problem and solved it in the least satisfactory way Once a moving party meets their burden the burden shifts He wished to avoid the ponderousness of Once a moving party meets a moving party s burden and the ungainliness of replacing moving party with his or her So he seized grammar by the throat gave it a good throttle and replaced a singular noun with the plural pronoun their Until English evolves a singular third person pro noun to do the job that he alone used to do you will have to be resourceful if you wish to be grammatical If using his or her displeases you you must improvise You might remove the pos
16. sessive pronoun altogether Once the moving party meets the burden the burden shifts Or you might shift from the singular to the plural Once moving parties meet their burden the burden shifts In some con texts you can use we you or one to reach the safe harbor of gender neutrality In this essay I have chosen to be evenhanded instead of neutral using the masculine pro noun for writers of the odd numbered sentences in the Grammar Quiz and the feminine pronoun for writers of the even numbered ones An ideal solution No A rea sonable expedient I think so Sentence 4 illustrates the forlorn circumstance of a pronoun without a noun to relate to Formal title to the property would remain with the wife which may be unpalat able to the husband Does the relative pronoun which refer to title property or wife The first possibility makes no sense because a title isn t even metaphorically unpalat able Property makes sense only if we imagine an unusu ally ugly house and a husband of exacting taste Even in Journal September 2004 31 the context of divorce proceedings it s unlikely that wife is the intended referent The writer almost certainly meant which to refer to the idea she expressed in the main clause But a pronoun can t do that job because it derives its meaning not from phrases and clauses but from its one to one relationship with a noun Since title property and wife are the only nouns preceding the pro
17. y but not in writing to raise his wife s child as his own 11 Bonus Question For the words you do not recog nize in the first stanza of Lewis Carroll s Jabberwocky identify their parts of speech e g noun verb adjective and their function e g subject verb direct object Twas brillig and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe All mimsy were the borogoves And the mome raths outgrabe tH HH Susan McCloskey is the president of McCloskey Writing Consultants in Verbank NY Her firm offers writing seminars and writing and editorial services to law firms and law depart ments nationwide She received her Ph D from Princeton University and was a tenured professor of English lit erature at Vassar College Her firm s Web site address is lt www mccloskey writing com gt Other Writing Clinic articles by Ms McCloskey have appeared in the Journal in the November 1998 and 1999 issues and the November December issues in 2000 2001 2002 and 2003 Reprinted with permission from the New York State Bar Association Journal September 2004 Vol 76 No 7 published by the New York State Bar Association One Elk Street Albany New York 12207 30 Journal September 2004 The errors in sentences 1 through 10 fall into three categories 1 problems of agreement in which the writer has obscured the relationship between subject and verb or pronoun and antecedent 2 problems of modification
18. you are unable to point so the demonstrative pronouns do you little good Utility and clarity alike increase when you place a noun after every written use of this that these and those In Sentence 5 These elements would be clearer than These alone Pronouns cease to be troublesome when you remem ber what they are and use them to do the work they re suited to do Pronouns take the place of nouns so that you never need to write a sentence like this one John lost John s case when John s star witness left town on the day John planned to place John s star witness on the stand As long as every pronoun you write has an unambiguous relation ship with a noun not a phrase not a clause not every thing that precedes the pronoun all will be well You make that relationship evident when the pronoun and its related noun agree in person number and gender Problems of Modification 6 7 When Western Union charged by the word people who sent telegrams knew how to reduce a thought to its essential elements an implied subject a verb and a participial adjective Got married or an implied subject a verb and a direct object Send money In the era of e mail writers can afford to be more expansive in their messages to indicate at the very least whom they married or how much money they need Modification denotes this fleshing out of a sentence s bare bones the use of words phrases and clauses to tell the reader mo
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search