Parts of Speech

Dear Students

Before you read any further, make sure you understand the vocabulary of this blog.  Please review the parts of speech.  Here is why:

Let's imagine that you want to write "I just received my Ontario Driver's Licence." and then suddenly feel some doubt.  Is it "license" or "licence."  You could open your wallet and look at your licence, but instead you open your beloved Canadian Oxford Paperback Dictionary and look it up.  One is the noun spelling and one is the verb spelling.  Clearly, you will have to know the difference between a noun and a verb.

In my comments on your work, I might say

• remove extra, unnecessary adjectives
• find and fix the wrong verb
• clarify the pronoun reference
• add "ly" to your adverbs
• put a comma before your conjunctions when there are more than three items in a list
• insert a definite article  

If you do not understand the parts of speech, you won't understand my editing vocabulary and you will have difficulty with the suggested corrections.  If you are a little rusty on parts of speech, look on the universal prosthetic memory (Google) and find a website with a parts-of-speech review test.  Not only will you and I be on the same page, but you'll quickly learn to write better (dammit).

Comma Coma #6: Roughing It in the Bush

In a previous blog, I wrote about the problem of using too many commas.

Here's a sentence on the back cover of an edition of Roughing It in the Bush (Virago, 1986):

Her absorbing book, reissued in its full version and with an introduction by Margaret Atwood, whose first volume of poetry, The Journals of Susanna Moodie, is testimony to the enduring spirit of a remarkable woman, has been out of print in Britain since 1852.

 What a wonderful example of horrible punctuation.  The author has created a 44-word sentence chopped up by five commas. Margaret Atwood would be horrified.

I thought perhaps the back cover sentence was an homage to Susanna Moodie's writing style, but Moodie's sentences are as crisp and clear as an autumn afternoon.  Let me qualify that somewhat:  an autumn afternoon in 1832.  But still - 

I suggest dividing the offending sentence into at least two sentences:

1.  Her [Moodie's] absorbing book has been out of print in Britain since 1852.
2.  The new version includes an introduction by Margaret Atwood whose first volume of poetry, The Journals of Susanna Moodie, is testimony to the enduring spirit of a remarkable woman.

Count the words in your sentences or count your commas.  Either action will help you if you want to write better (dammit).