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How to punctuate a sentence

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:03:29 GMT

clipped by: missangelyss
clipper's remarks: Making simple punctuation rules easy to understand. I can think of quite a few people I'd like to force to read this.

Clip Source: www.lifehack.org

Rule one
If your sentence begins with an introductory element, put a comma after it. Even if it’s a short element, put a comma after it. In time, you’ll be putting this comma in without having to think about it.

Rule five
Complete sentences that are joined without a coordinating conjunction need a semi-colon instead of a comma; the semi-colon shows the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next. Semi-colons are often followed by a connecting word or phrase; however, a connecting word or phrase is not necessary. Sentences joined with only a comma are called comma splices; they’re among the most common errors that come up in college writing.

(Note: In the next-to-last sentence in the previous paragraph, there’s a comma after however because it’s an introductory element in the second sentence.)

Tags: grammar, punctuation

Morality: Nature or Nurture?

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 02:49:02 GMT

clipped by: missangelyss

Clip Source: www.boston.com

A Harvard researcher believes that humans have an innate sense of right and wrong, but others say morality is mostly learned

Last week, Harvard professor Marc Hauser dropped in to his daughter Sofia's kindergarten class and presented the children with a moral dilemma. You must all keep your eyes closed for 30 seconds, he told them. If none of you raises your hand during that time, you will each get a sheet of stickers when it's over. But if one of you raises your hand, only that child will get all the stickers.

The task brought immediate cries of protest, Hauser recalled. "But that's not fair!" some children exclaimed, shocked at the idea that one child could hog all the stickers.

Some might say that the kindergartners, in their short lives, had already learned much about the nature of justice. But Hauser goes a step further: Morality, he argues, is influenced by cultural teachings but is also so deep and universal an aspect of human existence that it is effectively "hard-wired" into the brain, much like the instinct for language.

At work, he says, are principles as unconscious and yet powerful as the grammar rules we use when we speak -- and the challenge to scientists is to figure out what those built-in moral rules are and how they work.

To that end, Hauser and other researchers are experimenting with children, monkeys, on-line survey takers, brain-damaged patients, and even psychopaths and remote hunter-gatherers.

His theory that morality is based in biology has plunged Hauser into an intellectual fray that spans from the pages of The New York Times to the rows of students who take his evolution classes at Harvard.

Tags: morality

Grammar Police

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:08:51 GMT

clipped by: missangelyss

Clip Source: begthequestion.info

Being the crusty old pedants that we are, we cannot, nay, must not stop at BTQ Abuse. Here are a few other quirks of modern Western vernacular which have roused our ire. These are but the tip of an iceberg, representing what we believe to be the most egregious examples of literary deficiency.

Could Care Less

If you say you could care less, it implies that you are currently caring more. If it is your intention to say that you do not care, please say that you "couldn't care less." Does it make sense to you that having a Caring Level of Zero would preclude the possibility of a below-Zero Caring Level, and therefore you could not care less? Please refer to The Caring Continuum for a visualization of your error.

Could Of / Would Of / Should Of / Had Of

For this apalling verbal travesty, we refer you to this passage from The American Language, by that infamous and disagreeable iconoclast, H. L. Mencken:

To have, as an auxiliary, probably because of its intimate relationship with the perfect tenses, is under heavy pressure, and promises to disappear from the situations in which it is still used.... Sometimes it is confused ignorantly with a distinct of, as in "she would of drove," and "I would of gave." More often it is shaded to a sort of particle, attached to the verb as an inflection, as in "he would 'a tole you," and "who could 'a took it?" But this is not all. Having degenerated to such forms, it is now employed as a sort of auxiliary to itself, in the subjunctive, as in "if you had of went," "if it had of been hard," and "if I had of had." I have encountered some rather astonishing examples of this doubling of the auxiliary.

Irregardless

There's "irrespective," and there's "regardless," but there's no such thing as "irregardless." More on that from Get it Write and Q & A.

Tags: grammar

23 Obscure and Obsolete Words

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 04:41:58 GMT

clipped by: missangelyss

Clip Source: www.canongate.net

23 Obscure and Obsolete Words

The average adult recognises 30,000 to 50,000 words, but only uses 10,000 to 15,000. However, there are actually about 1 million words in the English language, some of which - although obscure, forgotten, or rarely used - are worth reviving.

BOANTHROPY - A type of insanity in which a man thinks he is an ox.
CHANTEPLEURE - To sing and weep at the same time.
DIBBLE - To drink like a duck, lifting up the head after each sip.
EOSOPHOBIA - Fear of dawn.
EUGERIA - Normal and happy old age.
EUNEIROPHRENIA - Peace of mind after a pleasant dream.
EYESERVICE - Work done only when the boss is watching.
FELLOWFEEL - To crawl into the skin of another person so as to share his feelings, to empathise with.
GROAK - To watch people silently while they are eating, hoping they will ask you to join them.
GYNOTIKOLOBOMASSOPHILE - One who likes to nibble on a woman's earlobes.
HEBEPHRENIC - A condition of adolescent silliness.
IATROGENIC - Illness or disease caused by doctors or by prescribed treatment.
LAPLING - Someone who enjoys resting in women's laps.
LIBBERWORT - Food or drink that makes one idle and stupid, food of no nutritional value, `junk food'.
MEUPAREUNIA - A sexual act gratifying to only one participant.
NEANIMORPHIC - Looking younger than one's years.
ONIOCHALASIA - Buying as a means of mental relaxation.
PARNEL - A priest's mistress.
PERISTEROPHOBIA - Fear of pigeons.
PILGARLIC - A bald head that looks like a peeled garlic.
PREANTEPENULTIMATE - Fourth from last.
RESISTENTIALISM - Seemingly spiteful behaviour manifested by inanimate objects.
SUPPEDANEUM - A foot support for crucifix victims.

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Tags: english, grammar, wordsmith, words