The odd thing
about grammar and punctuation rules is that they are a bit of a moveable feast.
Some change depending on whether you’re using US or UK English and others are
flexible depending on context, style and genre. Sounds like a can of worms, if
you ask me. But let’s dive in and try and make some sense of it all.
First, I’d like
to select the three rules that I see authors breaking most often. These ones
are non-negotiable.
Use of it’s and
its
it’s = it is
(It’s raining)
its = belonging
to (The creature protected its young)
The easy way to
remember correct use of it’s and its is to say ‘it is’ whenever you come across
either version. If the sentence makes sense when you say ‘it is’ then the
correct term is it’s.
Use of initial
capital when referring to parents
There’s no need
for the capital when you’re referring to ‘my mum’ or ‘your dad’. Usually if you
can substitute the name for the word ‘mum’ or ‘dad’ then you need a capital
letter.
I asked Mum to
dinner (I asked Jean to dinner would work fine)
I asked my mum
to dinner (I asked my Jean to dinner is not right)
Use of lie/lay/laid
I have a crib
sheet, in fact I have more than one crib sheet, to remind me how this works.
Here’s one of them:
Lie:
Present
tense: I lie down on the grass
and look up at the trees.
Past tense: Yesterday,
I lay down on the grass and looked up at
the trees.
Past perfect: Years
later I recalled how I had lain down on the grass and looked up at the trees.
Lay:
Present
tense: As I look up at the trees,
I lay my book to one side.
Past tense: As
I looked up at the trees, I laid my book to one side.
Past perfect: Years
later I recalled how I had laid my book to one side.
So,
the above are non-negotiable. Now let’s have a look at some of the ones that I
think are negotiable.
When
I was taught English grammar at school back in the 1970s, the rule was that a
hyphen was required in ‘the nineteenth-century monument’, but not in ‘the
monument dated from the nineteenth century’. These days, if the meaning is
clear and the piece of writing isn’t formal, omitting the hyphen isn’t the sin
it once was. However, please note, a hyphen isn’t needed in phrases that
contain adverbs that end ‘-ly’. For example, ‘a happily married couple’ and
‘newly made road’.
Some
people get very hot under the collar about the comma splice. The rule is that a
comma by itself shouldn’t be used to join two main clauses. For example, ‘I
enjoy reading, I always have my nose in a book.’ This can be corrected by
splitting it into two sentences or by adding a conjunction such as ‘and’ or
‘so’. The comma splice is something I’m actually quite partial to. I rather
like the rhythm it can give to a sentence.
If
you’re not sure whether to use ‘that’ or ‘which’ in a sentence, the basic rule
is as follows: ‘that’ is used when a clause is integral to the sentence, and
‘which’ is used when the sentence would still make sense without the clause.
The teacher always gave gold stars to stories that showed
imagination. (Note: no comma before ‘that’.)
The pupil’s latest story, which the teacher had awarded a
gold star, was her favourite. (Note: comma before ‘which’.)
However,
there is wiggle room, especially when you’re writing in an informal style and
when writing dialogue. The same goes for ‘who’ and ‘whom’. I cringe a little
when I hear characters say ‘whom’ in everyday speech.
The
basic rule is that you use ‘who’ when you’re referring to the subject of a
sentence and ‘whom’ when referring to the object.
Test 1
Who is your teacher?
Whom is your teacher?
The
correct answer for Test 1 is ‘who’ because the teacher is the subject of the
sentence.
Test 2
Who did the teacher praise?
Whom did the teacher praise?
The
correct answer for Test 2 is ‘whom’ because the teacher is doing the praising,
so the ‘whom’ is referring to the object in that sentence.
I
love the substitution test that many people refer to, which runs: if the answer
to the question is ‘he’ then you use ‘who’ and if the answer is ‘him’ then you
use ‘whom’. So in Test 1, the answer would be, ‘He is my teacher’ and in Test
2, you’d answer, ‘The teacher praised him.’ A quick way to remember the
substitution rule is that ‘him’ and ‘whom’ both end with ‘m’.
If
all that has whetted your appetite, and you don’t yet have a copy of a style
guide, I suggest The Chicago Manual of
Style for US English, and the New
Oxford Style Manual for UK English.
I
recommend that authors learn the rules of punctuation and grammar and then choose
to break them if and when they want or need to. If you have a logical or
creative reason then I see no problem in breaking a rule or two. However, I
think it’s important you have the confidence and professionalism to assure
readers that you’re doing it on purpose and not in error.
Wendy Janes
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About the Author
Wendy Janes is a freelance proofreader for a number of publishers and many individual authors. She is also a caseworker for The National Autistic Society’s Education Rights Service. Author of the novel, What Jennifer Knows and a collection of short stories, What Tim Knows, and other stories, she loves to take real life and turn it into fiction. She lives in London with her husband and youngest son. You can connect with Wendy online and discover more about her via her Facebook author page, her website, Amazon author pages (UK/US) and Twitter @wendyproof.
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