Grammar Moses: Mind your P's and Q's and ofs
Do you have trouble getting to the point?
Most writers, pro or amateur, do. We fall in love with our own words.
Here is a simple way to test whether your writing is unnecessarily long: Count the ofs.
“Today I saw a headline running at the bottom of the TV screen, which asked, ‘How big of a deal is it?'” regular reader Don Buck of Wheaton wrote. “Seems to me that the word ‘of' is unnecessary. Personally, I prefer ‘How large a transaction is it?'”
Don is onto something.
“Of” is a pretty good indicator that there are superfluous words and phrases lurking about.
When you see an “of” in your writing, ask yourself whether the word of the phrase is justified or, as I suspect in many cases, it simply bogs down your sentence. You often can alter your phrase to make it tighter.
(“Tighter” is newsspeak for “more concise.”)
There are cases in which it is warranted. I count nine ofs in my secondary topic today (I'm not counting those in this introductory topic), and the majority of them are “Joe Blow of Yourtown,” which is shorter than “Yourtown resident Joe Blow.”
According to world-english.org's list of the most popular English words, “of” ranks second only to “the.”
If you have trouble cramming your every thought on a postcard, think of the space-saving possibilities!
Big plate of crow
To the people who wrote me or commented on last Sunday's column online, and to those I unwittingly led astray, I offer a big, sloppy mea culpa.
Readers Lauren Hahn of Mundelein and Marty Robinson let me know that an anonymous contributor's assessment that “till” is not synonymous with “until” was incorrect. In fact, the word “till” is much older than “until” and means the same thing.
Strike 2: Patrick Walsh of Elgin and Matt Flamm of Palatine also sent corrections.
My anonymous contributor suggested that “express written permission” ought to be “expressed written permission.”
The problem is that I was taught the same fallacies in school decades ago and took my contributor's arguments as confirmation of what I already “knew.”
Rest assured, dear reader, I won't do this again. When answering readers' questions or coming up with my own subject matter, I will check what I believe to be true against a variety of sources. When I don't know the answer, I'll cite a trusted source.
In this case, I trusted myself — and blew it.
Write carefully! (I know I will.)
• Jim Baumann is assistant vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.