Grammar Moses: Speed round with Barrington Writers Workshop

Bev Ottaviano, who leads the Barrington Writers Workshop, asked me to talk to her group about good grammar. Knowing a Q&A would be part of the deal, I demurred.

You see, it would be dreadfully dull to watch me look through some of my dozen or more reference books while I researched answers.

I'm sure the members of the BWW are lovely people, but I just know somebody would throw me a brushback pitch.

Besides, carting all these hardcover books around would be a hassle.

So I agreed to answer as many of their questions as I could in one column so you could benefit from it, too.

Here goes:

• Adverbs. OK or not OK?

Adverbs are wonderful things when used appropriately. (Like the word "appropriately.")

• Use of abbreviations, text or otherwise, in your work.

If you're writing for a newspaper, you're free to employ many abbreviations: titles when used before a name; some months; street designations and the like. It's meant to save space. If you're writing books or short stories, it's tradition not to.

Be very careful with acronyms and initialisms. Use only those that are commonly known: IRS, FBI, etc. We avoid using "DNA" for Elgin's Downtown Neighborhood Association because it's already used universally for deoxyribonucleic acid.

If you're writing for trade journals, you're more free to use abbreviations that are commonplace in that industry.

Know your audience. Don't make your readers think too hard; it'll slow them down.

• Appropriate times to change tenses? When?

I've seen any number of longer form news stories in which sections of present tense are inserted in a past tense narrative to good effect. It's done routinely in novels and is a fine way to provide context for your characters.

But it's important to somehow segregate one tense from another - with new chapters or italics - to avoid creating confusion. You never want to mix tenses within a sentence or a paragraph.

It's a lot easier to breeze through a story or a book if the writer maintains tense or gives you overt clues that she is changing it.

• Dashes, ellipses, sentence fragments. These all get indulged, but are they acceptable writing?

I use dashes often, ellipses infrequently and sentence fragments ... sparingly.

To provide effect.

Of course, it's easy to overdo any of them. Make them the exception, not the rule.

• The difference between less and fewer and does it matter any more?

It matters a great deal to some people, less so to others.

I believe it matters, but I'm a newspaper editor who upholds AP style and feels compelled to turn his internal emails into a column.

• Hated words. I happen to hate the word "verbiage," but "moist" is often at the top of hated words. "Chunky" is up there, too, when it's used for anything besides ice cream or peanut butter.

I dislike "moist," too. But I'm also bothered by "gal" - I find it dismissive.

The beauty of writing is the writer has so many words from which to choose. It's largely unnecessary to use words one dislikes.

Unless you find them in the perfect quote, of course.

• Possessive apostrophe when discussing two people. For instance, mentioning someone's home. Is it Jim and Julie's house or Jim's and Julie's house or, simply, the Johnsons' house?

If two people possess one thing jointly, it's "Jim and Julie's house." If Julie and Jim aren't living together, go with "Jim's and Julie's houses."

I'm sorry I couldn't make it through all your questions. I hope these answers help.

Write carefully!

• 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.