Say What? · the Fiction Writer's Handy Guide to Grammar, Punctuation, and Word Usage by Lakin, C.S. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Copyright Praise for "Say What?" Other Writing Craft Books by C. S. Lakin Contents Preface Grammar

Spelling

A Word about Dumb Spell-Checkers Chopping Off Words to Make Them Taste Good All Confused Enquire Here Racked, Wrecked, or What? The Past Has Passed Anyone Want Some Free Reins? A Matter of One Little Letter A Peek at Being Piqued The Principal Principle Mind Your Yesses and Nos Being Forward about Forewords

Punctuation

Commas, Etc. I Wonder, Where Is That Comma? Using Commas, Since They’re Needed Commas That Are, Indeed, Useful They Travel in Pairs . . . Sometimes Learn When to Be Restrictive Comma Get a Handle on Commas Serial Commas Are Serious Stuff Let’s Not Eat Grandma Any Way You Splice It Semicolons: Commonly Misused Bits of Punctuation Make a Dash for It What Are Those Long Hyphens All About? Hyphenation—Not-So-Easy-to-Understand Rules Prefixes That Put You in a Fix with Hyphenation More Handy Hyphenation Rules Using Hyphens to Avoid Confusion A Simple Hyphenation Rule That Is Well Advised Hyphenating Numbers and Colors When You Don’t Want to Hyphenate What about Those Techy Terms? Let’s Get Social in Our Terms Are You Asking a Question or Not? Stay Inside the Quote Marks Scare Quotes Are Not All That Scary Don’t Abuse the Dot-Dot-Dots

Capitalization

Point Me in the Right Direction Don’t Get Cappy Happy Places to Call to Your Attention Capitalize on These Tips on Capitalization A Capital Thought Capping the Holidays

Numbers

Numbers and Numerals Count What Time Is It? Time Is the Topic of the Day The 100 Percent Solution

Nouns and Pronouns

Mass Nouns and Count Nouns Turning Verbs into Nouns May Be Bad for Your Writing You Don’t Know the Half of It Are You Appositive about This? Do Yourself a Favor and Learn about Reflexive Pronouns Joint Ownership Getting Serious about Series A Helpful Way to Determine When Not to Use “Whom” Are You a Who or a That? Which to Use—Which or That? All Is Well When All Are Accounted For Clear and Present Antecedents More Like Me or I

Verbs and Adverbs

To Lay or to Lie—That is the Question Don’t Get Hung Up on Hang Tenses Don’t Have to Be Intense Are You Progressively Tense? Don’t Raise a Ruckus about Rise and Raise More Verbs to Drug You Through Double Your Adverbs, Double the Trouble You Woke Me . . . or Did You Wake Me? How Much Further? Are You Singular? Do You Smell Bad or Badly?

Adjectives

Are You Coordinating? The March of the Adjectives Watch Out for Superfluous Adjectives Each and Every Way to Get Confused More Ways to Get Each and Every Confused Is Anything Absolutely Impossible? A Simple, Fun Lesson about Participial Phrases Learning About Proper Adjectives in a New York Minute Incisive, Decisive, Concise, and Precise

Other Parts of Speech

Not Always “As” You “Like” It A Couple of Things You Should Know Between I or Me? I’m Onto You Are You Between or Among? Either Or, Neither Nor More Rules for Either Or, Neither Nor While Means Whereas . . . Sometimes

Other Rules of Grammar

Do You Know When to Use (Those) Parentheses? Some Grammatical Errors That Aren’t When You’re (Missing) a Word in a Comparison Because of or Due to Confusion Is Your Modifier Misplaced? The Danger of Starting Sentences with Participial Phrases Abbreviated Details Walk Toward, Not Towards Are You Different From or Different Than? Keeping Up with the Joneses Don’t “Try and” Do Anything Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda Some Incorrect Constructions to Avoid Are You in the Subjunctive Mood? Another Look at the Subjunctive Mood How to Decide if You Should Use the Subjunctive Mood Other Forms of Subjunctive Mood Do Signs Read? Messy Plurals More Messy Plurals Each Writer Should Correct Their Own Grammar Let’s Be in Agreement Don’t Dangle More Dangling Things Each Thing Must Be the Same Share and Share Alike Acronyms and Periods Mind Other People’s Business It’s Not Rocket Science! To Italicize or Not to Italicize. A Rule of Thumb A Friend of Yours

Style and Usage

Confusables

Accept the Inevitable Exceptions Are You Fortunate or Fortuitous? More Confusion I’m Averse to Cumulative versus Accumulative Can You Distinguish What’s Distinct? Negligence Is Not Negligible Avenge and Revenge Wreaking Havoc Do You Connote What I’m Denoting? Are You in a Dilemma or a Predicament? Don’t Assume Too Much Pity the Fool Decent, Dissent, and Descent Requisite, Prerequisite, and Perquisite Understanding the Subsequent Consequences Here Lies—An Epithet or an Epitaph? Don’t Elicit Illicit Behavior Are You Sure It’s Ensure? No, Your Spell-Checker Probably Won’t Catch These Some More Confusables Are You Altogether All Together? Deduce or Induce? It’s Elementary, Watson . . . The Danger of Misuse is Imminent Are You Predominantly Correct or Mistaken? Are You Likely or Apt to Read This? Are You Eager or Anxious? Alternating between Alternatives Are You Done or Finished? Hale, Hardy, and Hearty Are You Irritated or Aggravated? Hone What You’re Homing In On Are You Reticent or Reluctant to Read This? I Both Anticipate and Expect a Reaction A Few Misused Words I Can Accost You With Neglect, Ignore, or Disregard This at Your Peril!

Word Meanings and Usage

Are You Literally Being Literal? Amid and Among Should I Take It or Bring It? Whether or Not You Like This Are You Getting the Just Deserts You Deserve? I Would if I Could . . . Hopefully, You’ll Learn Something from This Entry Proved vs. Proven Apparently Semimonthly Madness Moral and Ethical Ethics We Have Mutual, Common, and Reciprocal Interests Inflammatory Distinctions More or Less Pass the Collocations More Cool Collocations Are You Inferring or Implying? I May be Wrong, Maybe . . . Both and Only Are Four-Letter Words Are You Infamous or More Than Famous? I Continue to Be Continuous Stay Awhile and I’ll Explain The Reason Why Is Because This Entry Comprises Three Short Paragraphs Giving It Regard As Smart as a Whip When "Where" Should Be "In Which" Everyday Confusion . . . Every Day I’d Like Some Time, Anytime Who Needs Any More Trouble with Anymore? Denizens and Their Labels Everyday Words That Are Misused Every Day

Fiction “Rules”

Strong Nouns and Verbs Are You Overly Passive? Speaker Tags: You Can’t Cough Speech Don’t Get Frowned Upon That That Might Not Be That Necessary A Word You May Have No Need Of “You Know, Bob . . .” Am I Being Redundant or What? Circumlocution at Its Best (or Worst) More Ways to Be in Error of Circumlocution Personal Shifts He Said, She Said One Thing Leads to Another Some Extraneous Words That Clutter Pop Goes the Weasel (Word) Act First, Talk Later

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