Apropos of nothing to do with photography, my inner grammar scold is going to lay out 8 language irritants. I still remember diagramming sentences through all my years in grade school, and I'd like to see that discipline return. Maybe I've just turned into a crusty curmudgeon, yearning to see beautifully crafted sentences everywhere I turn. Actually, I'd settle for barely readable emails with proper punctuation. My son Scott writes for Fortune magazine (his latest piece on a driven investor named Bruce Berkowitz is here), and I'm glad to see he's become a chip off the old linguistic block.
Here's round one from this grammar scold.
1. Impact is a noun. Use the word 'affect' as a verb.
2. 'None' is singular
3. Let's have a ten year moratorium on anyone using the word 'literally'
4. Use fewer when you can count objects, less for weight or concepts
5. Moratorium also on: boots or anything else on the ground, the word 'like'
6. I couldn't care less, not I could care less
7. Keep the word only right next to what it's modifying: eg: He tried to keep only 3 apples, not, He only tried to keep 3 apples.
8. You grow crops. You do not grow a business. You help a business to grow.
Happy sentence diagramming!
Here's round one from this grammar scold.
1. Impact is a noun. Use the word 'affect' as a verb.
2. 'None' is singular
3. Let's have a ten year moratorium on anyone using the word 'literally'
4. Use fewer when you can count objects, less for weight or concepts
5. Moratorium also on: boots or anything else on the ground, the word 'like'
6. I couldn't care less, not I could care less
7. Keep the word only right next to what it's modifying: eg: He tried to keep only 3 apples, not, He only tried to keep 3 apples.
8. You grow crops. You do not grow a business. You help a business to grow.
Happy sentence diagramming!
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