Noun

August is a time when soon-to-be college freshmen are “preparing” for school. For just about any red-blooded American teenager, this means shopping, shopping and more shopping. But a worn-out credit card does not a prepared freshman make. So, for all you “shop-worn” parents of incoming college students, here's an item that won't cost you a dime and could just provide the most important back-to-school prep of all. It's a quiz for the student. Read the following passage aloud and have your student write it down: It's the Thomases whose house can weather the effects of time, rather than the Williamses' house, because its foundation lets in a lot of air and because they're the ones who got a new roof in the 1990s, replacing a roof built in the '40s and thus positively affecting their home's durability, which has led to a higher assessed value.

This week I have the thought to take on the writing of a column about people’s using of the things called nominalizations. Translation: I think I’ll write about nominalizations. I got the idea when I came across a sentence like the following in an article I was editing: “The judging of the entries will be conducted by industry experts, many of whom have also accepted invitations to give talks and presentations at the event.” Yup, people write like that. Which is fine, if you want to put your reader to sleep.

For some time now, President Obama’s birth certificate has been posted online. Yet some people refused to believe he was born in this country. Recently, Obama released the long-form copy of his birth certificate. Some people still wouldn’t believe it. Last week, the president announced that Osama Bin Laden was dead. Some people refuse to accept that. There are many conclusions we can draw from this — some fascinating, some disturbing. But one fact we can glean here is more alarming, more bone-chilling than any other.

If you’re like most people, you probably dangle a bit from time to time. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Even people familiar with the concept of dangling participles can let a dangler slip into the occasional email or memo. In fact, most of the professional writers I edit are vulnerable to one particular type of dangler — one so common and so subtle that, lately, I’ve been reconsidering whether it needs fixing at all. Here’s an example: “A popular annual event, the Harvest Festival’s main stage will feature live musical acts.” Here’s another: “An ideal hiking spot, the canyon’s gorgeous scenery astounds visitors.” To understand what, exactly, is dangling here, it’s worth pausing for a short refresher.

Recently, Jim in Glendale saw a newspaper headline that said something like "Five school board members lose seat. " That didn't sit right with him. "Using the singular 'seat' — instead of the plural 'seats' — is incompatible with 'members,'" Jim wrote in an e-mail. "But that type of usage, though sloppy, seems to be common in everyday speech. So where do we stand? Is it a flagrant no-no, or is it one of those cases where only fussy grammarians would nitpick the issue?"

Where I work, one of the most common questions editors ask each other is whether some term — say soymilk or healthcare — should be written as one word or two. And the responses we get and give might surprise you. Though occasionally one of us will answer, "I just looked that up today! Soymilk is one word," more often, someone will yell out, "Let me check. " Knowing whether a term is one word, two words, or hyphenated would be the hardest part of an editor's job were it not for one thing: We're not supposed to know.

I had a nice conversation recently with a Burbank English teacher who wanted to get to the bottom of a question that had plagued him since he was a student. Why, he wanted know, had he been taught to say ?I appreciate your taking the time to meet with me? instead of ?I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me?? Here?s another example of the issue: ?Joe resented Mary?s arriving late? vs. ?Joe resented Mary arriving late.? One more: ?I?m shocked at Betty?s saying that?

We've all been there. You write a business letter, perhaps a cover letter to go with a resume, pop it in mailbox or fax machine, then moments later you wince in pain. "Dang!" (OK, that's not really what you say, but I can't use those words here.) "Did I make a grammatical mistake? Should I have written that I'm 'not too big of an embezzler' instead of the version with no 'of,' 'too big an embezzler'? Should I have written that I've been in prison 'a couple of times' instead of 'a couple times'" Should I have written, 'the reason is because I'm a pathological liar' with the word 'because' in there?