21st Century Grammar Handbook (28 page)

Indirect questions can strike readers as weak because they
don’t precisely record what has been asked. “The interviewer asked if you are happy” is not quite as accurate or certain a version of several possible questions that might have been asked: “The interviewer asked, ‘Are you happy? Is he/she happy? Is Kim happy? Is anyone here happy?”

Question mark.
The
punctuation
mark that indicates a direct
question
is called a “question mark” (?). The question mark is used straightforwardly and most often to end a direct question: “How are you?” Complications arise when question marks appear with other punctuation, especially
parentheses
and
quotation marks.

Depending on what is being set off by the parentheses, question marks can appear inside or outside them. If the parentheses enclose a complete sentence (or more than one), any direct questions within them end with question marks that appear within the parentheses: “It was cold. (But why did the water stay liquid? Why were the ducks on the pond?) Was winter here?”

But if the parentheses set off a
phrase, clause,
or even a whole
sentence
within a direct question, the whole direct question ends with a question mark outside the parentheses: “How cold was it (ducks were on the pond, the water was still liquid)?” No
period
ends the sentences within the parentheses, by the way, though a question mark could have appeared within them as well if one of the parenthetical sentences was a direct question: “How cold was it (were there ducks on the pond? was it still liquid?)?” The example cries out for
revision
to eliminate the logjam of punctuation at its end and to give the reader a chance to follow what is going on. It would have been better to write
several separate sentences as questions than to have knitted them together in this forced way.

With quotation marks the question mark can, again, appear either within them or outside them. If a direct question is being quoted (and not being restated as an indirect question), then it ends with a question mark followed by quotation marks: “is that so?” Or: “The guest asked, ‘Is that so?’” (The indirect question “The guest asked if that was so” does not end in a question mark inside or outside the quotes.)

But if quoted material appears within a direct question and does not constitute the whole question, then the question mark appears at the end of the sentence and is not followed by quotes: “Was the teacher talking about the ‘decline of the West’?” The question mark is outside the single quote that marks only words being set off for some other reason than questioning them. The question mark is within the double quotes only because that is how examples in this book are set off.

Note that a quoted direct question followed by a statement about who is asking the question ends with a quotation mark inside the quotes and no additional punctuation until the end of the whole sentence: “‘Is that so?’ the companion asked.” No
comma
follows the quoted question, although one would have been necessary if the example were not a question: “‘That is so,’ the companion said.”

Quotation.
Like
questions,
quotations come in two basic kinds—direct and indirect statements attributed to someone: “‘That’s right,’ I said.” “Indeed, I said that it was exemplary.” The first example is a direct quotation, and the
second is indirect. Note the differences in their
punctuation
and
order of words
and selection.

Direct quotations are surrounded by
quotation marks
and contain within the quotation marks ending punctuation to indicate whether the quoted statement is a
demonstrative, interrogative, imperative,
or other kind of sentence: “‘Make it so!’ the boss ordered.” “‘Why must I?’ the employee inquired.” “‘Because I said so,’ the boss responded.” In this exchange the first quoted sentence is an imperative that ends with an
exclamation point;
the next is a direct question that ends with a
question mark
inside the quotes; and the last quoted statement is a simple demonstrative sentence, which ends with a
comma
inside the quotes when a statement follows about who is making the quoted statement. If a demonstrative sentence is quoted and ends a quoted passage, it ends with a
period
inside the quotation marks: “The employee said, ‘I agree.’ ”

Indirect quotations restate or report statements rather than reproducing them directly: “He said that he was happy.” Indirect quotations are not set off in quotation marks (except here as an example), do not include punctuation to indicate the nature of the quoted sentence, and usually include words like “said that,” “stated that,” or something similar to mark the reporting of speech indirectly.

Like indirect questions, indirect quotations expose the writer to some suspicion from readers. What exactly did someone say as opposed to what is reported? A few indirect quotations will not arouse such suspicion, but repeated indirect quotations from the same source can create doubts about accuracy of reporting.

Quotation mark.
The
punctuation
marks used to set off quoted speech are called “quotes” or “quotation marks”: “‘Yes,’ Bloom said.”

Simple direct quotations are surrounded by double quotes (”), while further quotes within double-quote-marked sentences use single quotes (’), as in the example. Further quotes within quotes within quotes would logically be set off by double quotes, but sentences of such complexity should rarely be imposed on readers.

Quotes are also used to mark single words,
phrases,
or
clauses
for
emphasis
—when they are being signaled as somehow suspect (“You call that a ‘dog’?”); when they are being treated as grammatical categories or words in themselves (“ ‘That’ is a pronoun.”); or for other emphatic purposes.

Note that other punctuation is placed before or after quote marks differently, depending on whether quotes surround fully quoted speech or emphasized words. A fully quoted
sentence
or
fragment
has all its punctuation inside the quote marks, including any ending punctuation: “Did you call the dog?” “Call the dog!” “I called the dog.” Similarly, fully quoted sentences or fragments that don’t end a sentence have all punctuation inside quotes: “‘Are you sure?’ the judge asked.” Here the whole sentence ends with a
period
inside the double quotes as expected, and the sentence quoted ends with a
question mark
inside the single quotes that set it off. When a sentence is quoted and falls before and after the identification of the speaker, the first part ends with a
comma
inside the quotes, and the rest ends with whatever punctuation is appropriate: “‘Your fence,’ the
neighbor shouted, ‘is too high!’ ” Similarly, if two sentences from the same speaker are quoted before and after the identification, all punctuation for the quoted sentences is within the quotes: “‘Come on in!’ the host directed, ‘Get comfortable!’ ”

When quotes are used to mark words for any other purpose than as a direct quotation, then end-of-sentence question marks and
exclamation points
do not fall within them: “Is this supposed to be an example of ‘good writing’?” The question mark is inside the double quotes that set off the whole example but outside the single quotes that here suggest doubts or
irony
about the words “good writing.” Had the example ended with a period, however, it would have been inside both sets of quotation marks: “This is supposed to be ‘good writing.’ ”

Q.v.
This
abbreviation
of the
Latin
words “quod vide” means “which see.” It is better in modern writing to simply say, “Please see” or “See.”

Raise, rise.
Often confused, these
verbs
have different meanings. “Raise” means to elevate, pick up, or (of children) see through development.
“Rise”
means to go up or ascend; as an
intransitive
verb it has no
object,
while “raise” usually does. Their main forms are “raise, raised, raised” and “rise, rose, risen.”

Ran.
See
run.

Rang.
See
ring.

Read, read, read.
An
irregular verb
in its main,
past tense,
and past
participle
forms.

Real, really.
A common error occurs when the
adjective
“real” is used for the
adverb
“really” or to mean “very.” WRONG: “That color is right bright.” BETTER: “That color is very/really bright.”

“Really” and “real” are often overused when an argument or point isn’t very clear or understandable. They then take the place of logic or sense and become crutches for weak thought and expression: “I really think you should join the army.” The example means: I can’t think of any persuasive reasons why you should join, but I’ll try to make my point stronger by inserting a meaningless “really” in the sentence.

In short, the presence of “real” and “really” in your statements is a signal to you and your
audience
that your thoughts or words bear further attention and probably can’t be trusted or accepted at face value. Avoid “real” and “really” in most cases.

Really.
See
real.

Reciprocal pronoun.
“Each other” and “one another” are reciprocals that single out parts or individuals from a group: “The rats began to attack one another/each other.”

Redundancy.
A common weakness of writing is repetition of ideas or words, which is called redundancy. WEAK: “Please be sure to check the results and see that they are correct.” BETTER: “Please be sure to check that the results are correct.” There is no need to repeat the idea of checking in this sentence. If emphasis is wanted, better to change the words, the
order of words,
or some other aspect of the sentence than just to say the same thing in a slightly different way: “You better be sure you check the accuracy of the results!”

Removing redundancy from writing not only makes your message more direct and clear, it also removes unneeded words and makes it more likely that your
audience
will follow your thoughts and respond accordingly.

Referent.
See
antecedent.

Reflexive pronoun.
Reflexive pronouns direct action back to the sentence
subject.
They end in
“-self”
in the singular
and “-selves” in the
plural:
“herself,” “himself,” “itself,” “myself,” “oneself” (or “one’s self”), “ourselves,” “themselves,” “yourself,” and “yourselves.”

Note that the reflexives are formed from the
objective case
of the
personal pronouns
because they always are the
object
of action reflected back on the subject: “He shot himself.” Thus such constructions as “hisself” or “theyself/ves” are in the wrong
case
and shouldn’t be used (they actually don’t exist except as
colloquial
or
dialect
forms).

Too often reflexives are used when simple objective cases of personal pronouns are enough, particularly when the choice is between
“me”
and “myself.” Evidently, people think it is less egotistical or more grammatically correct to use “myself” instead of “me.” Or perhaps they are avoiding distinguishing between “/” and “me.” At any rate, such sentences as “She gave it to myself” are grammatically incorrect and should be avoided. “She gave it to me” is just fine.

It is even worse to use “myself” as a subject: “John and myself went to the movies.” Why not “John and I”? Does the “I” sound too assertive? Are people worried that they should be using “me” (wrong because it is not used for sentence subjects)? Whatever the reason, it is simpler, more direct, and clearer just to use the
nominative
(subjective) case for subjects.

Regardless.
Use this word and not
“irregardless”
which adds a negating
prefix
to a word that already carries the sense of negation in its ending. In fact, “irregardless” is not a word.

Regular verb.
Verbs
that follow the normal pattern of
conjugation
are called “regular.” See also
irregular verbs.

Relative pronoun.
The
pronouns “that,”
“what,” “whatever,” “which,” “whichever,”
“who,”
and “whoever” link dependent
clauses
to
sentences
and suggest a relationship between the clause and the main statement.

Relative pronouns operate quite straightforwardly in sentences and clauses: “The lion is the biggest cat that lives in Africa.” “Smithers is the hunter who shot a lion.” “Kunga is a lion who eats whomever it can find.” The relative pronouns change
case
(and sometimes form), depending on how they are used in their clauses. Thus “who” is the
subject
twice in the example sentences, while “whomever” is the
object
of “finds.”

Agreement
of relative pronoun subjects and their
verbs
or other pronouns that refer to them also follows expected
rules
and patterns. However, take care with the combination of “one” and “who.” It is sometimes tricky to tell whether the “who” following a “one” refers to a singular or plural
antecedent.
The verb that follows “who” needs to be in the correct
number
in these instances, of course, so the antecedent must be checked: “Appleton is the one who baked the bread.” “Who” is
singular
because Apple-ton is only one person. But “Appleton is one of those who bake bread.” Here “who” refers to “those”—the many people who bake bread—and therefore the verb is
plural.
Many sentences are not so obvious as these examples, and errors in agreement between “who” and a verb are common.