Rose's Red Pen

The Endangered Apostrophe

4/24/2014

Photo from The Huffington Post

If semicolons are mystifying and dashes are ubiquitous, then apostrophes are just plain infuriating. Nothing makes people crazier than an apostrophe in the wrong place; this grammar peeve routinely makes the top ten list compiled by Grammarly.

Apparently, apostrophes are so maddening that we may do away with them altogether. As early as 1891, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names banished the apostrophe from most place-names. The year 2001 saw the establishment of the Apostrophe Protection Society. Today articles regularly appear, warning about the demise of the apostrophe. Some blame schools for not teaching children how to use it correctly, while others blame texting or graphic artists (who supposedly prefer a clean layout, free of extraneous punctuation). There's even a website called Kill the Apostrophe.

Eliminating the apostrophe doesn't seem like a viable option to me. Beyond the obvious confusion that will result between "were" and "we're" or "he'll" and "hell," there's the pressing question of what all the O'Neills of the world will do. I also want to know what other punctuation symbol will take up the slack because the humble apostrophe does a staggering amount of work. Apostrophes indicate:

Singular possessive (neighbor's tree)
Plural possessive (neighbors' yards)
Plural possessive not ending in "s" (men's room, children's playground)
Quantity (a week's worth, in an hour's time)
Plurals of alphabet letters and plurals that refer to a word itself (so "B's" on a report card and "do's and don'ts" but plurals of acronyms and dates like "URLs" and "1990s" don't use apostrophes)
Missing letters

The last item is the troublemaker. Apostrophes indicate missing letters in contractions ("she's" for "she is"). Easy, right? The confusion arises with words like "it's" and "its" or "their" and "they're." The simple rule is to insert the full words of the contraction into a sentence to see if it makes sense. In this example, "the letter is on ____ way," the correct word is "its" because "it is" doesn't make sense in the sentence. The irony is that none of our possessive pronouns take an apostrophe (your, his, its, our, their) but many of our other nouns do when indicating possession. I suppose it's just one more way that English defies logic.

So maybe getting rid of apostrophes is the answer . . .

Now that weve disposed of them, check back for next weeks post when well ...

Nope, that doesn't work either. I guess we're stuck with them.

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Rediscovering Caddie Woodlawn

4/17/2014

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I just finished the first draft of a children's book, so I've thought a lot about which books resonated with me as a child. Rose's Red Pen will revisit some of those books from time to time to explore how well they hold up and what writers can learn from them today.

My third-grade teacher insisted that I read Caddie Woodlawn. I was unenthusiastic because I liked adventure stories, and a girl in a dress on the cover didn't seem promising. I started reluctantly and then couldn't put it down.

Winner of the John Newbery Award in 1936, the book by Carol Ryrie Brink is based on stories from the life of a real Caddie Woodlawn, who was Brink's grandmother. "She can still mend clocks," the author assures us, "and all her life she has been as clever with a hammer and nails as she has been in making little trousers or stirring up a strawberry shortcake."

The story is set in 1864 in the woods of western Wisconsin and spans a year. Caddie is 11, and she and the two brothers closest to her in age form a close-knit trio of adventurers. And what adventures they have! The trio makes every day an adventure as they experience rafting mishaps, wild rides, and many close calls.

Brink excelled at describing action in a clear, visual way. Her book is packed with concrete details that make readers feel the rhythm of the seasons and this way of life, with striking depictions of hunting, harvesting, making clothes, raising livestock, berry picking, and churning butter. The book also has a sly, understated sense of humor, as in this observation about Caddie's birthday: "There were too many of the young Woodlawns for anyone to make a fuss over their birthdays. It was pleasant enough to be alive, without thinking to celebrate the day on which one had begun to be so."

Caddie remains very much her own person throughout the book but learns to empathize more with others, including a pesky little sister. The story is predictable, but in a good way, in the way that seasons continue to change, and children always grow up.

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Using "Said" with Dialogue

4/10/2014

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"Never use a verb other than 'said' to carry dialogue." --Elmore Leonard, Rule Three of his Ten Rules on Writing

Elmore Leonard, famous crime novelist, contended the writer was "sticking his nose in" by inserting a verb with dialogue, so it was best to use the least intrusive verb possible. Many writers agree because "said" certainly doesn't draw attention to itself or distract readers from the story.

I don't disagree. I'd include "ask" as well because it's nearly as invisible as "said" and works better with questions. However, I object to an absolute use of "said" for two reasons:

"Said" attracts adverbs.
Sometimes how the character delivers the dialogue is important.

"Said" attracts adverbs because many writers can't stop at one word. They give in to the nearly irresistible temptation to graft on an adverb. As novelist Stephen King said, "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." Elmore Leonard agreed. (See Rule Four.) Too many adverbs are distracting and can become inadvertently funny. As I've mentioned before in Rose's Red Pen, I once read a children's book aloud to my daughter that boasted eight adverbs on one page, all coupled to the word "said." We laughed as each new adverb appeared, surely not the reaction the writer wanted.

My other reservation about using only "said" is that sometimes how a character delivers a line is crucial. For example, maybe your protagonist says something outrageous about her boss in the middle of a meeting. Whether she mutters it under her breath or shouts it out loud changes the entire scene.

Since I had two reasons not to stick solely to "said," here are two tips on what to do instead.

If you're using another verb, make sure it's physically possible to talk while doing that. When editing, I've run into characters that grin, laugh, or gasp a line. Try one of those while actually talking -- I dare you. Instead, let your character complete the action and then talk. For example:

Tim grinned. "Go ahead. I dare you."

The second tip is to make your dialogue do the work. Rewrite so that the words, sentence structure, and rhythm indicate how the character says the lines. You won't need a verb like "snapped" if the sentences come in short, staccato bursts. An adverb like "incoherently" is unnecessary if your punctuation, sentence structure, and word choice show that the character can't string together coherent sentences.

So what's the final takeaway on never using a verb other than "said" with dialogue? Never say never.

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Customizing Your Style

4/3/2014

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The last Rose's Red Pen talked about style guides. Let's continue that discussion.

So now you've chosen a style guide, and you're familiar with it. The trouble is that your guide doesn't cover every single situation that you'll encounter in the particular kind of writing you do. Maybe you disagree with how the style guide handles a particular issue. For instance, perhaps you need to capitalize something that The Chicago Manual of Style doesn't. Or you like everything about AP Style except that you want to use serial commas.

The solution is to customize the style guide for your needs by creating a style sheet. According to The Free Dictionary, a style sheet summarizes "the editorial conventions to be followed in preparing text for publication." A style sheet can serve as a quick reference to highlights from the main style guide along with exceptions to that guide, or it can just focus on the exceptions.

Make your style sheet short and reader-friendly. Don't summarize the style guide. Include the most common situations and give page number references to the main style guide so writers and editors can dive into the details. Bulleted items and checklists work well.

Define and document the exceptions to the style guide rules. Generally, exceptions will crop up in capitalization or how to handle measurements of money, dimensions, and time. Fractions and numbers often result in exceptions, along with how to handle URLs, terms of art, or an organization's traditions. For example, I edited for a military website where the rule was to list the branches of service in order of their establishment, with the oldest first.

Once you've created the style guide, make sure every writer and editor has it. It's a living document, and you'll need a way to gather suggested revisions and update it regularly. The biggest problem with organizational style sheets is that they become obsolete and no one uses them.

Choosing a style guide is only the first step. Once you know the guide well, figure out your exceptions and document them in a style sheet. Give it to everyone who's writing or editing and don't forget about updating.

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The Endangered Apostrophe

Rediscovering Caddie Woodlawn

Using "Said" with Dialogue

Customizing Your Style

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