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Subject-Verb Agreement

4/30/2015

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Subject-verb agreement is one of the first things we learn when writing. The subject and verb in a sentence agree if they are both the same type. Singular subjects require singular verbs, and plural subjects require plural verbs. For example, “Tammy plays on the beach” is correct, but “Tammy play on the beach” isn’t. Easy, right?

Not always. Sometimes the components of the sentence make it harder to determine agreement.

The first challenge is when an intervening phrase comes between the subject and verb. If the subject is singular, but the intervening phrase is plural, then use a singular verb. Use a plural verb when the subject is plural and the intervening phrase is singular. Always match the verb to the subject. Example: The test on dividing fractions was hard OR Predictions about which horse will win the race are often wrong.

Indefinite pronouns used as the subject can also confuse subject-verb agreement. The table below lists which indefinite pronouns are singular and which are plural.
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Whether the words in the third column are singular or plural depends on the particular sentence. If the indefinite pronoun refers to a singular word, then it takes a singular verb. If the pronoun refers to a plural word, then the verb is plural. Examples: Most of the workout was easy BUT Most of the exercises were easy.

Collective nouns can also be a challenge. A collective noun names a group. Some common collective nouns are army, audience, council, crowd, and staff. When a collective noun is the subject, it takes a singular verb if the sentence refers to the group as a whole. Example: The staff is located on the third floor.
A collective noun takes a plural verb when referring to individuals members of the group. Example: The staff have decided to paint their offices.

In the past, when the word data was used as a subject, it took a plural verb. However, usage has evolved, and now data is treated as a collective noun. Example: The data is compelling.

Compound subjects can be tricky as well. When subjects (whether singular or plural) are joined by the word and, they take a plural verb, as in "Anna and Lucy are friends." If the subjects are both singular and joined by or or nor, then they take a singular verb, as in “neither the teacher nor the assistant was late.” If one subject is singular and the other plural, then the verb agrees with the subject closest to it. Example: Either the cat or the dogs are responsible for the damage.

Amounts can also trip people up. If the amount is considered one unit, then the verb is singular, as in “two years is a long time to be away.” Otherwise, amounts take plural verbs. Example: “Three days are left in the month.”

Composition titles and the names of countries may complicate subject-verb agreement. Even when the names of works and countries are plural (such as The Final Days or the Netherlands), they take a singular verb because they refer to a single unit. Examples: The Grapes of Wrath is a compelling book AND The United States was represented at the conference.

Although the rules of subject-verb agreement are complex, remember these guidelines, and all your sentences will be in perfect agreement.
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Rediscovering  A Wrinkle in Time

4/23/2015

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I have a not-so-guilty secret. I revisit A Wrinkle in Time every ten years or so, and the book has more to tell me every time I read it. As relevant today as when it was published in 1962, this Newbery Award winner by Madeleine L’Engle stretches the mind with its ideas and vocabulary, introduces a memorable female protagonist in a story filled with strong women, and resonates emotionally with readers.

L’Engle pulls us into the book’s world quickly. Only a confident writer could start with the most clichéd opening line ever: “It was a dark and stormy night.” And then we meet protagonist Meg Murry, wrapped in a quilt in her attic bedroom as a storm shakes the house.

Meg’s brooding. She's around 14 and doesn’t fit in at high school. The people in her town openly gossip about her family, calling Meg and her baby brother Charles Wallace “subnormal” and speculating that her scientist father has deserted the family (since no one has heard from him in nearly a year). The mysterious Mrs. Whatsit arrives during the storm and jumpstarts the plot by commenting to Meg’s mother, “... by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.” With the help of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Who, Meg and Charles Wallace team up with new friend Calvin to travel across space to find Meg’s father.

Along the way, L’Engle broadens her readers’ minds and vocabulary with words like tesseract and sport (as related to biology.) L’Engle has a talent for explaining new concepts in a clear, entertaining way. Her characters face thought-provoking questions about life, humanity, and the nature of evil, and they find no easy answers. (This uncertainty in a children's book may have been too troubling for some adults and perhaps explains why this book has been banned in the past).

The protagonist Meg Murry grapples with hard issues. She’s strong from the very beginning, whether tackling a boy for his comments about Charles Wallace or facing down her principal when he tells her to accept that her father is gone for good. Her challenge is be brave, to take responsibility in shaping events. L’Engle observes of Meg: “She wanted to reach out and grab Calvin’s hand, but it seemed that ever since they had begun their journeyings she had been looking for a hand to hold, so she stuffed her fists into her pockets and walked along behind the boys.” Meg grows throughout the story, and when a difficult decision arises about who should go back to rescue Charles Wallace, she accepts responsibility, saying, “It has to be me. It can’t be anyone else.” Meg succeeds in the end because of all her strengths, all her faults, and all her love.

A Wrinkle in Time evokes strong emotions and resonates with readers. Even these many years later, I still find the encounters with antagonist IT genuinely frightening. I can’t read Chapter 12 without tearing up each and every time. The ending is satisfying, and as a reader, it's comforting to know that Meg's story isn't over. It continues in A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. Meg also makes appearances in several other L’Engle books.

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Incredible Shrinking Vocabularies

4/16/2015

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Three recent incidents made me think about children and their vocabularies.

As I mentioned in a post,
a book that I’d read easily as a child, Mr. Revere and I, now has a glossary for its readers, an addition thought unnecessary when the book was originally published. The second incident was a comment made by a friend. She tutors high school students who are prepping for the SAT. The most difficult part for her students is vocabulary. “They don’t know words,” she said. Then I came across an article with the observation that Oxford University Press had cut words from an edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. The lost words, deleted because they “were no longer relevant” to today’s children, included adder, beech, cowslip, and kingfisher. Words such as attachment, bullet-point, blog, and broadband took their place. Reality moved indoors and became ever more virtual.

That article led me to a UK study,  
which postulated that vocabularies were shrinking because of our dependence on smart phones, tablets, and laptops. These devices are visual rather than auditory, but we need to hear new words and imitate correct pronunciations to successfully add them to our vocabularies. The result is that most children today learn fewer words than previous generations did.

As vocabularies shrink, and writers and publishers recycle an ever smaller pool of words, our children’s world shrinks too. Paucity of description leads to a paucity of thinking and imagination. Also, when description becomes more generic, when adder 
becomes snake and cowslip becomes flower, then it’s hard to talk precisely about the natural world and harder yet to care about it, much less protect it.

How to combat the spread of the incredible shrinking vocabulary? It may sound simplistic to say we need to talk to each other, but it’s a start. Let’s model all those words for the children in our lives. Read aloud together. Encourage them to go beyond today’s bestsellers, to read more poetry, more classics, and older books
from earlier generations. Spring is here—the perfect time to grow new words.



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April Books

4/9/2015

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More hours of daylight, spring breaks, and April showers allow a lot of time for reading. I decided to greet the month by doing an experiment. I chose five books to read that I knew nothing about. The only thing the books had in common was the word "April" in their titles. Here were my picks:
  • April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik
  • April Lady by Georgette Heyer
  • April and Oliver by Tess Callahan
  • April in Paris by Michael Wallner
  • Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken Kogan
I could have also chosen books written by authors named April or books that were published in the month of April.

My experiment is to read all five at the same time over the month, reading the first chapter of the first book, moving on to the first chapter of the next book, and so on. As long as a book continues to engage me, I'll keep reading. If I lose interest, I'll drop the book.

I'll post notes in the comments section about how the month of reading goes. Happy April, everyone!
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    Rose Ciccarelli offers writing and editing services through Rosebud Communications.

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