Category: Writing & Grammar

by Jennie Ruby 

I've talked about assure, ensure, and insure in the past, but I think these supremely confusable words deserve a reprise.

Assure–to tell someone not to worry, is the way I think of it, as in the word reassure. This is also the word that the term quality assurance is based on. Here, I think of it as a process that allows a company to assure customers that the product is of high quality.

The postal clerk assured me that the package would arrive on time.

Ensure–to make sure or to make certain. This verb is the one you want when you ask a student to double-check something:

The clerk ensured that the correct zip code was printed on the label.

Please ensure that the checkbox is selected, then click the OK button.

Insure–You are safest in usage on this one if you are talking about purchasing insurance. However, the U.S. military tends to use this also as a synonym for ensure.

All of the specific usage I am discussing here goes beyond what descriptive dictionaries, such as Merriam Webster's, indicate. I found their differentiation of these terms to be too vague, compared with the standards I have typically been asked to follow when doing professional copyediting. So to be precise, make the distinctions indicated here.

Here's a second set of confusing words: comprise/compose/constitute.

Comprise–just memorize that the phrase is comprised of is always wrong. The larger thing comprises the parts, or draws them together:

The monument comprises a stone obelisk and a colonnade.

Compose–to make up. Is composed of is correct:

The monument is composed of two parts: a stone obelisk and a colonnade.

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This Week's Challenge: Which is correct? 

1. We ensured/insured the ring for $3,000 after the jeweler apprised/appraised its/it's value.
2. He told the participants to ensure/insure that their computers were logged out after the class.
3. He also ensured/assured them that their files would not be erased.
4. The new app is composed of/is comprised of two parts.
5. The new app composes/comprises two separate parts, both of which are better than/then competing online services.
6. Ensure/insure/assure that the dialog box is closed before exiting the program.
7. The training program is comprised of/is composed ofdemonstrations, exercises, and quizzes.
8. The individual programs of which the suite is comprised/of which the suite is composed/which the suite comprises are also available as stand-alones. 

Feel free to post your answers below as comments.

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by Jennie Ruby 

 

This week's confusing words pop up often in writing about training, creating a minefield of potential spelling errors.

First, let's look at lead versus led. Lead is a toxic element formerly found in gasoline and other products. It is also the common term for the graphite in pencils. As a verb, lead means to go first and show the way, so many of us lead classes. But if we did that yesterday, we led the class–the past-tense form of the verb to lead.

Peek, pique, and peak all three may appear in writing about training. A peek is a quick look. The verb pique means to arouse or cause something, typically interest or anger. As a noun, it means anger. Peak can be a verb or a noun, and always indicates a pinnacle or high point.

Select the right word in each sentence (watch for additional problems in the same sentence)!

1. I need a lead/led pencil to mark this answer key.
2. Who is the lead/led instructor for Friday's class?
3. Who lead/led last week's discussion session?
4. This instructor-lead/instructor-led training is offered monthly.
5. The training room does not have any lead-based/led-based paint.
6. We hope this preview of our training will peek/pique/peak your interest.
7. This training comes just as the interest in gamification reaches its/it's peek/pique/peak.
8. Here is a quick peek/pique/peak into the topic of next month's/months conference.
9. The unhappy, stressed-out student left in a fit of peek/pique/peak.
10. The participant-lead/participant-led workshop peeked/piqued/peaked the interest of several conference attendees/attendee's.

When ready, please post your answers as comments below.

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Answers to the Confusing Words for 500 challenge are brought to you by Chris Zimmel

1. The director asked me to keep her appraised/apprised of the project status.
2. We later met to flush out/flesh out the details of the project.
3. During the buyer's walk-through, some squirrels were fleshed out/flushed out of the attic.
4. Please appraise/apprise the seller of her rights regarding the negotiated price.
5. We need to appraise/apprise the governor of the details of the scam.
6. Can we flush out/flesh out this outline before we submit it to the client?
7. The plumber appraised/apprised me of the condition of the old iron pipes.
8. The main line needed to be fleshed out/flushed out to allow water to flow freely.
9. We met with the plumber to flesh out/flush out the plan for upgrading the pipes.
10. We need to appraise/apprise students of how toaccess/excess the supplemental material.

Other winners of Confusing Words for 500 challenge, approximately in order of receipt: Lynn Walpole, Sonia Verma,Melanie Elick, Tara Allen, Geri Moran, Michael Shepherd,  Phyllis Muder, Patrick Brown, Tonya Bowles, Christine Pass, Lisset Vega,Karyn Highet, Kolja Fuchs, Irene McCoy, Kay Honaker, Vera Sytch,Lisa J Stumpf, Ginny Supranowitz, Tanya Davis, Stacey Edwards, and Denise Miller.

Fair warning… next time I will start counting missed additional problems later in the sentence against you!

***

by Jennie Ruby 

 

This week we examine two of my pet peeves–the confusion of appraise and apprise and the confusion of flesh out and flush out. And some other bonus words may appear in the problem sentences!

To appraise something is to estimate its value:

• I need to have my used car appraised before I decide on a selling price.

To apprise is to inform (Webster's says "to give notice to") someone or something:

• The officer apprised the motorist of her rights.

To flush out: something that happens in plumbing or with birds who suddenly fly up:

• The dog flushed the grouse out of the thicket.
• The dog scared the birds, causing them to flush.

To flesh out: to put meat on the bones; to fill in.

• The architect fleshed out the details of the blueprint over the weekend.

Here is the confusing words challenge for this week:

1. The director asked me to keep her appraised/apprised of the project status.
2. We later met to flush out/flesh out the details of the project.
3. During the buyer's walk-through, some squirrels were fleshed out/flushed out of the attic.
4. Please appraise/apprise the seller of her rights regarding the negotiated price.
5. We need to appraise/apprise the governor of the details of the scam.
6. Can we flush out/flesh out this outline before we submit it to the client?
7. The plumber appraised/apprised me of the condition of the old iron pipes.
8. The main line needed to be fleshed out/flushed out to allow water to flow freely.
9. We met with the plumber to flesh out/flush out the plan for upgrading the pipes.
10. We need to appraise/apprise students of how to access/excess the supplemental material.

When ready, submit your answers as comments below.

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Confusing Words for 400 Answers

 

For the Confusing Words for 400 challenge, Gary Kuchel was first to respond with correct answers, followed by absolutely everyone who answered (see list below). None of you made any incorrect answers, but some missed additional problems elsewhere in the sentence. And Lorna McLellan was the only one to notice the typo on foregone!

Special thanks to Alan Sloan, David Pitts, and Karyn Smith for providing the name of the comedian(s). I was amused to see that each of you had a different take on who said, "Who's on first," and I re-watched one of the several versions of the video about three times from beginning to end. Both Abbot and Costello say "who's on first" so many times it is ridiculous to cite one over the other, except to say that Bud Abbot said it first, but Lou Costello asked it as a question.

Answers to the Confusing Words for 400 challenge are brought to you by Lorna McLellan.

1. Its/It's not a foregone conclusion that your/you're going to get these right.
2. Your/you're spelling checker may not correct these errors.
3. Your/You're likely to forget to save your/you're file if you leave work to/too quickly.
4. Whose/Who's to blame if the database is not updated properly?
5. Whose/who's keys are these?
6. The program may crash if its/it's cache is not cleared.
7. The client whose/who's form was received yesterday told us there was an error in its/it's text.
8. "Whose/Who's on first?" asked the comedian, whose/who's name escapes me at the moment.

Here are the correct-responders of last week not otherwise acknowledged above:

Cyndi Marino, Eric Nilsson, Lynn Walpole, Sonia Verma, Chris Zimmel, Patrick Brown, Elaine Study, Geri Moran, Julie Horn,Toni Wills, Pat Jones, Michelle Nienhuis, Alan Sloan, Renita Coleman, Karyn R Smith, Amy Grittman, Lisset Vega, Anne Louque, Lisa Mileusnich, Ginny Supranowitz, Jay Herman, David Pitts, JoAnn Bridges, Joanne Hofmeister, Mary Schoeller, Kay Honaker, Karyn Highet, Christine Pass, Vera Sytch, Kim Bullman, Julie Robertson, Susan Czubiak, Sharon Urquhart, Amanda Prussing, Denise Miller, Lisa J Stumpf, and Tanya Davis.

***

by Jennie Ruby 

 

1. Its/It's not a forgone conclusion that your/you're going to get these right.
2. Your/you're spelling checker may not correct these errors.
3. Your/you're likely to forget to save your/you're file if you leave work to / too quickly.
4. Whose/who's to blame if the database is not updated properly?
5. Whose/who's keys are these?
6. The program may crash if its/it's cache is not cleared.
7. The client whose/who's form was received yesterday told us there was an error in its/it's text.
8. Whose/who's on first? asked the comedian whose/who's name escapes me at the moment.

by Jennie Ruby 

 

by Jennie Ruby 

 

Answers to my interruptions challenge are brought to you by me. I found that there was no consensus on number 2, that many people wanted to put parentheses in number 3, that many people just wanted to rewrite number 5, but that everyone agreed that on number 6, (see Appendix B) belonged inside parentheses.

 

My answers follow the Gregg Reference Manual, but unless you put any punctuation in number 4, I can't bring myself to call any of the other answers out and out wrong, given that so many writers use parentheses more widely than grammar calls for, and that whether something deserves emphasis or de-emphasis is a matter of opinion.

by Jennie Ruby 

 

The answers that follow the guidelines set forth in my article from a few weeks ago are brought to you by Geri Moran.

1. It is very tedious, in my opinion, to type on a flat screen.
2. The blog–even after the extensive upgrade we purchased last quarter–was still slow to load on mobile devices.
3. The most widely accessible option, according to the magazine, is still the print version.
4. The company that provides the fastest downloads is still XYZ.
5. Norman, who arrived at the classroom before the computers were turned on, noticed the change in temperature right away.
6. A more extended listing (see Appendix B) has been compiled by XYZ Press.

Note that the representation of the long dash–the em dash–as two hyphens or as "space hyphen space" are only acceptable when the software you are using does not support the standard long dash character.

Other respondents had varying opinions on whether the interruptions should be marked with parentheses rather than commas. Here are some additional thoughts on that:

On number 3, the words "according to the magazine" are an independent comment on the entire sentence, and they indicate that the magazine is the source of the entire statement. You are not necessarily saying that you agree with the magazine's opinion. If you put those words inside parentheses, then you are making the assertion yourself, and merely citing the magazine as a supporting source.

On number 2, it is difficult for me to see how the information about an upgrade could be seen as totally parenthetical and placed in parentheses. It is not merely reference or support material. I think the person who wrote the sentence is expressing outrage, or at least disappointment, that the blog is still slow. The interruption carries a good bit of the point of the sentences, and thus needs emphasis, rather than de-emphasis.

To those readers still waiting for more on the who/whom issue, here is an update. Many respondents treated the exercise as a standard challenge rather than giving an opinion. Some said it is not an opinion, but a matter of following a well-established grammar rule. Others agree with me, that this rule is so often broken in spoken English, that following it in written English can result in awkward constructions. Once I untangle all the opinions and calibrate the right/wrong answers, I'll give a full report. In the mean time, more data is needed.

Here is the who/whom challenge again. Please answer each one, this time, by indicating the way you most often say it or hear it said, rather than the way you calculate is the right answer by analyzing whether the usage is nominative or objective (subject or verb). What I am trying to get at is whether actual everyday usage follows any logic. Give a try to punctuating the interruptions in the sentences below. Feel free to post your answers as comments below.

Who are you giving the scholarship to, after all?

1. Who is that young man in the cap and gown?
2. Who spilled the grape punch on the white carpet?
3. Who are we celebrating here–him or his parents?
4. Who do you think we should elect as the class president?
5. Who did the instructor select as the first to play a recital piece?
6. Who do we want for our soloist at the concert?
7. Who should they give the award to?
8. Who is the party for, anyway?
9. Who's your favorite nephew?

***

If you love Jennie's grammar articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

by Jennie Ruby 

 

You can interrupt a sentence four different ways–with dashes, parentheses, commas, or no punctuation at all.

Dashes actually emphasize the interruption, like this:

One of the best things about the previous two versions–the versions before the company was taken over by XYX, Inc.–was the user interface.

Parentheses de-emphasize the interruption:

The correspondence between the codes (see Table 2) is nearly one-to-one.

Commas indicate an interruption that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence:

 The new interface, we all agree, is much easier to use.

Interruptions with no punctuation are essential to the meaning of the sentence:

The function that has been changed the most is the video editor.

Challenge

Give a try to punctuating the interruptions in the sentences below.  When ready, post your answers as comments.

1. It is very tedious in my opinion to type on a flat screen.
2. The blog even after the extensive upgrade we purchased last quarter was still slow to load on mobile devices.
3. The most widely accessible option according to the magazine is still the print version.
4. The company that provides the fastest downloads is still XYZ.
5. Norman who arrived at the classroom before the computers were turned on noticed the change in temperature right away.
6. A more extended listing (see Appendix B) has been compiled by XYZ Press.

***

If you love Jennie's grammar articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

by Jennie Ruby 

One grammar and punctuation rule that is violated left and right is the use of a colon after an incomplete statement. The rule states that a colon must be preceded by a complete sentence, like this:

We discussed the following topics:

• Budget
• Advertising
• Programming

However, in every place I teach, I find people routinely using colons like this:

We discussed:

• Budget
• Advertising
• Programming

This week, I'm looking for your opinion. Should we continue to hold out for that complete sentence? Or is this a rule we should drop from the books? Post your comments below.

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Answers to the challenge on possessives with identifiers are brought to you by Katrina Del Vecchio. I have also included alternative answers by other respondents, as noted below. Thanks everyone! The variety of rewrites is fun to see!

1. Margie, my sister in Baltimore's house has a sump pump.
   • My sister Margie's house, which is in Baltimore, has a sump pump. 
   • My sister Margie's house in Baltimore has a sump pump. [Geri Moran]
   • My sister, Margie, lives in Baltimore. Her house has a sump pump. [Marilyn Flax]
   • My sister, Margie, has a sump pump at her house in Baltimore. [Matthew Hundley]>
2. The tree with the hanging swing's strong limb is beginning to bend.
   • The hanging swing is beginning to bend the tree's strong limb.
   • The strong limb on the tree with the hanging swing is beginning to bend. [Christine Pass]
3. The day on which her son is to graduates's date is May 30.
   • Her son's graduation date is May 30 
   • Her son will graduate on May 30. [Elisia Getts]
4. The cabin with the gravel driveway's fishpond overflowed last week.
   • Last week, the fishpond overflowed at the cabin with the gravel driveway.
   • The fishpond at the cabin with the gravel driveway overflowed last week. [Kay Honaker]
5. The golf cart with the broken wheel's driver was not injured in the crash. 
   • The crash did not injure the broken-wheeled golf cart's driver.
   • The driver of the golf cart with the broken wheel was not injured in the crash. [Karen L. Jones]