Friday was stunningly gorgeous here! Imagine pear trees in bloom, apple trees blossoming, tulips at their peak, and redbud trees sporting purply-pink buds. It was great to sit in the park and enjoy it all. Never have I planned better for a relaxing day off!
So what did I do? I sat my beach chair under a tree and read … a grammar book. Call me a Word Nerd. Also, I read my friend’s essay, which I’d been promising to do for a while and hadn’t had time. It was excellent, as I suspected.
I’m back today feeling recharged, not to mention feeling glad I’d not waited until today. The sky is overcast, it’s in the mid-fifties, and we’re expecting rain.
I learned a few things as I read the grammar book. I expected to, for grammar is not exactly my strongest area (so sue me – I write; I don’t memorize or retain). One particular rule has come up a few times over the past week. My writing chum and I discussed it at our weekly “writer’s guild” meeting at Starbucks, and I’ve seen the mistake happening to the point where I’m sure it’s probably part of acceptable grammar these days. Let’s test you; What’s wrong with this sentence?
“Today,” said Chet, “Turned out to be a beautiful day.”
See it? Since the sentence is broken up by “said Chet”, the capitalization of “turned” is wrong. Check your grammar books. Go on. It’s right there on page 124 of mine.
More interesting and less common is the way this sentence should be punctuated. I’ll leave this one for you to ponder and comment on, but what do you think?
“Injustice is easy to accept,” said the judge. “it is justice that is harder to accept.”
There’s a mistake in there. Anyone?
Since grammar is not my strong point either (but I am feeling brave) I will say that in the first sentence, there doesn’t need to be a comma after said Chet. IN the second sentence, it, should be capitalized to be “It” since there was a period after judge.
I’m not sure if I’m right or not but it’s a good guess for early Monday morning.
Because of the period after “judge”, the “it” should be capitalized.
Could be, Devon. There is another way, however….
Well, my guess for the “other way” is to change the first comma to a semicolon. But then the period after judge no longer works either, so I’d say change it to a comma?
You’re close, Kathy…
YES! Grammar geeks unite!
Ten points! I guessed the error in your example sentence 🙂
Psst… you didn’t tell us which grammar book you are using!
Melissa Donovan at Writing Forward
Writing Forward
I’m using the Harbrace College Handbook, Revised Thirteenth Edition. 🙂