This is the second half of Grammar Quest #2. If you didn't visit
that post, you may want to do so before reading any further. The answers are below.
Here is the same paragraph with the mistakes underlined. There are 7.
In
May, 2017 a local high school experienced a mass shooting, killing
several students and injuring many. One student said she laid still and
played dead as the gunman walked past her. A tiny female teacher fearlessly
pursued the gunman as if she was Rambo. After the police had the gunman in
custody, they instructed the students to exit the building in single file,
without backpacks and with hands above their heads. When the students
stopped too near the school building, they were instructed to move further
away. One elderly woman was devastated upon learning that her only great granddaughter
was among the casualties.
#1 should be May
2017, no comma
CMoS 6.45, p. 322: Where month and year only are given, or a specific day (such
as a holiday) with a year, neither system uses a comma.
#2 should be She
lay still
CMoS 5.220, p. 287: lay: lie. Lay is a transitive verb—that
is, it
demands a direct object (lay your pencils
down). It is inflected lay-laid-laid
(I laid the book there yesterday). (These rumors have been laid to rest).
Lie is an intransitive verb—that is, it never takes a direct object (lie down and rest). It is inflected lie-lay-lain. (she lay down and rested). (she
hasn’t yet lain down).
To
clarify...
To
rest or recline intransitive verb, lie - lay - lain.
To
place or put (an object) transitive verb, lay - laid - laid.
That the past tense of the intransitive verb is spelled the same as the present
tense of the of the transitive verb may account for the confusion in correct
usage. Remembering the forms that direct you to rest versus the forms that
direct you to place an object should help. I add this extra explanation because
these two verbs were the most misused verbs in all my teaching career.
#3 & 4 Like she was Rambo should be As
if she were Rambo
CMoS 5.81, p. 250: Use and misuse of “like.” Like is governed by a noun or noun
phrase (teens often see themselves as
star-crossed lovers like Romeo and Juliet).
As a preposition, like is followed by
a noun or pronoun in the objective case (the
person in that old portrait looks like me). Increasingly (but loosely)
today in ordinary speech, like displaces
as or as if as a conjunction to connect clauses. For example, in it happened just like I said it would happen,
like should read as; and in you’re looking around like you’ve misplaced
something, like should read as if. Although
like as a conjunction has been
considered nonstandard since the seventeenth century, today it is common in
dialectal colloquial usage. Consider context and tone when deciding whether to
impose standard English, as in the examples above.
Was vs Were
CMoS 5.137, p. 239: Present subjunctive. In present day
English the present subjunctive typically appears in the form if I (he, she, it) were (if I were King) (if
she were any different). That is, the present subjunctive ordinarily uses a
past-tense verb (e.g. were) to connote uncertainty, impossibility, or
unreality.
#5 ...backpacks
and with hands should have a comma
CMoS 6.18, p.312: Series and the Serial Comma. When a
conjunction joins the last two elements in a series of three or more, a comma
should appear before the conjunction. Chicago strongly recommends this widely
practiced usage since it prevents ambiguity.
#6 Further vs Farther
CMoS 5.220, p. 281: farther; further. The traditional distinction is to use farther for physical distance (we drove farther north to see the autumn
foliage) and further for
figurative distance (let’s examine this
further).
#7 great granddaughter should be hyphenated
CMoS 7.75, p. 380. Compounds &
Hyphens. Grand compounds closed; great compounds hyphenated.
Here's the paragraph as it should read.
In
May 2017 a local high school experienced a mass shooting, killing
several students and injuring many. One student said she lay still and
played dead as the gunman walked past her. A tiny female teacher fearlessly
pursued the gunman as if she were Rambo. After the police had the gunman
in custody, they instructed the students to exit the building in single file,
without backpacks, and with hands above their heads. When the students
stopped too near the school building, they were instructed to move farther
away. One elderly woman was devastated upon learning that her only great-granddaughter
was among the casualties.
Grammar Police posts for further study:
(verb conjugation, including lie/lay)
(hyphens)
So, how'd you do? Did you catch all 7?
Thanks again to author/editor Jeanette Pierce for guest-posting this month's Grammar Quest! For information about Jeanette's editing services, visit
The Write Word.
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Reminder: An Honorable Man releases tomorrow!
