Usage: Farther Vs. Further

Historically, farther and further have been used interchangeably when referring to distance, but their definitions are diverging. Most usage guides, including Chicago and AP, distinguish between the two, reserving farther when referring to physical distances and further for figurative distances, measuring quantity or degree:

When I graduated from college, I moved from the Midwest to Los Angeles. My sister moved even farther, to Honolulu.

Although she is more than four years younger than me, for a while my sister was further along in her studies than I.

It’s easy to remember to use farther when referring to physical distances because it starts with the word far.

However, sometimes it can be unclear whether the distance being described is physical or figurative:

Tanya got to the stable before her brother and so is farther/further into her ride than he.

Whether to use farther or further depends on how you look at it: Is Tanya physically farther along the trail? Or figuratively further into her ride? In cases like these, where the distinction isn’t clear, farther and further can still be used interchangeably.

Further can also be used to modify an entire sentence:

Further, Tanya was riding at a brisk trot, so she returned to the stable long before her brother did.

In cases where you could just as easily use furthermore, use further, not farther.

Do you have a question about usage? Let me know, and I’ll include it in a future installment of Mots Justes’ ongoing series.

Resources

Chicago Manual of Style, The. 15th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

“farther.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010. Merriam-Webster Online. 18 February 2010
<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/farther>

Fogarty, Mignon, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2008.

Goldstein, Norm, ed. The Associated Press Stylebook. 42nd ed. New York: Basic Books, a Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2007.

Hacker, Diana, The Bedford Handbook for Writers, 3rd ed. Boston: St. Martin’s Press: 1991.

Strunk Jr., William, and White, E.B. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York: Longman, 2000.

Usage: Beg the Question

You can beg for forgiveness. You can beg for mercy. You can beg for money, especially in these tough economic times. But whatever you do, don’t beg the question. And don’t use “beg the question” incorrectly in your writing, either.

Let me explain: The phrase “beg the question” refers to a logical fallacy in which a writer attempts to prove a claim by restating the claim itself, often in different language. For example, consider this hypothetical argument adapted from a practice prompt I use with my students preparing for the ACT:

Locker checks should not be allowed in high schools because authorities should not search students’ lockers.

In this (again, hypothetical) thesis, I haven’t offered a reason for my argument—what I call the “because clause”—but rather simply restated my stand, that locker checks should not be allowed. Avoid begging the question in your rhetorical writing.

Also avoid using the phrase “beg the question” incorrectly. Much too often, it is used in lieu of “raise the question”:

School administrators are determined to institute mandatory weekly locker checks, which begs raises the question, what right do they have?

Really, begging the question should be avoided at all costs, both as a rhetorical device and as a phrase in your writing, and at least one website is dedicated to ending BTQ abuse.

Resource

Hacker, Diana, The Bedford Handbook for Writers, 3rd ed. Boston: St. Martin’s Press: 1991.

Usage Thursday: Top Nine Misused Words

One of my oldest, dearest friends uses the word irregardless. She is smart and highly educated, yet insists on using this non-word. Should I correct her? Cracked.com says yes and lists eight other words that don’t mean what we think they do with advice on whether it’s worth insisting people use them the right way. Although the site’s presentation is crude, the explanations of how we’re using peruse, ironic, pristine, nonplussed, bemused, enormity, plethora, and deceptively incorrectly and what they really mean are clear and entertaining. Do you have any to add?

Usage Thursday: E.G. and I.E.

The abbreviated Latin terms e.g. and i.e. are often confused and used incorrectly. E.g. stands for exempli gratia, which means “for example.” I.e. stands for id est, which means “that is” or, put another way, “in other words.” The two abbreviations have distinct meanings and should not be used interchangeably:

Jeff and I are traveling to Minnesota to visit some of our old stomping grounds—e.g., our old apartment and the movie theater where we worked.

Because e.g. means “for example,” the apartment and the movie theater are just examples of some of the places we visited; we visited other places as well.

Jeff and I are traveling to Minnesota to visit some of our old stomping grounds—i.e., our old apartment and the movie theater where we worked.

Here, because i.e. means “that is,” the apartment and the movie theater are the only places we visited; mentioning them provides further explanation.

To borrow a “quick and dirty tip” from Grammar Girl, you can remember the difference between e.g. and i.e. by associating the abbreviations with their English meanings:

e.g. →for example
i.e. →that is, in other words

Although I’ve used italics in my discussion here for clarification, don’t italicize e.g. and i.e. in your writing. Yes, they are abbreviations for words in a foreign language, which usually are italicized, but they’ve become so standard in English that they no longer need to be. Do, however, put a period after each letter—they are abbreviations, after all—and always follow e.g. and i.e. with a comma.

Resources

Chicago Manual of Style, The. 15th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Fogarty, Mignon, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2008.

Usage Thursday: Complement Vs. Compliment

Always on the hunt for new opportunities, I had a job interview yesterday that included a pretty rigorous, three-part editing test. The first part was timed: I had thirty minutes to rewrite thirteen sentences that had been rejected from real marketing materials. The second part was two pages of copyediting questions ranging from choosing the right word (to vs. too vs. two) to correctly placing an apostrophe in singular and plural possessives, to punctuating sentences, to not only correcting grammar but explaining why it needed to be corrected, to explaining the difference between sentences that differed only by a comma (I included all the departments including artists and engravers vs. I included all the departments, including artists and engravers). The third part involved comparing cover proofs. It was gratifying to realize that other people care about this stuff as much as I do!

Anyway, one of the questions that gave me (slight) pause was a sentence that asked me to choose between complement and compliment. Both can be used as either nouns or verbs, and they are pronounced exactly the same. In fact, they differ in spelling by only one letter.

A compliment, with an i, is an expression of flattery or praise:

The human resources representative paid me a compliment on how I performed on the editing test.

The verb to compliment means to flatter or praise:

She also complimented my thorough examination of the cover proof.

A complement, with an e, however, is something that completes:

My skills as a writer were a complement to my experience as an editor.

And the verb to complement means to supplement or complete:

For this particular position, my background as a musician complemented my resume.

Grammar Girl has a nifty trick for remembering the difference: “Things that complement each other often complete each other.” Both complement and complete are spelled with e’s and no i’s.

Do you have a question about usage? Let me know, and we’ll discuss it in a future installment of Usage Thursday.

Resources

“complement.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 6 August 2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/complement>

“compliment.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 6 August 2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compliment>

Chicago Manual of Style, The. 15th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Fogarty, Mignon, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2008.

Goldstein, Norm, ed. The Associated Press Stylebook. 42nd ed. New York: Basic Books, a Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2007.

Hacker, Diana, The Bedford Handbook for Writers, 3rd ed. Boston: St. Martin’s Press: 1991.

Usage Thursday: Loose Vs. Lose

I see loose confused with lose all the time, although more often in student papers and working drafts than in published material. It’s worth discussing here, as often when the mistake is corrected, the writer doesn’t understand what error he or she has made. Confusion arises because lose has an oo sound but not the double o spelling usually associated with that pronunciation.

Loose, pronounced loos with an s sound at the end, is an adjective that describes something that is not fastened or attached. It can also be used as a verb that means to let or make something loose.

Jim tied his pony to the fence with a loose knot.
Derrick loosed his horse into the corral.

On the other hand, lose, pronounced looz with a z sound at the end, is a verb that describes misplacing or being unable to find something or failing to win.

Don’t lose your ticket to the game.
Jim loses at one-on-one basketball to Derrick all the time.

Resources

“loose.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Merriam-Webster Online. 2 October 2008 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/loose>.

“lose.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Merriam-Webster Online. 2 October 2008 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lose>.

Wilson, Kenneth G. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Bartleby.com. 2 October 2008 <http://www.bartleby.com/68/12/3712.html>.

Usage Thursday: Lightening Vs. Lightning

I saw this common usage error again just the other day in a published book. Often, writers will use the word “lightening” when they really mean “lightning.”

The word “lightening,” pronounced with three syllables, is the present participle form of “to lighten,” which means to make something lighter, such as light, color, or a burden:

The sky is lightening as dawn approaches.
As Jim ate the apples he had picked in the orchard, he was lightening the bucket of fruit he carried back to his car.

“Lightning,” two syllables, is the discharge of electricity that comes out of the sky during stormy weather. It can also be used to describe something that moves like lightning:

Derrick heard thunder and saw lightning.
Did it lightning during the storm last night?
The aerial assault struck with lightning speed.

Now, I did find this definition of “lightening” at Merriam-Webster Online: “to give out flashes of lightning.” However, this is a definition for an intransitive verb, not a noun. Since “lightning” can also be used as an intransitive verb with a similar definition, it should be used to avoid confusion and the appearance of unprofessionalism. “Lightening” should never be used as a noun, period, but especially when what you really mean is “lightning.”

Resources

“lighten.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Merriam-Webster Online. 17 September 2008 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lighten>.

“lightning.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Merriam-Webster Online. 17 September 2008 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lightning>.

Wilson, Kenneth G. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Bartleby.com. 17 September 2008 <http://www.bartleby.com/68/54/3654.html>.

Book Review: Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Launched two years ago in the summer of 2006, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing currently ranks thirty-second among iTunes’ top podcasts. Capitalizing on this success, creator Mignon Fogarty has authored a book that explains grammar, punctuation, and usage to the language layperson with gentle humor and accessibility.

The subject-verb agreement error on the back cover (“Written with the same wit, warmth, and accessibility that draws people to the podcasts …”) demonstrates how easy it is for anyone to make an error and is just the type of mistake that Fogarty would correct not with cattiness but, well, “wit, warmth, and accessibility.”

Using cute illustrations of sidekicks Squiggly and Aardvark, Fogarty explains concepts clearly with limited jargon, clarifying the rationale behind rules before providing the “quick and dirty” memory tricks for which her podcast is known. Some of the material covers familiar terrain—the difference between “its” and “it’s,” for example—and the book will serve as a handy desk reference for reminders on such sticky subjects. Grammar Girl is also worth reading cover-to-cover, however, for the topics you might not ever think to look up—like that it’s actually grammatically correct to say, “I’m good.”

On tougher questions, Fogarty mines multiple sources before coming to a conclusion. She generally sticks to standard usage but recognizes that language evolves. She goes too far, however, when she encourages her readers to use they and their as singular pronouns:

When a child misbehaves, they should be punished by their parents.

Using he or she and his or her may be awkward, but using they/their will only cause your reader to question whether you know the rule, even if you’re applying it incorrectly on purpose. (Indeed, Fogarty doesn’t recommend it in formal writing.) The best thing to do—and what the author advises for this and other clumsy constructions—is to rewrite the sentence, in this case simply by making the antecedent plural:

When children misbehave, they should be punished by their parents.

Grammar Girl exceeds her mission with a chapter that offers tips on interviewing, coming up with story ideas, and dealing with writer’s block. The cursory treatment she gives these topics here would have been better left uncovered. However, the e-entrepreneur’s chapter on online writing is extremely useful. She’s even composed a Twitter style guide.

Grammar Girl is ideal for workplaces, students, and tutors who might find it useful to articulate concepts they themselves simply have a feeling for or understand innately. Professional writers and editors will want to invest in a guide that’s more thorough, authoritative, and, likely, stodgy.

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. By Mignon Fogarty. 240 pages. Holt Paperbacks, 2008. $14.

Caught in the ’Net

Suffering from writer’s block? You’re not alone: even Britain’s Poet Laureate has struggled with the blank page. Ten English authors offer solutions for getting through it.

Usage Thursday: Nauseated Vs. Nauseous

I’m not going to commit any of us to a standing appointment to discuss language usage on Thursdays, particularly with Monday and Tuesday already dedicated to the nuts and bolts of grammar and punctuation, but if such a question does come up—and please, do raise your questions—the answer will, at least for now, be revealed on Thursdays.

First, a distinction: whereas grammar refers to how to use words in a sentence, usage has to do with which words to use. Like our goal here at Mots Justes, the goal is to find the right words.

For example, here’s a pair of words I’ve apparently been using wrongly my entire life: nauseated versus nauseous. To be nauseated is to suffer from nausea—in other words, to feel sick to one’s stomach. To be nauseous is to induce nausea—to cause one to feel sick to one’s stomach.

Therefore, you shouldn’t say, “I’m nauseous”—unless what you mean is that you make other people sick! What you want to say is “I’m nauseated.”

Caught in the ’Net

Although Write to Done‘s headline could use some copy-editing, check out “Learn from the Greats: 7 Writing Habits of Amazing Writers.” (If I was going to take a stab at rewriting this hed, I might say something like, “Learn From the Pros: The Writing Habits of Seven Highly Effective Writers.”)

English, Jack argues with his mother as to why anyone would bother to study grammar.

Resources

Chicago Manual of Style, The. 15^th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Fogarty, Mignon, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2008.

Hacker, Diana, The Bedford Handbook for Writers, 3^rd ed. Boston: St. Martin’s Press: 1991.