|
|
|
|
Solving your writing problems since 1998! |
|
| |||||||||||
|
The Write Way Friday 7 September 2001 Spring Time
Greetings, Aah ... spring! When I was in primary school (grade school) we used to drive any adults within coo-ee of us absolutely batty with our rhymes, and at this time of year it was: "Spring is sprung, The grass is ris, I wonder where the birdies is." "The bird is on the wing, I heard." "How absurd! The wing is on the bird." The last three lines were spoken in what, to us, was an American gangster accent: "The boid is on the wing, I hoid." "How absoid! The wing is on the boid." No, don't ask ... why does a ten year-old do anything? ... Because, that's why. That rhyme has been going through my mind all week (and I apologise in advance ... even if you're just entering "the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness," you'll be cursing me around midnight as you toss and turn to the rhythm of "Spring is sprung ...") because our resident magpies wake us every morning with their wonderful singing. Magpies have a ton of personality and are more than happy to let us contribute to their upkeep. They quickly become domesticated (no, that doesn't mean they vacuum and dust for us). We've had magpies that have arrived on our verandah railings at the same time every morning and afternoon and sung for their tucker. They love minced meat and they're very partial to the odd piece of cheese - not exactly part of the natural diet of a bird, but there you are. It doesn't take much patience to have them taking food from your hand, and one of my aunts used to have a family of magpies that regularly just marched in the back door, hopped up on the kitchen bench and waited patiently for her to prepare scraps of meat for them. They then followed her outside and ate their tidbits very daintily while perched on the back of her barbeque chairs. Butcher birds (rather a grisly name for an elegant little bird) are related to the magpie, but are much smaller and have what is probably the most beautiful bird call of all Australian birds. Like the magpies, they're also very tame and we once lived near a pair who used to come and sit on our window ledge, peering in to see what was taking us so long getting their food organised. Neither species have ... Sorry? I did what? You're right, of course. I should have written, "Neither species HAS ..." because neither is a distributive pronoun and everyone knows that distributive pronouns refer to persons or things one at a time (DISTRIBUTING attention). For this reason they are always singular: EACH of them; EITHER of the two boys; EVERYONE present; NOBODY came etc. Problems arise with these pronouns when it comes to deciding if you should use the singular or plural form of the verb. But, again, it's common sense. Either of the two boys will lead the parade. (This is singular, because if there are two boys, only ONE of them is going to get to lead.) It's the same with all the SINGULAR pronouns: each every either neither one anyone no-one everyone everybody nobody somebody All these words refer to only ONE person, and all take the singular verb. Here are some more writing tips that Larry Lowrence found and just had to share with everyone else: Rules for Writers1. Shun and avoid the employment of unnecessary,
extra, excess words. If you've seen similar Rules in the past, you'll notice that one rule is missing: Never use a preposition to end a sentence with. I've mentioned this in a previous newsletter.l This week's quiz: And now for something completely different ... a guest quiz-maker! Regular subscriber, Gunter Gerdenitsch feels I'm letting you off too easily so he's come up with this variation on the quiz. All of the words below have something to do with the notion of "bringing" - your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to match up the meaning with the correct context: bear, bring, elicit, produce, yield, present, put on, cause, sprout, tout, generate (NB you may need to change the endings)e.g. beware of Greeks .... gifts (BEARING) 1. a lawyer … evidence from witnesses 2. an experiment … results 3. a business … profits 4. a newspaper … news 5. a theatre … plays 6. a movie … actors 7. a problem … troubles 8. a plant … blossoms 9. an inspection can … warnings 10.an ad … a product All right ... stop me if you've heard this before: It was autumn, and the
Indians on the remote reservation asked their new Chief if the winter was going
to be cold or mild. Since he was an Indian Chief in a modern society, he had
never been taught the old secrets, and when he looked at the sky, he couldn't
tell what the weather was going to be. Ah yes, an oldie but a goodie thanks to Dave Wagner for this. Dave also sent this one: What if everyone in the
Bible had their own theme music? Last week's quiz: Match the word from the list with its meaning blow: salacious, wend, nostrum, imbroglio, urbane, quail, auspicious, salutary, expostulate, punctilious 1. argue earnestly to dissuade, correct, or protest EXPOSTULATE 2. favourable, successful, prosperous AUSPICIOUS 3. precise, paying attention to trivialities, especially in regard to etiquette PUNCTILIOUS 4. remedial, wholesome, causing improvement SALUTARY 5. difficult or embarrassing situation IMBROGLIO 6. to go, proceed WEND 7. a quack remedy, an untested cure NOSTRUM 8. obscene SALACIOUS 9. lose courage, turn frightened QUAIL 10.elegant, refined in manners URBANE Eric L. Sofer was inspired by our recent look at the variations on Carpe
Diem: Don't forget to use the search box if you're trying to find something from a past issue of the newsletter I find it saves me hours of going through back issues http://www.write101.com If you received this from a friend, click here to receive your own copy: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Word of the week: Bedizen (vb) to adorn, especially in a cheap, showy manner. "Lavinia swept into the room, bedizened in her finest pink polyester leggings with the matching purple pompoms." Mondegreen of the
week: 'I
believe in the heart and the hot dogs go on.' Here's a Latin phrase guaranteed to get you out of an embarrassing situation and it comes from Henry Beard's wonderful Latin for All Occasions: O! Conabar cognoscere num tibi adsit Nascida in mensa tua inter haec scripta. (Oh! I was just looking to see whether you had any Kleenex tissues among these papers here on your desk.) Oh koh-NAR-bar kog-nos-KAY-ray noom TEE-bee AD-seet NAS-kee-dah in MEN-sah TOO-ah IN-ter HAY-ek SKRIP-tah.
Jennifer To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to WritingTips-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to the web site, at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/WritingTips, This menu will also let you change your subscription between digest and normal mode. |
|
Home
| Contact
| Order
| Site
Map |Subscribe
Copyright 200 |
