Kim Siever’s Blog

From Grammar Girl:

A common problem in writing today is the false series. It happens when a writer combines three or more seemingly related elements in a series, but the syntax is wrong. When you get the sentence right, you’re said to be using parallel construction.

How to Use Parallel Construction Correctly

Received this today via email.

Please find below my suggestion for fixing Canada’s economy.

Instead of giving billions of dollars to banks and car companies, that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan:

There are about 20 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1. They must retire. Twenty million job openings. Unemployment fixed.
2. They must buy a new Canadian car. Twenty million cars ordered. Auto industry fixed.
3. They must either buy a house or pay off their mortgage. Housing crisis fixed.
4. They must send their kids to school/college/university. Crime rate fixed.
5. Buy $50 of alcohol/tobacco/gas a week. There’s your money back in duty, tax, etc.

It can’t get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances.

From Grammar Girl:

You could perhaps say, “I ate all the cookies. Big mistake.” Here, “big mistake” is a sentence fragment, but it’s OK because it allows you to emphasize your point. “Which” clauses that appear at the beginning of a sentence or paragraph are likewise incomplete sentences, and you are allowed to use them occasionally.

Can You Start a Sentence with “Which”?

This post is part of the Canadian Style series.

4.12 School subjects, courses and degrees

Capitalize the names of languages. Do not cpitalize the names of other disciplines when used in a general sense. Capitalize them when referring to school sbject or the names of particular courses.

I started taking French in grade 6.

I hate doing math in my head.

I took Math until grade 11.

This post is part of the Canadian Style series.

5.08 Fractions

In non-technical writing, spell out simple fractions, especially when used in isolation:

The recipe calls for one-quarter cup of flour.

I ate two thirds of my sandwich.

This post is part of the Canadian Style series.

7.20 Use of commas in dates

You do not need commas when writing dates in the order day-month-year. If you use month-day-year order, a comma separates the day and year. The year should be followed by a comma within a sentence.

I was married 5 May 1995 in the Seattle area.

I started in my current job May 7, 2001, as a practicum student.