We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

Readers’ attention wanders when your words lack variety.

The key? Vary the form. Vary the length.

Does this ring familiar?

Dick sat down.

Jane played ball.

Spot ran fast.

The repeated noun-verb, three-word form works fine for beginning readers. But if a paragraph you’ve written sounds clunky when read aloud, check for same-length sentences. When doing editing work, we’ve seen paragraphs where each sentence has seven words. It took us a while to figure out why the paragraph didn’t sing even though there was nothing wrong with the writing itself. Excite your readers by changing up sentence length.

The other key? Vary your sentence formations.

When we taught middle school English, we handed out sets of cards in different colors—the noun cards were blue, verbs were green, prepositional phrases were yellow, and so on. We could ask for sentences starting with prepositional phrases and the students would shuffle their cards to create their own unique combinations. This hands-on activity fully engaged the young writers. Much laughter often ensued.

Starting Points:

Noun-Verb

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a subject followed by a verb:

• Esther Williams swam beautifully.

Just check to see if the noun-verb form dominates your page. It’s an easy problem to fix.

Clause

Clauses have both a subject and a predicate. An independent clause can stand alone as a simple sentence:

• Puck leapt off the back of the stage.

Dependent clauses rely on the rest of a sentence to make sense. These clauses have a subject and a predicate, but they don’t form complete sentences and they don’t make sense on their own:

• when Harry met Sally

• because she loves ice skating

• that shone on the mountain

• since we lost the game

• then bounced up using a hidden trampoline

Combine an independent clause with a dependent clause or a dependent clause with an independent clause and you’re in business:

• Puck leapt off the back of the stage, then bounced up using a hidden trampoline.

• Since we lost the game, playoff dreams are doomed.

Phrase

There are five kinds of phrases, but all you need to know is that a phrase lacks a subject/predicate combo and is never a complete sentence.

• raced for class (participial phrase)

• from morning on (prepositional phrase)

• walking the dog (gerund phrase)

• his temporary filling (noun phrase)

• to infinity and beyond (infinitive phrase)

When editing your own work, bear sentence length and form in mind. Aim for variety in your writing to keep your readers interested in what you’re saying.

For more on grammar specifics, consult our zany grammar guides,  Nitty-Gritty Grammar: A Not-So-Serious Guide to Clear Communication and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar: Another Not-So-Serious Guide to Clear Communication.

Key image credit: ID 24790186 © Ayzek09 | Dreamstime.com

War affects children, no matter where or when in the world it’s waged or what countries are involved. Sometimes it leads young people to serve and do extraordinary things, as it did our late president George H.W. Bush, who served in WWII. Young people, faced with the possible loss of those they loved, did their best to help out at home. They collected scrap metal, saved money to buy war bonds, planted Victory Gardens, and learned to do without things like sugar, butter, new shoes, and bicycles. Teenagers lied about their age and joined the military. Children saw their mothers enter the work force, doing jobs usually held by men. “We Can Do It” urged Rosie the Riveter. Posters and slogans urged people to unite behind the effort. For my newly revised and reissued book Growing up in World War II (eFrog Press), I talked with people who were children then. Not surprisingly, their memories spilled out, vivid and lasting. I collected stories of what life was like for them.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Verna Morimatsu, age seven, had been playing outside her home when she noticed strange planes flying toward Pearl Harbor. When she entered her home, she heard a huge crash and found a gaping hole left by an unexploded bomb that had fallen through the roof and dining room floor, leaving splinters strewn about, and the furniture in pieces. An attack on Pearl Harbor had begun. Mara Hart remembers how scary it was at night when both her parents ventured out into a darkened New York City as air raid wardens, making sure no lights alerted approaching enemies about potential bombing targets. Margie Bolger Greek recounted how English parents sent their daughter Vina to Ohio; she became part of Margie’s family for the duration of the war. Paul Shook lived near a military base. He and other second graders stood and waved to military convoys passing by their La Cañada, California school. The soldiers threw bubble gum to the kids—a rare treat with rationing in place.  Robert Raymond remembers losing his beloved older brother to the war. Leroy Anderson remembered his family gathering around the radio each night to listen to the war report. It was a solemn time—no talking allowed.

During the World War II years, Americans heeded the rallying cry, “Uncle Sam Wants You.” And yet there was also a darker side to the war effort. German Americans were suspect. The government forced Japanese American children and their families to leave their homes and businesses and enter internment camps that felt like prisons. People’s ongoing racist attitudes erected barriers for African American young people like Martin Luther King, Jr.

Discover what life was like for American children during World War II through true stories of young people who lived through this time. Children who lived through World War II never forgot.  As adults, they found that the war changed their lives forever.

Written for middle grade readers and up, Growing Up in WWII makes this now “long ago” war real to young people and challenges them to think about patriotism, sacrifice, and the impact of history. The many photographs of children and primary source documents like letters, maps, posters, images of poppies, songs, and even recipes help bring the period of 1941 to 1945 to life.

Check out the ebook on Amazon Kindle at  Growing Up in World War II (for readers middle grade and up, plus older readers)

Amazon has named it #1 New Release in Teen & Young Adult Military History eBooks

Visit me at www.judithjosephson.com, and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.

We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

Italics!

To Italicize or Not to Italicize, That Is the Question!

 Back in the Stone Age when we started writing, we printed our work on dot matrix printers, then used ruler and pen to underline anything that had to be italicized. With today’s word processors, italicizing is easy, but when and in what situations?

This decision can be complicated, and we’ll cover the use of italics versus quotation marks in our next post. True confessions: We sometimes double check italics rules in our own Nitty-Gritty Grammar books! For now, let’s focus on a quick review of italics.

 Use italics:

• for scientific names: Tyrannosaurus rex (dino), Staphylococcus (a bacterium that causes boils), Echinocystis lobata (wild cucumber)

• for emphasis: “The will, as only Maxwell knew, made him the sole heir to their parents’ fortune.”

• for screenplay directions, to show how a character should speak a line: Kermit (innocently): “It’s not that easy being green.”

• for words from other languages: bon ami, pièce de la resistance, c’est magnifique, mea culpa, c’est fini, feng shui, E pluribus unum, Hasta mañana, baby!

Tip: Some foreign words (e.g., shish kebab, en masse, cafe latte, and maven) have been used so often that they are no longer italicized.

• for titles:

Magazines—Vanity Fair, Consumer Report, Elle, Cricket

Journals—The California Reader,  JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), Journal of Climate

Newspapers—Arizona Sun, Washington Post, New York Times, Detroit Free Press, Portland Tribune

Books—Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese), My Best Everything (Sarah Wones Tomp),  Splat! Another Messy Sunday (The Fantastic Frame series, Lin Oliver)

Long poems—Evangeline (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

Movies—La La Land, The Lion King, Moonlight, Victoria and Abdul

Plays—Hamilton; Rent; Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812

Radio shows/Series—Downton Abbey, Fresh Air, This American Life, On the Media

TV shows/series—Young Sheldon, This Is Us, The Americans

Cartoon strips—Frazz (Jef Mallet), Baby Blues (Jerry Scott & Rick Kirkman), Jump Start (Robb Armstrong)

Cartoon shows—Super Why!, The Simpsons, Looney Tunes

Musical works—1812 Overture (Tchaikovsky) Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (Beethoven), The Magic Flute (Mozart)

Artistic works—Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci), Come Play (James Hubbell)

CDs and DVDs—Cinema Serenade 2 (Itzhak Perlman & John Williams), Beatriz at Dinner, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Names of ships—Grand Princess, Air Force One, HMS Beagle, USS Constitution

Spacecraft—Cassini, Endeavor, Skylab

There you have it. We hope we’ve refreshed the subject of italics for you. Have you created a cool mnemonic for these rules? Post it below and we’ll share. Check out our two light-hearted Nitty-Gritty Grammar guides for more details, cartoons, and some laughs! À bientôt from the Grammar Patrol!

Allan Pinkerton: The Original Private Eye

More than one hundred fifty years ago, when the Midwest was still young and rugged, a tough, burly Scottish immigrant named Allan Pinkerton founded the first detective agency in America. The Pinkerton Detective Agency vowed to catch criminals, recover stolen property, gather information, and investigate fraud. The agency’s motto was “We Never Sleep,” its logo a wide-open eye.

When I was a child, friends asked me if my family was related to this famous detective. That sounded exciting, but we were not relatives. Still my curiosity led me to write a biography of him, now newly reissued as an ebook. My research for the print book from Lerner Publications took me to Van Nuys, California, then the headquarters of the modern agency. I spent the day there poring over stacks of documents, letters, and photos. The methods Pinkerton used were simple, but in 1850, they broke new ground. Facts and codes were recorded in small black notebooks. His agents worked undercover, sometimes in disguises their own mothers wouldn’t recognize. I held Pinkerton’s codebook in my hands, gazed at the memorabilia in glass cases, and marveled at the massive Diebold safe that stood in the lobby. Much of what I saw came from a time when there were no armored trucks, no huge bank vaults, no safe places to keep money, no computers! A time when the first Pinkerton operatives chased railroad and bank robbers by train, horseback, or on foot.

In the revised and updated ebook, I give details about how Pinkerton got into detective work, his work on the Underground Railroad, the famous outlaws and bandits he chased, such as the Jesse James and Reno gangs, and the formation of the first female detective department within his agency. Because of his friendship with Abraham Lincoln, Pinkerton and his agents protected Lincoln on the way to his first inauguration. I also wrote about Pinkerton the man—his habits, challenges, and his penchant for practical jokes, such as upending a fishing boat filled with his guests at his Illinois estate, the Larches.

The research for this book fascinated me. After the print book was published, public interest went beyond my target audience to older students and adults.  This enabled me to appear on the A & E Biography and Discovery television programs. (My fifteen minutes of fame!) View clips of those appearances on YouTube: Judith Pinkerton Josephson, Author.

The Pinkerton Detective Agency made history. Its story began with a maverick Scotsman who helped shape the meaning of the word “detective” for decades to come. Located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the modern agency is in full swing today. The Library of Congress now houses Allan Pinkerton’s hundreds of letters, records, and photos. The words in these archives bring to life one of the most colorful men of the 19th century.

Check out the ebook on Amazon at  Allan Pinkerton: The Original Private Eye (for readers middle grade and up, plus older readers)

Visit me at www.judithjosephson.com, and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.

(The agency is now located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.)— I pored over stacks of documents and actually held Pinkerton’s code book in my hand.

Today in the United States and other countries, a myriad of law enforcement and surveillance agencies exist. But it wasn’t always so. He didn’t start out to be a detective.  As a young man back in Scotland in the 1830s, he was part of a resistance movement called the Chartists fighting against British control over working people’s lives.  “I wasn’t on the side of the law then.”

When authorities put a price on Pinkerton’s head, he left Scotland for America with his young bride Joan. Back then, he was a cooper, a maker of barrels to hold grains, beef, beer, wine, and other goods. But in Dundee, Illinois, when he cracked a counterfeit ring making phony money, the local sheriff started asked him to solve other crimes. At the same time, Allan and Joan began operating as a safe house for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. Because he believed slavery was wrong, he justified breaking the law.

After Allan and his family moved to the fast-growing city of Chicago, he became its first private detective, a move that led to his founding his own agency in 1850. At that time, few detective agencies existed in the United States. Pinkerton decided Pinkerton’s central office looked like a backstage theater wardrobe room. Big trunks held hats, boots, suits, and other clothing. On a specific case, a detective might have to act the part of a bartender, a horse car conductor, a watchmaker, or a gambler. His agents were called operatives and each had a code name. Soon railroads began hiring him and his agents to catch train bandits; banks asked him to tackle gangs of bank robbers.

Because of Allan Pinkerton’s friendship with Abraham Lincoln,. Because of the initial publication of this biography, I had the opportunity to appear on the A & E Biography and Discovery programs on television.

The Pinkertons made history. Their story began with a maverick Scotsman who founded the first detective bureau in the United States and helped shape the meaning of the word “detective” for decades to come. The Library of Congress now houses Allan Pinkerton’s hundreds of letters, records, and photos.

The words in these archives and Allan Pinkerton’s legacy bring to life one of the most colorful men of the nineteenth century.

Check out the ebook at : (add bitly link)

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We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

Fireworks crackle. Champagne corks pop.

With the New Year comes a cracklin’ good POP Quiz.

You know the drill:

• Multiple choice and one essay question.
• Answers at the end.
• No peeking.

1. What’s new, if you don’t mind (me/my) asking.

2. He used the same chess strategy with my sister and (I/me).

3. Dogs love chewing bones. (Its/ It’s) their hobby.

4. If you think (us/our) being civil is vital, you’re right.

5. (Active or passive?) The game was won by Cleveland.

6. Let Norma and (I/me) try first.

7. If you don’t mind (them/their) joining us, I’ll invite them.

8. Thanks for (you’re/your) help. (You’re/Your) the best.

9. He took John and (I, me) to Disneyland.

10. Occupational therapist: “(Lay/Lie) on your side.”

Essay Question: Why does grammar matter even in everyday speech?

If you need a refresher, the column the tips appeared in is listed. Just go to the eFrog Press blog post, “Why does Grammar Matter to Authors?” to read more.

Answers:

1. What’s new, if you don’t mind my asking.

(December 2016: “Hold That Line! Make a Touchdown with Gerunds”)

Use possessive pronouns before gerunds—ing verbs.

2. He used the same chess strategy with my sister and me.

(October 21, 2014: (“How to Avoid Pronoun Errors: The Grammar Patrol Shares Favorite Bloopers”)

Lots of pronoun clues.

3. Dogs love chewing bones. It’s their hobby.

(September 2015: “Briefly Speaking: The Long and Short of Contractions” Contractions) “It’s” is short for “It is.” The possessive “its” never splits.

4. If you think our being civil is vital, you’re right.

(December 2016: “Hold That Line! Make a Touchdown with Gerunds”)

Use possessive pronouns before gerunds—ing verbs.

5. (The sentence is passive.) The game was won by Cleveland.

Contrast this with the active “Cleveland won the game.”

(November, 2015: “Add Power to Your Writing: Understand passive and active verbs”) Passive voice: The person or subject is acted upon.

Active voice: The subject does the action.

6. Let Norma and me try first.

(October 21, 2014: “How to Avoid Pronoun Errors: The Grammar Patrol Shares Favorite Bloopers”) Those tricky pronouns.

7. If you don’t mind their joining us, I’ll invite them.

(December 2016: “Hold That Line! Make a Touchdown with Gerunds”)

Use possessive pronouns before gerunds—ing verbs.

8. Thanks for your help. You’re the best.

“You’re is the contraction for “You are.”

“Your” is a possessive pronoun, as in “your New Year’s resolutions.”

9. He took John and me to Disneyland.

(September 2015: (October 21, 2014: “How to Avoid Pronoun Errors: The Grammar Patrol Shares Favorite Bloopers”) Pronouns.

10. Occupational therapist: “Lie on your side.”

Hens lay. People lie (recline).

As for the essay question, let us count the ways . . . as you have in your excellent essay!

Here’s what Marilyn Vos Savant, Parade Magazine’s resident brilliant nerd columnist, had to say on October 2, 2016: “You need to learn every rule of grammar because this lays the foundation for high-quality adult communication . . . the ability to express yourself clearly and well.”

Need more specifics on punctuation or other grammar conundrums? Check out our two zany grammar guides—Nitty-Gritty Grammar: A Not-so-Serious Guide to Clear Communication and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar—loaded with cartoons, tips, and blooper pitfalls. Order ahead for birthdays, holiday gifts, work promotions, graduation, and quick reference for school, home school, and office. Tell your grammar-challenged pals!

Send your grammar queries/peeves/observations to www.grammarpatrol.com or pop us a comment below.

Richard Fitchen, BA MA MLIS PhD, was a firefighter and National Guardsman before teaching at the University of Washington and the University of California (Berkeley and Santa Barbara). He served as the social sciences bibliographer in Yale University’s Libraries and retired as bibliographer and reference department head at the Stanford University Libraries. He now writes full time and enjoys traveling with family.

The final volume in the sweeping  An American Saga series has just been published! Imagine five stories that span the pageant of America’s national history, each story based on a new generation of two families locked in mortal conflict. These stories reveal how the protagonists exploit new technologies that dominated America’s development.  Use of wind power in the eighteenth century, steam power in the nineteenth, and internal-combustion engine power in the twentieth present a background against which America’s unique social, economic, legal, and political portrait is celebrated in this series.

In the first book, Staircase to Liberty: Joseph’s America, Britain still rules America. Joseph LaBarre’s parents and siblings are brutally massacred in Acadian Maine and Joseph is abducted into the Royal Navy. Starting anew in Philadelphia, he takes back a large schooner stolen from his family by the murderous Angus Cameron. Joseph arms his schooner with cannons, and French admirals teach him how to attack Britain’s powerful warships. When Joseph’s trading business is threatened by London, he convinces patriot leaders including Washington and Jefferson that unfettered trade is necessary to achieve liberty. Meanwhile, Cameron plots to destroy Joseph and to cripple the fledgling United States.

In the second book, Justice on Trial: Louie’s America, Louisiana is America’s booming frontier. Louie LaBarre makes New Orleans his base for steamboat river trade, a new bank, and grand sugar plantations. Domineering King Cameron launches military, political and legal attacks against Louie. Their rivalry is intense, but only one titan will control the rich cotton trade and thus decide the fate of slavery. Louie’s passion for a beautiful collared Creole and his daring intrigues in Cuba lead to trouble, and Cameron’s cronies move in for the kill.

Book three, United by Covenant: Ben’s America, opens with Ben LaBarre as a young minister in Connecticut. He was raised in the south and is burdened by circumstances of his mixed race but driven by purpose. In New York City, he launches crusading magazines that bring readers face to face with the most important contemporary figures defining America’s experience with railroads while overcoming civil war, adjusting to massive immigration, and managing ruthless industrialists. Despite his public achievements, Ben faces terrible personal loss and sacrifices that spill over onto a new generation.

The fourth book, Republic in Triumph: Jessie’s America, brings readers to twentieth century growth of business and government. Jessie LaBarre is an indomitable and courageous attorney who advises presidents and CEOs, and she paves the way for America’s revolutionary development of automobiles and airplanes. She also spurs the growth of civil liberties, labor relations, women’s rights, and collective security. Readers meet leading men and women of the tumultuous decades from Theodore Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson. Subversive and racist Cameron men plot to destroy Jessie and her family.  She wins convictions against some of them, but a ruthless new generation of enemies extracts a terrible price.

The fifth and final book, Proof of Concept: Bibi’s America, opens with an insane serial killer stalking Bibi LaBarre, who also suffers the loss of trusted partners. But she perseveres as an angel investor supporting tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, and she promotes nonprofits and NGOs. Her personal life is blighted by tragedies and self-doubts that she must surmount to find joy. One of the Camerons appears to help her, though he’s really helping his family, but a next-generation Cameron rises to challenge Bibi’s vision for the future and to subvert humanity.

All five volumes in An American Saga series are available in paperback and ebook through Amazon. Richard Fitchen delights in making history come to life through story. Learn more about his writing in his blog post My publishing journey writing historical fiction and in a newspaper interview: “Encinitas author’s books portray sweeping story of America.” Visit RichardFitchen.com for more information.

Banish Keys Talk

Did you really say banish the keys talk? Why yes I did because “Let me talk to my parents about giving up driving,” said no one ever!

Freewheeling After Sixty is written with two readers in mind. First, the age forty-something adult child with seventy-year-old parents. Second, the sixty-year-old eager to stay independent in retirement.

One Message for Two Readers

For the adult child, this book gives insight into the subtle changes of aging. Information on resources and a system to develop a transportation strategy for a family member. In addition, this reader will benefit from learning how they can improve their community and lifestyle choices.

On the other hand, the book speaks to thoughtful adults who wants to maintain their independence in older age.  For this reader, the book introduces the concept of interdependence and the importance of connection. In addition, the reader will better understand the transportation infrastructure.

Changing the Conversation

Currently, many books take a paternalistic attitude toward older drivers. That voice no longer connects to older adults and their families. You see now we have a population of drivers who may have over seven decades of experience behind the wheel. They travel, they take Zumba classes, they date, and they also drive. Those now entering older age want to retain their freedom and mobility.

In Freewheeling after Sixty, both groups of readers learn the value and place community offers in their quality of life. With a community comes a built-in structure eliminating the keys talk. Freewheeling is a real solution for an emotional conversation that all participants dread. Click HERE for a book preview.

A  Resource for Families and Older Drivers

Each chapter of the book offers readers details and information on driving and senior transportation resources. Chapter titles include:

What you must know about driving

Alternative Transportation Resources

The Future of Communities and Transportation

In addition, Freewheeling After Sixty engages readers online and offers additional resources. Individuals who register the book have access to planners, templates, and an online private Facebook Group.

More than a Book

Freewheeling after Sixty is also part of a movement focused on changing the stereotypes of aging through connections. The goal of the Freewheeling Movement is to engage 40,000 older drivers by 2020 in their transportation options. The aim of this bold goal is to organically influence the generations connected to these drivers. Through raising, awareness, communities can build transportation that serves all its residents at any age.

About the Author

Currently, Judi Bonilla is the Director of Program Innovation at Advocates For Aging. She is the first gerontologist to speak at South by Southwest (SXSW). Judi has also spoken at the American Society Aging and Certified Senior Advisors conferences. She served as a fellow for Hispanics in Philanthropy and Senior Service America. Judi is the author of Freewheeling After Sixty, a book for older drivers. In addition, the City of San Diego honored her for launching Older Driver Safety Awareness Week.

We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

Understand Gerunds and Possessive Pronouns

The Grammar Patrol tends to “Keep Calm and Carry On” in the face of grammar blips. But there’s one common error, primarily spoken, that does make our antennae shiver. It involves gerunds and possessive pronouns.

What’s a gerund? When an ing form of a verb has the job of a noun, it’s called a gerund.

          Sierra, a novice skier, focused on snowplowing.

A noun names a person, place, or thing. What “thing” did Sierra focus on? Snowplowing.

The Grammar Patrol’s Trick

Here’s the trick, your December grammar gift from us to you: Use a possessive pronoun before a gerund.

In preparation for this column, we’ve been collecting evidence as to how rampant this error is. (We readily admit—we’re losing ground on this one.)

Take a long look at these examples from our sampling, for instance. Do they ring oddly to your ear?

I appreciate you bringing this up.

Thanks for making the time for me saying a few words.

We’re fine with you going over the case.

Did you hear about them moving?

I appreciate you calling me back.

We’re fine with you going over the case

It’s only because of him leaving that he gets the bowling prize.

We appreciate you being on the show.

It’s nothing to do with you not having time to see me.

Each of these sentences uses an objective pronoun with the gerund: me, you, her, him, us, and them. (Refresher: Objective pronouns are the objects of verbs or prepositions.) For these sample gerund sentences, all you need to do is replace those objective pronouns with possessive ones: my, your, hers, his, our, their. (Heads up, screenwriters, actors, reporters, and pundits—are you with us here?)

Corrected Sentences

Here are the sentences with their tiny corrections—just changing one word. First, eyeball these new versions. Then read them aloud to anchor the idea of ing verb forms being preceded by a possessive pronoun.

I appreciate your bringing this up.

Thanks for making the time for my saying a few words.

We’re fine with your going over the case.

Did you hear about their moving?

I appreciate your calling me back.

We’re fine with your going over the case

It’s only because of his leaving that he gets the bowling prize.

We appreciate your being on the show.

It’s nothing to do with your not having time to see me.

We urge you to shake your cheerleading pom-poms and chant along with us, “Ya gotta hold that line! Ya gotta hold that line! Gerunds plus possessives! They’re just fine.”

Great Gifts for Writers

Need a grammar refresher that won’t boggle your brain? Our lighthearted Nitty-Gritty Grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar, feature right/wrong/why examples, ticker tapes with common errors, and lots of grammar-related cartoons that we used when teaching one-day grammar refreshers through San Diego State Extension. We’re delighted that these humorous grammar books have stayed in print for more than fifteen years and, between the two, have now sold close to 150,000 copies.

Keep those grammar pet peeves, funny signs, and questions coming. See you in the new year for another pop quiz.

© Anton Starikov | Dreamstime.com – Pom poms

Dear Heart: The Courting Letters

A trip to my mailbox these days might yield bills, ads, and the usual collection of junk mail.  The sight of a handwritten letter nestled in the pile delights me. It was not always so. More than a century ago, letters and illustrated postcards were the main ways people communicated, be they friends, relations, or lovers. Phones were an expensive luxury.

Almost twenty years ago, when I discovered an antique writing box filled with courting letters from 1909-1910, even a cursory reading had me hooked.  Here were two people, Gertie and Fred, courting (a.k.a. dating, getting to know one another) via the written word and little packages they sent to each other. Separated between Ipswich, England, and St. Paul, Minnesota, a letter took ten days one way by train and ship. No instant communication was possible! The letter sent was usually not the one answered. I knew there was a story here, and it never let me alone.

I began by transcribing the letters. Fred wrote sixteen-page letters single-spaced. Gertie’s handwriting was creative, often spilling over onto play programs and church bulletins.

At my daughter Kirsten’s suggestion, I interwove a fictional modern couple’s story to add contrast. I chose 2010 in Chicago and Spain as the setting. Some elements—emotions, needs, hurdles, obstacles—are universal. But most young people in love today don’t write letters.  Multiple other vehicles for communication exist. The restraints that existed in 1910 have softened, but not disappeared entirely.

My research entailed digging deeper into the historical events mentioned in the letters and in the two eras.

I purposely highlighted the contrasts between the two stories—modes of communication, technology, transportation, dissemination of information, fashions, speech. One of the most interesting contrasts involved women’s rights and freedoms.

My modern heroine, Lisa, despite her troubles in the dating world, has the freedom make choices, to be an independent woman. My 1909-10 heroine, Gertie, though she admires the suffragettes, hesitates to tell Fred her true feelings; people criticize her for refusing to marry someone else she doesn’t love.

A peek at Lisa: “With the click of computer keys, the Internet made it possible to communicate with more than one person at a time. Lisa crawled into bed and clicked off the lamp. I’m just one small soup can on a grocery soup aisle filled with an array of brands. Why pick me?”

A peek at Gertie: “Men had the best of it. Women, relegated to loving someone, but not showing it, must wait to put their true feelings into words until asked to be someone’s wife.” At another point, Mr. Jones, who rents a room from Gertie and fancies her, is off to a men’s-only meeting at church. Gertie writes, “How I wish I were a man.”

My vision for this book included illustrations. So I enlisted my artistically/graphically talented daughter Kirsten to turn photos, paintings, postcards, luggage tags, and letters into 27 vivid chapter openers and 17 interior illustrations.

Writer Wallace Stegner once said, “Any life will provide the material for writing, if it is attended to.”

So in Dear Heart: The Courting Letters, I attended to the lives of these two real people and invented two other fictional ones. Of the twenty-two books I’ve written, this one is close to my heart.

I hope readers will become as fascinated with history as I am and be inspired to listen to their hearts and persevere despite obstacles.

Persistence is the key to writing success. If an idea won’t let you alone, then follow it. Learn about the craft, research, revise, and read. Above all, write what you love!

Dear Heart is available on Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, and bookstores.

Visit Judith at www.judithjosephson.com, and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.

We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

What do music and grammar have in common? More than you think. Both genres contain codes and signs for the musician or reader to follow.

In a musical work, a double line with two dots before or after it means “repeat.” A curved line over a dot signals, “hold this note longer.” A rest sign means pause and for a singer, that’s a good time to take a breath. Without observing a repeat sign, half the orchestra might repeat a passage, and the other half might simply plow forward. Cacophony! If a singer misses a rest, her entrance will be early, plus she might collapse from lack of breath.

Likewise in writing, punctuation marks guide the reader, despite recent rumors of punctuation’s demise. (Thank the shorthand of emails, texting, and tweeting!) The Grammar Patrol thinks punctuation marks add clarity. For us, in writing and reading, punctuation is a code to help readers ride smoothly through the written word.

Let’s review common marks and some of their vagaries.

One way to do this is to think of punctuation marks as traffic signals:

.   Period = Stop Sign

“Come to a full stop. No sliding through.”

(One space after a period)

,  Comma = Flashing Yellow Light

Slow down. Look left and right. Then continue.

• Tip: Confuse a comma with a period and presto! Run-on sentence!

• Tip: In the U.S., periods and commas always go inside quotation marks.

(Not so in England.)

 ;  Semi-Colon=Flashing Red Light

Stop briefly; forge ahead.

(Often used when two sentences relate to each other, or for a list of items with interior commas)

:  Colon = Arrow or Road Sign

“Listen up! What follows explains, adds information, or a list.”

• Tip: Colons and semi-colons always go outside quotation marks

• Tip: Exclamation marks ( ! ), question marks ( ? ) , and dashes ( — )can be inside or outside depending on the meaning of the sentence.

(More on this later. Read on.)

Pop Quiz!

(Answers below. No peeking.)

Can you spot the punctuation bloopers in these sentences?

1. The feisty jockey’s nickname is “Spitfire”.

2. Florists like romance, it’s their business.

3. The whirlwind tour includes London, England, Mont Saint Michel and Paris, France, and Frankfurt, Germany.

4. Political campaigns always include the same elements, flag waving, baby smooching, and lofty speeches.

5. Amy’s airy office, “the treehouse”, was her refuge.

Recent bloopers spotted by the Grammar Patrol:

“Food and wine lends itself to adjectives, to metaphors.”

“You may not realize that myself and my sisters . . . ”

So remember, whether you’re singing, playing an instrument, writing, or reading, look for those all-important codes, musical or grammatical.  Those are the traffic signals to guide you on your adventure. For more on all things grammatical, consult our two lighthearted grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar.

Attention, Grammar Bargain Hunters!

Need more specifics on punctuation or other grammar conundrums? We’re excited that Ten Speed/Random House is holding a big promotion on our Nitty-Gritty Grammar through BookBub and other retailers (At Kindle:  http://amzn.to/2bTAvhU). You can get this zany grammar guide—loaded with cartoons, tips, and blooper pitfalls—for just $1.99 from August 28–September 11. What a bargain. Order ahead for birthdays, holiday gifts, work promotions, graduation, and quick reference for school, home school, and office. Tell your grammar-challenged pals!

Remember to send us bloopers you hear or see. We love hearing from you.

(Answers to Pop Quiz: 1. “Spitfire.” 2. romance; it’s 3. England; France; 4. Same elements: 5. “the treehouse,”)