Writting good or well 5 ppt

Chapter 15: Going on Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly U The sentence begins with a verb form To form the “Greeting Turtle Posture”, so the subject of the sentence must be the per

Chapter 15: Going on Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly

U The sentence begins with a verb form (To form the “Greeting Turtle Posture”), so the subject of the sentence must be the person who is supposed to do this ridiculous exercise In the cor-rected sentence, an understood “you” fills that need

V The laundry description belongs to mat, not to armpits, though I do think fluffy armpits are nice.

W In the original sentence the subject of bending is implied, not stated, so by default, the other subject in the sentence (the left ankle) takes that role But the left ankle can’t bend the right

knee, so the logic is flawed Changing the second half of the sentence to “relax the left ankle”

makes the subject you (understood), and “you” works as the understood subject you want for the first half of the sentence Another possible solution: Change the first half of the sentence to

“While you are bending .”

X The description almost applies to minute, not to bending.

Y In the original sentence now is equidistant from throw and extending, creating a vague state-ment Moving the description clarifies the meaning Once you move now, add a comma between

back and extending to help the reader separate these two actions.

z The description only applies to the number of times one should breathe, not to the number of

actions one should be doing

Z The introductory verb form must be an action done by the subject, and the nose can’t tuck the

chin The understood subject you can tuck the chin.

1 The color description belongs to sky, not to yoga posture Another, more concise correction is

to delete “that is blue” and simply say, “blue sky.”

204 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons

Chapter 16

For Better or Worse:

Forming Comparisons

In This Chapter

䊳Creating the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs

䊳Dealing with irregular comparisons

䊳Identifying absolutes that may not be compared

Does Nellie have a bigger ice cream cone? Whose cold is worse? Do you think Tom Cruise is the most attractive, strongest, and richest star in Hollywood? If human beings

weren’t so tempted to compare their situations with others’, then life — and grammar — would be a lot easier

Comparisons may be expressed by one word (higher, farther, or sooner) or two words (more

beautiful, most annoying, or least sensible) Sometimes many words are needed (taller than any other Lincoln impersonator or as much electricity as Con Edison) I deal with extended

comparisons in Chapter 17 In this chapter you get to practice creating and placing one- or two-word comparisons that make your meaning come through loud and clear (Oops! What I

meant was more loudly and more clearly).

Visiting the -ER (And the -EST):

Creating Comparisons

Adjectives (words that describe people, places, things, or ideas) and adverbs (describing actions, states of being, or other descriptions) are the basis of comparisons Regular unadorned adjectives and adverbs are the base upon which two types of comparisons may

be made: the comparative and the superlative Comparatives (dumber, smarter, neater, more

interesting, less available, and the like) deal with only two elements Superlatives (dumbest, smartest, neatest, most interesting, least available, and so forth) identify the extreme in a

group of three or more To create comparisons, follow these guidelines:

⻬ Tack -er onto the end of a one-syllable descriptive word to create a comparative form

showing a greater or more intense quality For descriptions of more than one syllable,

the -er may sound awkward Generally, comparatives of long words are created by tack-ing more onto the description For a comparative that shows inferiority, use less.

⻬ Glue -est to one-syllable words to make a superlative that expresses superiority Most

does the trick for most longer words Superlatives expressing inferiority are created

with the word least.

⻬ Check the dictionary if you’re not sure of the correct form The entry for the

plain adjective or adverb normally includes the comparative and superlative forms, if they’re single words If you don’t see a listing for another form of the

word, take the less/more, least/most option.

As you may have guessed, a few comparatives and superlatives are irregular I discuss these in the next section, “Going from Bad to Worse (and Good to Better): Irregular Comparisons.”

Ready for some comparison shopping? Insert the comparative or superlative form, as needed, into the blanks for each question The base word is in parentheses at the end of the sentence

Q.Helen is the _ of all the women living in Troy, New York (beautiful)

A.most beautiful or least beautiful The sentence compares Helen to other women in Troy,

New York Comparing more than two elements requires the superlative form Because

beautiful is a long word, most and least create the comparison Which should you choose?

The answer depends on your opinion of Helen’s looks Personally, ever since the

do-it-yourself face-lift, I’m going with least.

1 Helen, who manages the billing for an auto parts company, is hoping for a transfer to the

Paris office, where the salaries are _ than in New York but the night life is

_ (low, lively)

2 Helen’s boss claims that she is the _ of all his employees (efficient)

3 His secretary, however, has measured everyone’s output of P-345 forms and concluded

that Helen is _ than Natalie, Helen’s assistant (slow)

4 Natalie prefers to type her P-345s because she thinks the result is _ than

handwritten work (neat)

5 Helen notes that everyone else in the office writes _ than Natalie, whose

penmanship has been compared to random scratches from a blind chicken (legibly)

6 Helen has been angry with Natalie ever since her assistant declared that Helen’s coffee

was _ than the tea that Natalie brought to the office (drinkable)

7 Helen countered with the claim that Natalie brewed tea _ than the office

rules allow, a practice that makes her _ than Helen (frequently, productive)

8 The other auto-parts workers are trying to stay out of the feud; they know that both

women are capable of making the work day _ and _ than it

is now (long, boring)

9 The _ moment in the argument came when Natalie claimed that Helen’s

toy duck “squawked _ than Helen herself.” (petty, annoyingly)

10 I bought the duck for Helen myself, and it was the _ toy in the entire store!

(expensive)

11 Knowing about Helen’s transfer request, I asked for a duck that sounded _

than the average American rubber duck (international)

206 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons

12 The clerk told me my request was the _ he had ever encountered (silly)

13 I replied that I preferred to deal with store clerks who were _ than he.

(snobby)

14 Anyway, Helen’s transfer wasn’t approved, and she is in the _ mood

imag-inable (nasty)

15 We all skirt Natalie’s desk _ than Helen’s, because Natalie is even

_ than Helen about the refusal (widely, upset)

16 Natalie, who considers herself the _ person in the company, wanted a

pro-motion to Helen’s rank (essential)

17 Larry, however, is sure that he would have gotten the promotion because he is the

_ of all of us in his donations to the Office Party Fund (generous)

18 “Natalie bakes a couple of cupcakes,” he commented _ than the average

Mack truck, “and the boss thinks she’s executive material.” (forcefully)

19 “I, on the other hand, am the _ of the three clerks in my office,” he

contin-ued (professional)

20 When I left the office, Natalie and Larry were arm wrestling to see who was

_ (strong)

Going from Bad to Worse (and Good

to Better): Irregular Comparisons

A couple of basic descriptions form comparisons irregularly Irregulars don’t add -er or

more/less to create a comparison between two elements Nor do irregulars tack on -est or most/least to point out the top or bottom of a group of more than two, also known as the

superlative form of comparisons (See the preceding section, “Visiting the -ER (And the

-EST),” for more information on comparatives and superlatives.) Instead, irregular

compar-isons follow their own strange path, as you can see in Table 16-1

Description Comparative Superlative

Take a stab at this section’s practice exercises, but don’t go to the -ER if your aim is

faulty and you put the wrong form of the description (which you find in parentheses

at the end of each sentence) in the blank Just read the explanation in the answers section of the chapter and move on

207

Chapter 16: For Better or Worse: Forming Comparisons

Q.Edgar’s scrapbook, which contains souvenirs from his trip to Watch Repair Camp, is the

_ example of a boring book that I have ever seen (good)

A.best Once you mention the top or bottom experience of a lifetime, you’re in the

superla-tive column Because goodest isn’t a word, best is the one you want.

21 Edgar explains his souvenirs in _ detail than anyone would ever want to

hear (much)

22 Bored listeners believe that the _ item in his scrapbook is a set of gears,

each of which Edgar can discuss for hours (bad)

23 On the bright side, everyone knows that Edgar’s watch repair skills are _

than the jewelers’ downtown (good)

24 When he has the flu, Edgar actually feels _ when he hears about a broken

watch (bad)

25 Although he is only nine years old, Edgar has the _ timepieces of anyone in

his fourth grade class, including the teacher (many)

26 The classroom clock functions fairly well, but Ms Appleby relies on Edgar to make it run

even _ (well)

27 Edgar’s scrapbook also contains three samples of watch oil; Edgar thinks Time-Ola Oil is

the _ choice (good)

28 Unfortunately, last week Edgar let a little oil drip onto his lunch and became sick; a few

hours later he felt _ and had to call the doctor (ill)

29 “Time-Ola Oil is the _ of all the poisons,” cried the doctor (bad)

30 “But it’s the _ for watches,” whispered Edgar (good)

Words That Are Incomparable (Like You!)

Because you bought this book, I’m assuming that you (like me) are perfect Therefore you can’t be compared to anything or anyone else because the word perfect — as well

as unique, round, circular, right, mistaken, and a few other terms — is an absolute.

Logic, which pops up from time to time in English grammar, is the basis for this rule

If you reach an absolute state, you can’t be more or less absolute Therefore an

expression such as more circular or really unique is a no-no You can, however, approach an absolute, being, for example, nearly perfect (okay, I admit that’s a better term for me) or almost round.

Words for direction and shape tend to be absolutes You can turn left and but not

lefter or more left Nor can you be the squarest or most square of them all, at least

when you’re discussing a four-sided figure

Check out the following sentence pairs and circle the correct sentence Just to keep you awake, I throw in some pairs in which both sentences are wrong or both sen-tences are right (For those sensen-tences, just write “both wrong” or “both right” in the margin.)

208 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons