July 2011

Stephanie was raised as an army brat and enjoyed living in several countries outside the US, especially in Naples, Italy, for her last two years of high school. She attended college at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where she majored in English/Literature, plus met her husband, Don. A classic story of the city mouse and the country mouse.

Family became her focus with three marvelous children and a menagerie of pets until the empty nest years. To her surprise, her husband (who never read books) then asked her to co-author a novel with him, and a delightful decade of attending writing conferences and “learning how to write” began.

Their first book, STRANDED: A Novel, eventually became a trilogy, which—ha!—took only six years to complete. Their characters became members of the family and are insisting Don and Stephanie venture on to a series about what happened afterwards. To date, the authors are not resisting.

Don and Stephanie are located just south of Indianapolis, IN, where they enjoy twelve grandchildren and a backyard of wild pests…er, pets.

Well, you asked!

Martha R. asked: I get confused about when to add a comma between adjectives. I heard if you can replace the comma with “and,” the comma goes between the two adjectives. Is there an easy rule to remember?

Steph: You cited the easiest rule, Martha. A “small, red ring” is a ring that’s both small and red, so use a comma to show that. However, sometimes what looks like two adjectives is actually one adjective in front of a phrasal noun—“a wrinkled suit coat,” for instance.

Not sure if “suit coat” is a phrasal noun? That’s okay. Use the and-test: is the coat both wrinkled and suit? Nah, doesn’t make sense. Don’t use a comma.

Wordsmithing: You Can Write Better Than Her

by Stephanie Prichard

Grammar police Oh my, did you catch the error in that title?

No? Then, kiddo, you’re in trouble with the grammar police. No use running. Their hounds can smell you out, wherever—under your desk, crouched behind your monitor, squished inside your laptop.

You reek of your crime, dude. It’s only because 95 percent of the population is equally guilty that you can’t distinguish your stench from theirs. True wordsmiths will not tolerate this malodorous comfy zone.

Book ‘em, Dano

What, exactly, is the crime? In grammar police lingo, it’s pronoun assault. You’re mixing up your objective and subjective case pronouns. Or, in layman terms, you’re using me, us, him, her, and them when you should be using I, we, he, she, and they. (Or vice versa.)

Grammar Police Gas Mask Still saying huh? Grab a bar of soap and I’ll stand outside the bathroom door and explain while you attack those underarms. Hoo.

The crime is truncating your sentence. You chopped off the ending, dude. Would you say, “You can write better than her can write”? Of course you wouldn’t! You would say, “You can write better than she can write.” Why, then, say, “You can write better than her”?

Get it? You should say, “You can write better than she.” Or “than he.” Or “than I.” Or “than we.” Or “than they.” The solution to avoiding the whole fetid problem is to just finish your sentence. For example:

She types faster than … I type.
Babies need milk more than … we need it.
He’s as funny as … she is.
We eat as much as … they eat.

The mix-up works the other way too. Sometimes, using her is correct. For instance, if Sam loves football more than he loves Suzy, you wouldn’t say, “Sam loves football more than she.” That’s the same as saying, “Sam loves football more than [he loves] she.”

Nope, now is the time to use the objective case pronoun her: “Sam loves football more than [he loves] her.”

Goodbye Grammar Police Well, er, unless you mean that Sam really does love football more than Suzy loves it. Then you’d be correct in saying, “Sam loves football more than she [loves football].”

Bottom line: Simply make your comparisons into complete sentences. The correct pronouns will automatically pop into place. No odor, no hounds. No grammar police, dude!

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