Which is correct?

Do you appreciate my writing to the company’s stockholders?

Do you appreciate me writing to the company’s stockholders?

#1 is correct.

And another one:

Do you mind my smoking?

Do you mind me smoking?

#1 is correct.

Let’s turn it around a little to make it easier. We’ll substitute correspondence for writing.

Do you appreciate my correspondence to the stockholders?

Do you appreciate me correspondence to the stockholders?

It’s pretty obvious that #1 is correct, isn’t it? Correspondence is a noun (a thing), and my is the personal pronoun describing that noun.

It’s not obvious when using the word writing, because -ing words can be nouns or verbs (action words). Therefore, they can easily cause us to trip.

The best way to avoid tripping is to substitute a noun for the -ing word and see if it works. If it does, use my before the -ing word.

My boys hate my yelling.

(My boys hate my uproar.)

(. . . which, of course, they do!)

I hope this helps.

Robin

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Because of the popularity of my grammar and punctuation topics here, I’ve decided to devote one post every week or so to a grammar or punctuation rule. As always, I’ll verify the grammar rule from a reputable source, but please feel free to comment or disagree on the rule.

I’m also doing this because the ultimate goal of this blog is to help you build Web site content for your site. My belief is that you need to take care of grammar and punctuation problems in your content in order to maintain the professionalism of your site.

However, I also want to emphasize that just because we have this left-brain grammar topic once a week, we’re not going to freeze up on our posts or comments because we’re so worried about grammar. Grammar is a left-brain activity. In order to write content, you have to free up your creativity and not worry about grammar. Editing comes later . . . much later.

Blogs, forums, personal e-mail, e-mail discussion groups, or chats are not the places to worry about grammar rules. Creative writing–the very act of writing–is also not the place . . . at least not at first. You need to allow yourself to write and create first.

In any event, we’re going to devote a frequent post to grammar, because it is so important to the professionalism of a site. We just don’t want to get all left-brained in a right-brained blog!

Now, let’s talk about tips for using that. Some writers or editors believe it’s important to remove as many instances of that as possible. However, in many cases, the sentences make more sense if you use that. According to Woe Is I by Patricia T. O’Conner (Riverhead Books), some verbs may sound smoother to the ear if you use that, verbs such as “think, say, hope, believe, find, feel, and wish.”

For example, Joe hoped that Bennie would write the invitations. (Vs.: Joe hoped Bennie would write the invitations.)

O’Conner acknowledges that you may or may not agree with this. It’s simply a matter of taste, and the sentence is correct either way.

She also cautions to be sure to use that to make the meaning of a sentence more clear. Her example is:

“Johnny found the old violin hidden in a trunk in his attic wasn’t a real Stradivarius.”

If you don’t use that after found, you’d think that the point of the sentence is that Johnny found an old violin, as opposed to the violin not being a real Stradivarius. You wouldn’t discover the real point until the very end of the sentence.

Enough about that. Back to the right brain. It’s much more fun there!

Robin

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www.dogloverdesigns.com

As we make the switch from talking about grammar to getting into the real topic of this Web site . . . creativity and idea generation to build content and link popularity for our Web sites . . . we need to switch from the left side of our brains to the right.

What does this mean?

We need to quit worrying about grammar issues and how we talk ON THIS BLOG and focus on the topic at hand: building content and link pop through creativity. The last thing I want you to be is crippled with fear about typing something because you’re scared it will be wrong grammar wise.

Rule #1: When you write content, don’t worry about grammar. You shouldn’t even edit as you write. Wait until you’ve finished before you start editing. If you worry about grammar while you’re writing, or if you edit as you go along, you may never quit editing, and you’ll never get your content finished and up online.

That’s why some people never finish their work. I see the same problem with search engine optimizers. They optimize their Web pages to DEATH! Instead, optimize your page and put it online. Then move to the next page. Don’t spend hours optimizing a page. If you spend hours, you’re doing something wrong. Trust me on this. You should be spending more time creating quality content for your visitors than you do optimizing.

Unless we drift back into the left brain to discuss grammar or editing, we’re going to relax on this blog and have FUN. You can’t be creative if you can’t relax. If you’re worrying about grammar, you won’t relax.

So from now on, misspellings are fine, grammar errors are fine, everything is fine EXCEPT negativity. Negativity is not allowed. (It’s even fine to use “fine” four times in the same paragraph.)

We’ll take left brainers if you keep your arms uncrossed and if you have a learning spirit. We’re here to help everyone.

Hope you’re having a great weekend. On Monday, we’ll have our first brainstorming session.

Robin

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I thought about creating some grammar quizzes for you, but I found this wonderful site online that offers a wide assortment of grammar quizzes. Test your skills and see how you do.

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quiz_list.htm

Continue with your grammar discussions, but get ready for some fun. Our first creative experience is to brainstorm for content for a Web site.

See you tomorrow!

Robin

P.S. I’m in Orlando at a workshop, so forgive me if my posts aren’t as punctual. I don’t have Internet access in my room. Yeah. But I’ll still be here every day if at all possible.

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The entire article can be found here: “Top Ten Grammar Errors that Haunt Web Pages . . . Since content is crucial, isn’t it time to introduce a few grammar tips?”

I chose what I considered to be the controversial topics. If you’d like to comment on any of the other issues, please do so here.

Or, if you have any comments or questions about grammar problems, here’s your sounding board.

What grammar errors do you see all the time? Which ones bug YOU the most?

Do you think the Internet should have a more relaxed atmosphere as far as grammar goes? What are your thoughts?

Robin

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