Cec Murphey's Writer to Writer

Thank you for sharing all the writing tips, Cec. T...

2012-06-01T09:29:48.992-07:00

Thank you for sharing all the writing tips, Cec. They are very helpful and much appreciated!

I'm not a fan of Christie, but in her defense,...

2012-05-30T14:49:14.854-07:00

I'm not a fan of Christie, but in her defense, please remember that when she wrote--almost a century agao--readers expected longer sentences. Her lengthy sentences wouldn't make it day.

Although I love Agatha Christie's stories, her...

2012-05-30T14:30:51.808-07:00

Although I love Agatha Christie's stories, her sentences often leave me breathless!

Thank you for part one in this series. I always ha...

2012-05-27T23:32:50.774-07:00

Thank you for part one in this series. I always had trouble with comma splices in college and now I have to work really hard to avoid them. I am a new follower. I am eager to read the rest of this series.

Actually, the book is about a boy who murders his ...

2012-05-25T11:20:48.479-07:00

Actually, the book is about a boy who murders his girlfriend. Not his sister. (There's a sister in the story, but she's never molested.) I haven't seen the movie, but maybe they changed the storyline?

I read the novel years ago and have never understood Brown's decision to shift from third person to first person POV. Seems a distracting choice to me (in this particular case; I was jolted from the story every time the POV shifted), and isn't fiction about creating a world that's high immersion?

Note that my concern wasn't with the viewpoint shifts (seems so many people get viewpoint and POV confused). Those were fine. It was the move from third person POV to first person POV that struck me as too noticeable.

When Bible is a noun and we mean the Holy Book (an...

2012-05-23T12:20:32.776-07:00

When Bible is a noun and we mean the Holy Book (and not the bible of baseball trivia), we cap it. When it's an adjective (biblical) we don't: The biblical story of David is inspirational.

I was confused by the conflicting rules above. One...

2012-05-23T10:40:02.125-07:00

I was confused by the conflicting rules above. One says to capitalize Bible. But then another says only to capitalize it in some phrases. When we refer to the Bible, I assume it's capitalized, but when we refer to a book being a writer's bible it isn't.

I'm wondering what this rule means specifically: Only capitalize the word Bible in phrases like “Bible study” and “vacation Bible school.”

Thanks for the helpful posts!

Cec, Thanks immensely to You and Kathy for sharin...

2012-05-20T10:15:31.241-07:00

Cec,
Thanks immensely to You and Kathy for sharing these invaluable rules on Capitalization. We've printed them for future reference. Mega gratitude from us both! B & J

Another great lesson. Thanks, Kathy!

2012-05-05T06:45:32.262-07:00

Another great lesson. Thanks, Kathy!

Aunt Shelly: It's possessive--her aunt Shelly....

2012-05-01T07:17:33.059-07:00

Aunt Shelly: It's possessive--her aunt Shelly. It's as if we wrote, Her aunt, whose name is Shelly. I hope that's clearer.

Just had a question re: "aunt Shelly" an...

2012-05-01T07:11:36.678-07:00

Just had a question re: "aunt Shelly" and "her Uncle Ed..."

I don't see the distinction in capitalizing Uncle vs. not capitalizing aunt.

Please advise. Thanks!

Thanks, Kathy. What about this one? "No, son,...

2012-05-01T06:07:05.694-07:00

Thanks, Kathy. What about this one? "No, son, we'll go to the lake house on Saturday but not today." Capitalize "son"?

Thanks for sharing these, Kathy!

2012-04-29T15:07:00.789-07:00

Thanks for sharing these, Kathy!

We're already at #50? Thank you for taking the...

2012-04-25T17:38:27.751-07:00

We're already at #50? Thank you for taking the time to teach us these nuggets of writing wisdom. We're better writers because of you.

Thanks!
Vonda

Cec, I notice that this is the last of your 50-pa...

2012-04-25T14:22:51.737-07:00

Cec,

I notice that this is the last of your 50-part series on common problems. Hooray!!! I am very grateful to you for fine-tuning my writing skills - I'm in my first few months of getting pieces published. I'm thankful you've explored principles that are usually caught than taught. You're an awesome teacher.

You took a complex body of knowledge and broke it down into disgestable bits. A fine feast it has been. Thank you for reaching across the miles and tutoring me via the series. I'm deeply grateful for you!

Warmly,
Lynn Hare
Portland, Oregon

That is helpful. I am reading back through all of ...

2012-04-25T11:52:12.784-07:00

That is helpful. I am reading back through all of these. This is great review in 50 posts.

Thank you, Cec. That helps. I appreciate it.

2012-04-24T08:17:44.984-07:00

Thank you, Cec. That helps. I appreciate it.

Carol used -ly to identify adverbs. Sorry, but tha...

2012-04-23T11:04:47.199-07:00

Carol used -ly to identify adverbs. Sorry, but that's only one way. A better way is to think of what the words do in a sentence.

Here's a little piece of doggerel I used when I taught sixth grade:
To find an adverb this test try:
ask how or when or where or why.

As someone pointed out, in English it's how words function and it's not correct that a noun is always a noun. Swim can be a noun (We went for a swim). It can be a verb (obvious) or an adjective as in this sentence: We went to the swim meet.

Think of the difference between a man wearing a tu...

2012-04-23T04:40:05.205-07:00

Think of the difference between a man wearing a tuxedo and jeans. Both are acceptable clothes, but we reserve the tuxedo for formal occasions. (I'd hate to see a bride in a gown and the groom in jeans.)
It works that way in publishing. If we write a doctoral dissertation or an artiocle in a scientific journal we use formal language. No contractions and words like firstly, secondly,or mostly importantly. (I've noticed that "thusly" seems to have lost the -ly suffix.
In commercial writing, which is what I assume most of you write, you're the jeans wearers. If you don't use contractions your writing sounds stilted. Wouldn't it sound stiff to write, firstly or secondly (or secondarily)?

You've got me scratching my head on this one. ...

2012-04-20T12:35:43.865-07:00

You've got me scratching my head on this one. Isn't it really grammatical usage that is the determining factor? "First" is an adverb or adjective defending on grammatical usage. "He is the first child" or "He drove to town first." "Firstly" is just old-fashioned word that has slipped away from popular usage, as you say.

I'm not sure I understand your use of "most important" instead of "most importantly." In this grammatical function, wouldn't the usage be adverbial: importantly?

The Chicago Manual of Style doesn't explain but says both usages are correct (if you have online access: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/Usage/Usage17.html).

I'd love to learn more about this if you could explain more. Thank you.

I don't know. It's definitely not a region...

2012-04-17T02:25:59.799-07:00

I don't know. It's definitely not a regional issue in the USA. I heard the CBS anchor say AND recently.

I wonder, if this is the same in Commonwealth Engl...

2012-04-17T01:41:14.050-07:00

I wonder, if this is the same in Commonwealth English? (I'm an Australian friend of Shirley Corder.)

Nicole, Yes, and you would use BUT to show the co...

2012-04-11T11:09:41.818-07:00

Nicole,

Yes, and you would use BUT to show the contrast.
However, many writers put two independent clauses together without a conjunction.

I'm confused about this example: I am passion...

2012-04-11T11:02:38.165-07:00

I'm confused about this example:
I am passionately involved in the process; I am emotionally detached from the result.

You say a period would work too, but wouldn't we need a "but" or an "and" before it?

I've never heard this explained, Cec. Thank yo...

2012-04-11T05:54:03.266-07:00

I've never heard this explained, Cec. Thank you for the clarification.