Constructive Criticism Thread

[Celeste Stewart]

Antonia expressed what I couldn't on the topic.

[avantika]

Celeste, great link. Thanks.

Antonia, thanks for taking the trouble to explain things to me. Yes, the article is about learning to stand up for oneself and maintain boundaries. I understand now about the title. Still, after reading what you've said, I wonder if you will confirm the following for me, please?

Currently, in the text, I've written sentences like this: '... ways to learn to say, “No” and ...'

Following from what you guys say, I assume it's permissible to write this: ' ... ways to learn to say no and ...'

Thanks.
Avantika

[Celeste Stewart]

ways to learn to say, “No” and

In this case, if you use quotes, you do not need the comma before the quotes. If it were dialog, yes, you'd need a comma as in:
"Do you want coffee?" Joe asked.
Betty said, "No."

But no comma is needed here:
Ways to say "no" include putting your hand up, stop-sign style. . .

And without the quotes:
Ways to say no include putting your hand up, stop-sign style. . .

[avantika]

Hi Celeste,

Thank you very much for answering these queries. The examples provided really help.

A

[Celeste Stewart]

Glad to help.

[kdrew]

Great news! That article that I posted a question about on the previous page was just accepted---WAHOO! Thanks for your help!

Now this is a quick question about hyphens (something that has always confused me)...

I am writing about "iron rich foods" and I was wondering if it should be "iron-rich foods" instead. I've looked up the rules about hyphens on grammarbook.com, but I am still a little foggy about this case. Thank you!

[Celeste Stewart]

Cool!

I want to say that you hyphenate when the words modify a noun - as in: "Iron-rich foods are good for you." But not when they don't as in: "Are those vegetables iron rich?"

Here's what OWL (Online Writing Lab) Purdue has to say on the subject:

1.Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun:
a one-way street
chocolate-covered peanuts
well-known author
However, when compound modifiers come after a noun, they are not hyphenated:
The peanuts were chocolate covered.
The author was well known.

[4rumid]

You do want the hyphen in "iron-rich foods." Generally, whenever you have a compound term before a noun, you include the hyphen.

The point is often to avoid ambiguity. For example: "Letitia marveled at the two tailed monkeys" vs. "Letitia marveled at the two-tailed monkeys." The first sentence is ok if there were two monkeys with tails, but the hyphen in the second sentence makes it clear the writer is referring to monkeys with two tails.

Compounds containing adverbs ending in "ly" such as "slowly moving cars" or "nearly finished projects" don't take hyphens because the meaning is rarely ambiguous. On the other hand, "The slow moving cars made me cry" would need a hyphen ("slow-moving cars") unless you were referring to the slow cars that got you all choked up.

You could probably argue that "iron rich foods" isn't ambiguous, but you won't go wrong using a hyphen and making the meaning crystal clear.

Hope this isn't more confusing than helpful!

[4rumid]

Didn't see you there Celeste!

[kdrew]

Thank you, Celeste and 4rumid! Those examples really helped and thanks for the OWL resource as well!

[avantika]

Hi Celeste/Antonia,

Thought I'd let you know that the article that I posted a question about - Learning to Say No - was just accepted. Thanks for your help!

Avantika

[Celeste Stewart]

Awesome!

[Antonia]

Glad to hear it! Good luck with the next one

[kdrew]

it's me again

Here's a quick question that has me stumped. I am now writing about renters insurance, and I'm not sure whether to use an apostrophe or not (make it "renter's insurance"). Most insurance companies and places on the web do not use an apostrophe, however, since it is insurance owned by the renter I feel like it needs one. What do you guys think? Thank you!

[Debbi]

Prudential, Geico, and AllState all use the term "renters insurance" without the apostrophe. They also use "homeowners" and not "homeowner's" insurance. It doesn't seem grammatically correct but I suppose it's considered industry jargon so can be spelled that way?