lorri giovinco-harte

Archive for the ‘grammar’ Category

I know that using too many adverbs makes writing bloated and tedious, yet I can’t help but feel a special affection for the part of speech.  Verbs seem naked without their modifying counterpart and language feels dull and lifeless. So, as I prepare to hack away at my writing to remove the unnecessary descriptors, I feel the need to pay homage to the oft maligned grammatical term. I can’t think of a better way to do so than to post the cartoon which glorified the adverb and helped a generation of children to remember its purpose.

If you are old enough to remember the School House Rock cartoons which aired on Saturday mornings, you will most certainly recall “Lolly, Lolly,Lolly,” a  hands-down favorite of the grammar rock series. (Well, maybe a close second to “Verb, that’s what’s happening.”)

I recently asked a friend to review this site for any grammatical and/or mechanical errors. She is a former editor and has a meticulous eye and knowledge base. It’s pretty embarrassing to put up a site, declare oneself a writer, and then make blatant, grammatical mistakes.

My friend was kind enough to comb through the various posts and call me to discuss her findings. She started slowly at first, choosing to focus on small, stylistic errors. Once she realized that I was open to criticism, however, she let loose and started giving me a list.

Truth be told, I kind of had a feeling about what she was going to tell me – at least in part. Although I may not have wanted to hear it, I sensed that it was time to finally acknowledge the truth. I knew that my dirty, little secret was going to come out eventually. One can only hide these things for so long. Needless to say, I was almost grateful to have it out in the open. Acceptance, is after all, the first step.

You see, I am a commaholic, and I have been for most of my life.

I’m not sure why the comma has tortured me for so many years. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the punctuation mark since first picking up a pencil. There’s something about the squiggly, little character that makes me want to place it just about everywhere. Like someone who feels compelled to pour salt all over their food, I am powerless in my attempts  to comma everything. Read the rest of this entry »