Tuesday, January 14, 2014

reminders

1. When you start a sentence with "As far as X," don't omit the "goes/go."

WRONG: As far as gerbils, Richard Gere says they're his favorite pet.
RIGHT: As far as gerbils go, Richard Gere says they're his favorite pet.


2. When you start a sentence with "I wonder...", don't end it with a question mark. "I wonder" is a declarative, not an interrogative.

WRONG: I wonder how she's doing?
RIGHT: I wonder how she's doing.

WRONG: I wonder why that is?
RIGHT: I wonder why that is.


When you say "I wonder," you're making a claim about your mental state: "My mental state is such that I'm wondering [about] X."


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2 comments:

John said...

I would be inclined to say " As for gerbils, Gere says they are his favorite pet." I wonder if that's right.

Kevin Kim said...

Yeah, I think that's fine.