Let's Talk Books

I read a lot of ARCs, or, to be more accurate, a lot of galleys. Galleys are the same as ARCs [Advanced Reader Copies], they’re just digital. When you read ARCs, galleys, or proofs, you have to be willing to overlook the errors, or missing assets (illustrations, maps, logos etc.), throughout. It is a work in progress, not a completed, polished product. As writers, we should strive for accuracy, and hope that our editors, proofreaders, and friends pick up on any glaring errors! With that in mind, I thought I’d put together a little guide, looking over some of the errors I see again and again in galleys, and some of the errors that bug me personally.

Me & I : This is something people frequently get wrong. There is an assumption, maybe because it sounds more old hat, that ‘and I’ is the correct form. John and I, Mary and I, he and I… but that is not the rule. The rule is, in fact, deceptively simple. Write the sentence as though it was just you. For example”

‘The dog came towards me’ becomes ‘the dog came towards me and Sarah’

You would not say ‘the dog came towards I,‘ so you would equally not say ‘the dog came towards Sarah and I.‘ That’s how easy it is.

Clauses : A clause is a sentence, or part of a sentence, with a subject and a verb e.g., ‘he drove the car’, or ‘the dog caught the ball.’ Lots of people struggle to identify clauses, and may punctuate incorrectly, or truncate clauses unnecessarily. Playing with sentence length, and even handling clauses ‘incorrectly,’ can be hugely effective in writing, providing you know that you’re doing it!

In a simple sentence, one made up of only 1 independent clause, you put a full-stop (or period for American readers,) at the end:

‘He drove the car.’

A compound sentence is one made of two independent clauses, connected with a comma and coordinating conjunction e.g.:

‘He drove the car, and she slept in the passenger seat’

In complex sentences you will find both independent and subordinate clauses.

There is a really simple rule for clauses: A cat has claws at the end of its paws, and a clause has a pause at the end. Easy!

Some people think that sentences have to be a set length, and, admittedly, in academic writing there is a definite preference for shorter, clearer sentences; in fiction the rules are more flexible: periodic sentences, for example, are sentences that can go on for pages, or even whole books – provided there is a pause at the end of each clause, a sentence can be as long as you wish for it to be. Everything prior to that full-stop, for example, was one sentence, but it is not grammatically incorrect. There is a pause everywhere you would expect to find one. Prescriptive grammar rule followers might argue that full-stops would be more grammatically correct, but that’s just splitting hairs.

Colons & Semicolons : A confusing duo. Let’s break it down.

The Colon : A nice and easy piece of punctuation in some ways, it is common to use a colon, as I have here, to separate heading and body. You might also use a colon to introduce a list, provide a short reworded / explanatory clause at the end of a complex sentence, or introduce a question: seems easy, right? The good thing about colons is that the rule remains essentially the same across uses. You should used a colon to connect an independent clause to other clauses / lists / questions that are directly related. In other words, the first part of a sentence using a colon must be an independent clause with its own subject and verb, and the second part of a sentence using a colon must be about the same subject / theme / idea, and that has to be something the reader can extrapolate. Because you can use colons to introduce lists, and related questions, or explanations, the second part of the sentence may not be an independent clause all by itself, and that’s okay! What you should focus on is whether or not the second section is directly relevant to the previous independent clause.

You can also use colons to combine two independent clauses, which is usually where people struggle. The below example shows the use of a colon to join two independent clauses, in a way that is effective in storytelling:

‘Marie hated wearing red: the dress Jamie chose washed her out entirely.’

In that sentence the clause ‘Marie hated wearing red’ could be a sentence all of its own. The following section starting ‘the dress Jamie chose…’ is a another independent clause, and could equally function as its own sentence. In connecting them with a colon I am telling the reader that the two matters, Marie’s dislike of wearing red, and the dress Jamie chose washing ‘her’ out, are directly related. With context clues we can understand that ‘the dress Jamie chose’ is probably being worn by Marie. This reading does not disappear if I use a full-stop instead, but keeping both matters within one sentence aids understanding.

The Semicolon : The semicolon is very similar to the colon in a lot of ways, think of them like cousins, or half-siblings. They are undoubtedly within the same family, but there are some distinct differences between them. You should use a semi-colon to connect independent clauses, without using a coordinating conjunction. The semi-colon can be swapped out for a comma, both in sentences, and for use in lists. The difference between a comma and a semicolon is the connection between the clauses. If you’re using a comma to join independent clauses, you should also add a coordinating conjunction: as, so, and, but, or, etc. A semicolon can be used in place of a coordinating conjunction. Let’s have two examples, one with a coordinating conjunction, and one with a semicolon.

‘Orlaith found the date unpleasant, but she agreed to see Richard again because she felt bad.’

‘Orlaith found the date unpleasant; she agreed to see Richard again because she felt bad.’

Other types of conjunctions cannot be replaced 1-for-1 by a semicolon, because they prevent the second clause from being independent. ‘Because’, for example, is a subordinating conjunction, it tells us that the clause after the comma is reliant on the previous clause – it is the subordinate clause. You can, however, use semicolons with conjunctive adverbs and transitional phrases: in contrast, however, furthermore, moreover, subsequently, for example, etc. For example:

‘Orlaith found the date unpleasant; however, she agree to see Richard again because she felt bad.’

Conjugation : Conjugation is what we call the change that happens to verbs when the tense, mood, subject etc. changes.

For example, if we take the verb ‘sing,’ we can conjugate that into sing, sang, sung, and singing. We can use those modified verbs in different ways to present the tense of the action, phrases like ‘I will be singing later,’ and ‘I was singing earlier’ are ostensibly the same verb conjugation, but different tenses.

Most first language speakers will pick up on the correct conjugations as they learn to speak and write, and most second+ language speakers will learn their conjugations. Despite that, they are easy to get wrong. Like the I vs Me problem, there is a certain degree of ‘I think it sounds better this way’ in how some people conjugate verbs, and that can result in a mismatch between tenses and verb types. Some readers might not notice these errors, providing the sentence still makes sense, but for second language readers, or pedants, like me, it might be jarring or confusing. Like the I vs Me problem, you can get around this by considering the word within sentences:

Now I walk the dog – Present

Yesterday I walked the dog – Simple past

Tomorrow I will walk the dog – Future

I have walked the dog everyday – Past Participle

I am walking the dog later – Present progressive

When it comes to conjugation, it is okay to look things up. There are tons of online resources for conjugation in hundreds of languages, and tense is something lots of writers struggle to get right. A good rule of thumb is if the verb sounds old fashioned, or off in your sentence, there is a good chance it is the wrong conjugation. This isn’t always accurate, sometimes the ‘correct’ form of things have fallen out of casual, spoken, or colloquial use: like many rules in English grammar, there are always exceptions.

Apostrophes : The Achilles heel of sign makers everywhere, the apostrophe can be tricky to get right, because of its multiple uses, and notable exceptions. Like the colon and semicolon, I have broken this down.

The Possessive apostrophe : The possessive apostrophe is much simpler than it sounds. Realistically the rule for this punctuation mark is simply ‘Does the subject belong to someone? Who does it belong to?’ It really couldn’t get much simpler. People trip up with this in two places, the first is simply not adding the apostrophe, let’s use some examples again:

‘James leaned against Mikeys car.’ – WRONG.

‘James leaned against Mikey’s car’ – CORRECT.

The apostrophe tells us that the car belongs to Mikey. Without an apostrophe the sentence might read well enough, but it is incorrect. The car has no one it belongs to, and there are multiple unrelated ‘Mikeys.’

Now, if we swapped the two men round, and had Mikey lean against a car belonging to James, things might get trickier! James already ends in “s”, so the rule must develop a little further. This is about ensuring words are pronounceable. If a word ends in an “s” that makes a ‘zzzzz’ sound, like at the end of James, you simply put an apostrophe s:

‘Mikey leaned against James’s car.’

But if it ends in an ‘s’ that makes a ‘ssssss’ sound, like in Francis, you put just an apostrophe:

‘Mikey and James lounged against Francis’ car.’

If in doubt, using just the apostrophe, no extra “s”, at the end of a word ending in “s” is the usually the preference!

Remember, possession is not just for people! Animals and organisations can ‘own’ things.

‘The dog’s bowl was never empty.’

‘The company’s contracts were kept in an archive.’

But inanimate objects cannot!

‘The chair’s leg was broken.’ – WRONG

‘The chair leg was broken.’ – CORRECT

Contractions : We also use apostrophes for contractions, indicating where letters have been removed. I won’t go too far into this, because it is pretty basic grammar, but there are some words that people really struggle with here, specifically “It’s” vs “Its.” “It’s” is always the contraction. That’s the rule. “It’s” is ALWAYS “It is.” That means that “Its” as in, belonging to ‘it’ is the correct possessive.

Less & Fewer : This is another rule people often get wrong, but which, like I vs Me, is pretty easy once you know the rule! You use less for uncountable objects, and fewer for countable objects. Let’s see some examples:

‘There is less cloud cover today than there was yesterday.’

‘There are fewer strawberries in this punnet than in the last one.’

I can’t count ‘cloud cover,’ I could arguably count clouds, but that’s besides the point! Thus when the object is ‘cloud cover’ I use less. I can count ‘strawberries,’ so I use fewer instead. It’s that simple!

Too or To : Another deceptively simple rule. ‘To’ is what we use for most things, I go to, he goes to, I send to, etc. ‘Too’ is the correct form when you mean more or also. This can be remembered quite easily, because ‘too’ has more than one o / two o’s going together! It is visibly its meaning. For some examples, see below:

‘I am going to the theatre.’

‘William is going to the theatre too.’

‘When we went to the theatre the actors mics were too quiet; I couldn’t hear them!’

Nice and easy!

That’s all folks! A little FAQ of my own grammar pet peeves. I hope someone finds this useful. The main take away here should be that all of this stuff is look-up-able. Whether you’re brushing up on your grammar rules via a random woman’s blog post (hi!), or reputable sources like dictionaries and English language education sites, you can usually find the answers to your questions.