102 English Tips: Another Quick Guide To Avoiding "Slovenglish"

102
English
Tips
Another Quick Guide
to Avoiding
Slovenglish
Jason Blake and Andrej Stopar

102 ENGLISH TIPS:
Another Quick Guide to Avoiding Slovenglish
Authors: Jason Blake and Andrej Stopar

Reviewers: Gaper Ilc and Franika Lipovek
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts 2014;

Jason Blake and Andrej Stopar 2014
All rights reserved
Published by: Znanstvena zaloba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v

Ljubljani (Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts)
Issued by: Department of English
For the publisher: Branka Kaleni Ramak, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts
Ljubljana, 2014
First Edition
Number of Copies Printed: 149
Publication is free of charge
DOI: 10.4312/9789612376772
CIP - Kataloni zapis o publikaciji

Narodna in univerzitetna knjinica, Ljubljana
811.111(035)(0.034.2)
BLAKE, Jason
[One hundred and two]
102 English tips [Elektronski vir] : another quick guide to avoiding
Slovenglish / Jason Blake and Andrej Stopar. - 1st ed. - El. knjiga. -
Ljubljana : Znanstvena zaloba Filozofske fakultete =University Press,
Faculty of Arts, 2014
ISBN 978-961-237-677-2 (pdf )

1. Stopar, Andrej, 1976-
275477248
CONTENT
INTRODUCTION ............................................. 7
102 ENGLISH TIPS ............................................. 9
WORDS AND PHRASES
(A) few and (a) little
A bit (of a)
Adjectives in ly
Among others
As (I) mentioned
As and because
Author
Borrow and lend
Century
Colours
Crush and crash
Does a good job
England/English and Britain/British
Europe
For different/several reasons
First, firstly and the first
Gossip
How it would be like to ...
In other words
If I am honest
It can be seen
It is so
It is so because
It seems (to me)
It would be nice
Just
Let and leave
Let alone
Namely
Numerous
Odd
3
Only at/not until
Persuade and dissuade
Puts it nicely/shows nicely
Rather
Really
Revolves and evolves
Started/began to
Shed (some) light on
Sure and surely
Temporal and temporary
That and so that
Thematize
Therefore and zato
There is/are and exist(s)
Too long
Until not long ago
Yet
Young/elderly Hemingway
STYLE
Adding life to descriptions
Adverbs in neutral and cited sentences
Appositions and relative clauses
Circularity
Develop your own (passionate) voice
Footnotes and endnotes
In... in... patterns
In other words
Lists
Long sentences
Look forward
Making observations
Overuse of conjunctions
Private companies
Redundant complexity
Repetition of I, this, of and so
Repetition of meaning
Repetition of vague expressions
Repetition of words sentence-initially
Short sentences
Starting an essay
Starting an essay with a quotation
Strings of adverbs
Strings of pronouns
To-infinitival constructions
Vagueness, tenses and bland expressions
Word order
Zero relative clauses
PUNCTUATION AND LAYOUT

Apostrophe
Block quotations
Colons
Comma after a lengthy subject
Commas and decimals
Comma in comment clauses, participle clauses and appositions
Comma in (non-)restrictive relative clauses
Comma splices
Decades
Exclamation mark
Hyphen
Indenting
Italicizing the comma
Percent sign
Period/full stop
Period, full stop or dot?
Quotation marks
Quotations placement
Quotations within quotations
Quoting and punctuation
Sentence-ending punctuation
5
Spacing and line-spacing
Spelling
Square brackets
The Oxford comma
OTHER TIPS AND GUIDES

Abstracts
Diploma thesis advice: general
Diploma thesis advice: technical details and citing
Presentations
REFERENCES...................................................... 67
6
INTRODUCTION
This booklet is a catalogue of favourite English mistakes made primarily
(but not only!) by Slovenians. As its title hints, 102 English Tips: Another
Quick Guide to Avoiding Slovenglish is a follow-up to 101 English Tips:
A Quick Guide to Avoiding Slovenglish. The overwhelming majority of
student mistakes are covered explicitly in these two guides. Thats worth
repeating: the overwhelming majority of student mistakes are covered explic-
itly in these two guides. Study these two guides and youre guaranteed to
improve your written English significantly.
Read and return to 101 and 102. Do so frequently and critically. Do so

frequently because it takes time to evict these stubborn and unwanted
guests from your writing and speaking (even the smoothest speakers oc-
casionally mix up let and leave, or crush and crash); do so criti-
cally because if youre a student of English its no longer (always) a matter
of simple rules, of right and wrong. Sometimes you might have good
cause to flout a rule.
Also, be on the lookout for sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek comments in

this guide! The tone of 102 English Tips is meant to be as light as it is pos-
sible for a grammar book to be. Because this is a list of tips, and because
tips should be short, the explanations are sometimes pithy. 102 English
Tips is not a replacement for a formal grammar book. These tips dont
always conform to a specific variety of English (though rumour has it
theres a slight North American bias), and they err on the side of brevity
and bad jokes.
7
102 TIPS
WORDS AND PHRASES
(A) few and (a) little

Spot the howler in this sentence:
I have learned few things over the years, said my dad, with a wistful and
knowing look.
Here, few things is a synonym for I have learned virtually nothing...
Sometimes a missing article makes a big difference:

I have learned A FEW THINGS over the years, said my dad, with a
wistful and knowing look.
Another example:
I know few things about cars means: You dont want me taking a
wrench to your engine.
I know a few things about cars means: You cant fool me Im not
buying your second-hand lemon.
Also note the difference between the analogous examples with (a) little:
I had little time to react means There wasnt enough time, there was
not much I could do.
I had a little time to react. means I had to do it fast but I could do it.
Without the indefinite article, the quantifiers little and few have
negative meanings.
A bit (of a)
Wrong: Writing in a bit snotty way.
Correct: a bit of a snotty way.
More elegant-sounding and formal, though just as annoying: a some-
what snotty way.
9
Adjectives in ly
Some sneaky adjectives look like they should be adverbs because they
end in -ly.
Examples:
We piled our dishes DISORDERLY is wrong.
She passed him a cup of tea MOTHERLY is equally wrong.
There are a few solutions here:

1. opt for ugly and clumsy but clear phrases: in a disorderly/motherly
manner/way/fashion
2. search for a synonym, or paraphrase: We piled our dishes chaoti-
cally. or She passed him a cup of tea, as if she were his mother.
3. Avoid -ly adjectives like the plague which is of course a repetition of
2 (and impossible to do on a daily basis).
Some other adjectives in ly are: fatherly, friendly, lonely, elderly and

lively. When they mean characteristic of (e.g. motherly), they are typi-
cally in the attributive use. This means that they stand before the noun,
as in fatherly advice.
Among others
A common transfer error involves the overuse of among others by Slo-
venian speakers.
Some food for thought: the phrase med drugim has a higher corpus
frequency count than hrana in Slovenian (see the corpus Nova beseda,
which was 44,099 for the various forms of hrana and 57,593 for med
drugim). In English, on the other hand, among others is not so com-
mon (the BNC, or British National Corpus, gives 472 hits for among
others and 18,681 for food). Dont sprinkle your English-language
prose with among others.
As (I) mentioned
The I in As I mentioned earlier should be avoided. Just write: As men-
tioned... instead. Also, the combination as it is mentioned is not acceptable.
10
Two further notes:
1. Do not overuse this phrase.
2. You can usually drop the earlier the past tense tells us not to fast-
forward in the essay. (No one would write As I will mention earlier...)
Also see the tip Look forward in the section Style.
As and because
If you use as to express reason and result (as a synonym for because or
since), you can often add clarity by putting a comma before it.
1. Potentially ambiguous: He went to the store as he needed potato
chips. (when or because?)
2. Clearer: He went to the store, as he needed potato chips.
3. Even clearer, if the WHY or MOTIVE is to be emphasized: He went
to the store, because he needed potato chips.
Readers anticipate sentence direction that is, we all anticipate how a

sentence will continue (think of the ...not! joke that undoes what weve
just heard). With the comma before as, the (intended) link between the
cause and the result is easier to establish.
Author
Instead of the author, just write the authors name, e.g. NOT The
authors novel... but Hemingways novel...
Two more details:

1. remember, in literature papers, to avoid Slovenian-style initials
NOT C. Dickens but Charles Dickens or just Dickens.
2. author sounds odd for the visual arts and even odder for music.
Picasso was a painter, Beethoven was a composer, and so on.
Borrow and lend

An ancient joke instead of a lengthy explanation:
Can I borrow an egg?
Will you return it?
11
If returning the item is not an option, borrow can sound strange.
Also, if you cant move something, you usually cant borrow it:
1. Wrong: Can we borrow your playground in the afternoon?
2. Correct: Can we use your playground in the afternoon?
Unlike native speakers, Slovenians rarely mix up borrow and lend:

1. Wrong: Can I lend your pen?
2. Correct: Can I borrow your pen?
Century
Use the early/late 19th century rather than at the beginning of/at
the end of the 19th century (this is the influence of zaetek/konec
stoletja).1
Also see the entry Hyphen in the section Punctuation and layout.
Colours
1. Redundant: Red colour is important to my life.
Better: Red is important to my life. (Since red is obviously a
colour).
2. If you want to emphasize the colourness of the colour red, write: The
colour red is important to my life.
3. Also, colour often appears in sentences discussing less common co-
lours or colour combinations: Can I dye my hair from a reddish/
purplish colour to a light brown colour? (Feel free to read through
Yahoo Answers2 if you want to find out if this is possible.)
1 Read more on article use in Franika Lipoveks article Misconceptions about article use in
English (ELOPE III/1-2, 2006).
2 https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110608040550AASbExU
12
Crush and crash
Crushed is good for cans, bugs, and emotional hardship.
1. Kunigunda crushed the beer can with her foot.
2. She was crushed by a Japanese monster. (Godzilla, The Arrogant
Worms)
3. I was crushed when my crush on John...
Unless the car/bicycle/skateboard is totalled as in flattened from

above (perhaps by falling rocks or UFOs), write: crashed the car...
Does a good job

The phrase does a good/excellent job is wildly overused among native
speakers.
Is there NO other way of saying s/he done good [sic]?
See if you can avoid it in your essays.
England/English and Britain/British

Years ago, a Scottish teacher trainer asked a bunch of teachers-to-be:
Can you place Liverpool, London and Leeds on a map of England?
Several hands went up.
Excellent! Now, can you place Liverpool, Glasgow and Cardiff on a map
of England?
A few English hands went up.
On a map of England?
Some hands went down.
Really?
Only a few confident hands remained up.
Well, young teachers-to-be, last I heard, Glasgow was in Scotland...
Oops. The point? England is only a part of Britain. Britain includes

England, Scotland and Wales; the United Kingdom, on the other hand,
also includes Northern Ireland. To describe the nationality of somebody
from the UK, use British. Even in informal conversation, be extremely
13
careful with England and English as synonyms for Britain and
British especially if you are chatting up a Scot or a Welshman.
Also, dont forget the definite article, as in The British are coming!
Europe
If you are talking about the European Union, say, European Union.
1. Slovenia is in Europe is obvious.
2. Switzerland is not in Europe is a bizarre statement.
3. Croatia went to Europe is cryptic if you mean entered the Euro-
pean Union.
For different/several reasons

The phrases for different reasons or for several reasons are pointless
unless you provide at least some of those reasons. This is a common trans-
fer error. For objective reasons is equally vague and twice as cryptic for
native speakers.
First, firstly and the first

If you dont know the difference between first as a synonym for the ad-
verb firstly and the ordinal numeral first, make sure you hide the fact!
Consider these (correct) examples:

1. First (=firstly), I would like to address the issue... (adverb)
2. He was the first to arrive. (ordinal numeral)
Now consider the egregious mistake in each of these sentences:
3. First person to set foot on the moon...
4. There are three ways to eat a chocolate clair. First... (note that there
is no comma here First is not an adverb.
No. In 3 and 4, it has to be THE first. Ordinal numerals are used with
the definite article when the meaning of ordering is expressed. In short,
not each and every use of an ordinal numeral calls for the.
14
From/between
This is a sentence from an e-mail:
I can meet you from 1 to 5.
A four-hour meeting? Persuasive interrogation? Thankfully, just a signa-

ture was needed... The fear arose from a poorly-chosen preposition.
Correct: I can meet you BETWEEN 1 and 5.

(...and, of course, it is not late FOR ten minutes but ten minutes late)
Gossip
Ruminate on this sentence:
The gossips were gossiping about gossip.
1. The gossips people
2. to gossip verb
3. gossip singular noun. No need for the plural, even if you have
oodles of stories about your neighbour.
How it would be like to...

Instead of the half-Slovenglish how it would be like to..., write what
it would be like to...
Wrong: I wonder how it would be like to climb Everest.

Correct: I wonder WHAT it would be like to climb Everest.
The Google test:

1. how it would be like to(c. 2 million hits, Slovenias population)
2. what it would be like to (c. 93 million hits, Germany and Greeces
population combined)
And the number of hits for how it would be like to in the British Na-
tional Corpus? Zero.
15
In other words
In other words, be brief.
When you summarize a complicated argument with In other words...,

the reader will be thankful and think I wont be left behind!
Just dont make your thoughts more complicated. Your follow-up sen-
tence should contain fewer words than the preceding one that is, than
the one that it is clarifying or summarizing. In other words, the sentence
with in other words should be shorter.
A whimsical but useful example:
The patient became dislodged from his saddle, through some force of
nature or perhaps stroke of misfortune, by a low-hanging tree branch as
he sought to pass under it. IN OTHER WORDS, he fell off his horse.
[29 words, followed by 8]
A negative example (changed very slightly from an academic article):
I contend, with many other contemporary literary critics, that being self-
conscious as a reader with regard to the philosophies and ideological stand-
points that steer our reading is a positive way of circumventing the trap
of producing a superfluous or hackneyed theory that, while pretending to
unveil something new about a text, in fact leads to an interpretive silence.
IN OTHER WORDS, I do not contend that there is no utility in assum-
ing a firm theoretical position, though I do contend that such firmness,
while perhaps offering the intellectual solace of clarity of assertion and even
results, is more limiting than illuminating because it fails to recognize the
theoretical blind-spot that curtails our understanding from the very outset.
[58 words, followed by 58. This is fearful symmetry]
Here, In other words is false advertising. It looks like the writer will
make things easier for us! ...but s/he doesnt.
On a stylistic note, you dont have to put In other words, in the first
sentence position. What I mean, IN OTHER WORDS, is that you can
do what this sentence does.
16
If I am honest
In order to avoid the grammatical niceties and nuances of indirect condi-
tionality, a simplistic rule: Avoid If I am honest...
A fine hedge in spoken English (How do you like my new flip flops?
Well, if I am honest, they suck!), the phrase has suffered from overuse.
This is probably because especially beginners learn to say, If I am hon-
est... in order to buy time to figure out exactly what they want to say.
Of course, some eloquent speakers of English also adore this phrase...
From a Huffingtonpost.co.uk interview with a politician:
That sort of fund manager is a different world from investment bank-

ing. IF IM HONEST WITH YOU A PHRASE, RATHER DIS-
CONCERTINGLY, REPEATED BY [the politician] SEVERAL TIMES
THROUGHOUT THE INTERVIEW.3
i.e. the interviewer is thinking, gee, is it ever annoying to hear him say
if I am honest... so many times!
It can be seen
The sentence lead-in It can be seen that... very soon clogs up the
sentence.
To save a few words and to get to the point you can use an adverb
instead.
1. It can be seen that the hero is hurt when the dragon leaves him
(Pretty, like truck, as the saying goes).
2. The hero is evidently/obviously/visibly hurt when the dragon leaves
him.
3 Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/09/30/ed-balls-interview-bitch_n_1926677.html
17
It is so
It is so... usually requires an adjective and a clear pronominal reference
for it.
If you use It is so as a synonym for the situation is thus..., your sen-

tence usually sounds odd:
The movie is poor. IT IS SO because they ran over budget and had to
cut corners.
Just say: THIS IS BECAUSE they ran over budget...
This example is, of course, sooooo idiomatic (and more common in spo-
ken English):
It [i.e. the movie] is so awful!
It is so because
It is so because... is a transfer error. Just use This is because...:
John is feeling awful this morning. This is because he ate a bad taco last
night.
It seems (to me)

In written English, dont bother with it seems TO ME. It seems al-
ways shows your personal attitude (which is why we have to expressly
state It seems to Katarina...).
In the British National Corpus, only about 10% of the hits for it seems
include to me.
It would be nice
It would be nice if we all avoided the phrase it would be nice.
1. It is overused.
2. It can sound sarcastic (It would be nice if you got off your arse and
closed the window that you opened...).
3. It does not say much. It would be nice to go to the zoo... does not
ooze enthusiasm.
18
Unless you are Borat of Borat fame, the adjective nice is bland, colour-
less and non-committal.
Nice also has a dubious past. Over the centuries it has meant accurate
or exact. Over the centuries it has meant everything: foolish, senseless;
silly; fussy; fastidious; dainty, delicate; fussy; exact.
According to the sexist example cited in the Online Etymology

Dictionary,4
By 1926, [the word nice] was pronounced too great a favorite with the
ladies, who have charmed out of it all its individuality and converted it
into a mere diffuser of vague and mild agreeableness [Fowler].
Just
Just is a useful and slippery term. It can be used for emphasis (Just
stop it!) or as a synonym for fair-minded (Hes a just man, but a pain
to deal with).
The word just can often sound flippant or trivializing as in the song
lyrics It was just one of those things.
Consider this example:

Adjudicators are just people and they mark candidates accordingly.
Two problems:
1. is just an adjective with the meaning of righteous or equitable?
2. if just is an adverb which is the more likely possibility here is
there a suggestion that adjudicators should be MORE than people?
3. (but whos counting?) ...perhaps this is just/merely/only/quite simply
a transfer error from Slovenian.
Clearer:
Adjudicators are ONLY HUMAN and they grade candidates
accordingly.
4 http://www.etymonline.com
19
Let and leave
Note the very important difference between let and leave in con-
structions like this:
1. I LEFT my brother clean up the mess. (Wrong)
2. I LET my brother clean up the mess. (Correct)
This is also possible:

I LEFT my brother TO clean up the mess (i.e. I made him clean up
the mess.)
That sentence is potentially ambiguous because it could be understood as

I took leave of my brother in order to clean up...
Save yourself some effort and opt for let its easier than sentences like:
The mess was left to my brother to clean up.
let similar to I allowed

leave + to + verb a hint of abandonment (as in She left him in the
lurch...)
Of course, left is stronger in tone:

I let him gaze at me while I ate the ice cream.
I left him to gaze at me while I ate the ice cream.
Also, use allow (and not let) in the passive voice:

1. Correct: He was allowed to enter the building.
2. Wrong: He was let to enter the building.
Let alone
A rule of thumb for using the phrase let alone is that it generally follows
a negative. The word any behaves in this way as well (as we all know,
such words are often termed polarity items).
Three examples from an online book-search for let alone consider:

1. NOBODY can be conscious of, let alone consider, all aspects...
2. But it is already an advantage with respect to interpretive economy
NOT TO HAVE TO CONSIDER the possibility of having here case
of type 3 of CS, let alone consider the adjectival meaning...
20
3. There is such a chaos of contentious, inconsistent, unrelated ele-
ments in the field that it is IMPOSSIBLE to make sense of it, let
alone consider it to be scientific.
Compare these distortions of Dr. Seusss Green Eggs and Ham:
Correct:
I would not, could not, in the rain.
Not in the dark. [LET ALONE] on a train...
Bizarre (after Sam tries the eggs and ham):

And I will eat them in the rain.
And in the dark. [LET ALONE] on a train...
Of course, you can also use let alone to signal a contrast or intensifica-
tion of (negative) possibilities, as in these two examples:
1. In a postmodern era of exponential change, how can we take stability
seriously, LET ALONE consider it a virtue?
2. The embodiment of ugliness belonging to one person was too over-
whelming to separate, LET ALONE consider that it was coming
from a father who would do anything for his family.
Synonyms for let alone include much less and still less and gee,
golly, I dont even want to...
Namely
Namely is overused by Slovenian students.
This is hardly a surprise if you compare the nearly 250 000 hits for
namre in the Nova beseda corpus with the measly 2145 hits for
namely in the British National Corpus. These numbers alone strongly
suggest that namely is not an exact equivalent of namre.
Ponder the Slovenian original and its (wrong) translation:

Tekmovalcev je bilo malo, veina jih namre slui vojaki rok.
There were few competitors, namely a lot of them are in the army.
21
When namre is used as a conjunction that has the function of explain-
ing, justifying or giving reasons for what has just been said, translating it
with namely is not possible.5
Heres an elegant and correct instance of namely in English, courtesy of

Don Patterson and his Reading Shakespeares Sonnets: A New Commentary:
The sense more strongly implies another bloke called Will, namely our
feathered friend. (If we conflate him with the YM in Sonnet 144, it cer-
tainly lends some credence to the Mr W. Herbert theory.)
Numerous
Theres something curious going on with numerous, but neither of us
can put a finger on it. The problems stem from overuse and tone.
1. OVERUSE of numerous.
Slovenians write numerous very, very often. This might be related to
the frequency of tevilen in Slovenian the corpus Nova beseda lists
tens of thousands of examples with the word, while the frequency for
numerous in the British National Corpus is 3182.
Do you need to use it three times in a single page? Or twice in a short

passage, as in this (slightly changed) example?
She has performed with numerous Slovenian theatres and in the last
couple of seasons. A well-known presenter on the radio and television,
she has received numerous awards in Slovenia as well as abroad.
2. TONE when using numerous.

Legion or hordes of are synonyms for numerous. In plain Eng-
lish, numerous means, Wow, so many I cant even begin to count...
Use numerous only when you want to emphasize the largeness of a

number, or if you are being rhetorical:
I have told you numerous times to take out the trash (perhaps twice...)
My fine football team has defeated yours numerous times (once...)
5 The examples and the explanation are taken from Primo Jurkos article Divergent Polysemy:
The Case of Slovene namre vs. English namely (ELOPE IV/1-2, 2007).
22
These examples sound exaggerated:
1. The reader notices the use of numerous personal pronouns in this
story. (There arent that many personal pronouns in existence!)
2. Countless possible story lines and numerous events evolving at the
same time in the same space leave the reader wandering in the dark
(This lovely sentence works only if there are oodles and bunches of
events. Dont write numerous if there are only three events).
Dont avoid the word, but do ask yourself if many or several would
do the job.
A few more synonyms from thesaurus.com:
bags of, endless, gobs, heap*, immeasurable, incalculable, infinite, in-

numerous, jillion, legion, limitless, loads, lots of, many , measureless,
mess*, mint, mucho, multitudinous, myriad, numberless, oodles*, passel
of, peck, pile, raft, scads, slew, stack, tidy sum, umpteen, uncountable,
uncounted, untold, wad, whole slew, zillion
(For some cryptic reason, only heap and mess and oodles are marked
as informal! Also, be careful to add of after loads, slew, raft, etc.)
Odd
This is an odd tip because it has to do with a single word. The word
is odd.
Canada sent the odd performer behind the Iron Curtain... can mean
...sent the WEIRD/STRANGE/KOOKY performer...
It can also mean something like every once in a while Canada sent a per-
former behind the Iron Curtain in those years.
Check out the sub-titles next time you watch a film. Very, very often even
good translators flub this one, making for odd translations.
23
Sentences like She has the odd beer every now and then come out as
grammatical but incomprehensibly bizarre. Compare the translations:
1. Wrong: Kdaj pa kdaj popije udno pivo.
2. Correct: Kdaj pa kdaj popije kakno pivo.
Also, dont forget about some other uses of odd:

1. odd jobs prilonostna dela
2. odd numbers liha tevila
Only at/not until

When mentioning time, note the difference between only at and not
until:
I can meet you only at four does not mean I cant meet you until four.
If you want to emphasize tardiness, use not until:

1. He only got there at noon. (Neutral)
2. He did not get there until noon. (Hes lazy!)
Persuade and dissuade

Instead of persuade not to do, write dissuade from doing:
I dissuaded him from wearing my sombrero to the party.
Puts it nicely/shows nicely

The phrase puts it nicely or shows nicely can sound patronizing and,
sometimes, downright grotesque.
1. Patronizing
Shakespeare puts it nicely when he has Hamlet say, To be or not to
be... (Well done, my wee Bardlet!)
The problem here seems to be a combination of weak praise since nice

is the minimum of praise.
24
2. Grotesque
Shakespeare puts it nicely when he has Cornwall say to Gloucester, Seet
shalt thou never and Upon these eyes of thine Ill set my foot. (There
isnt much thats nice about blinding Gloucester.)
By the way, when you come across nice in older texts, try to determine
the contemporary meaning. The adjective has had more lives than Ma-
donna. At one time, You look nice! meant You look foolish! See the
entry It would be nice for more on this.
Rather
Rather is rather annoying because it looks like it should be a verb:
I would rather eat snake soup, she said after he asked her out.
Rather is a degree adverb. It is not a verbal synonym for to prefer,

which means that this sentence is wrong and torture to the eye or ear:
1. Wrong: I rather run away than fight you.
2. Correct: I would (Id) rather run away than fight you.
In lieu of a lengthy explanation, use this rule of thumb:

When qualifying verbs, only use rather with would.
Really
Do we really need really in an essay title?
All of these headlines appeared in a single day in a highbrow newspaper:

1. How much do the Golden Globes REALLY tell us about the Oscars?
Not much
2. Does [engaging in a certain illegal act] REALLY lower teens IQs? A
new study begs to differ
3. Does the feed and fast diet REALLY work?
Surprise, surprise, in each case the answer was no!

Really may be super for grabbing attention, but its lousy for suspense
because it gives away the answer.
25
Other problems:
1. Really gives away the answer (oops, we mentioned that)
2. Really often reduces complicated issues to YES/NO (but see 5,
below)
3. overuse
4. overuse
5. Really invites equivocation (You said the feed and fast diet doesnt
work! No, I said it doesnt really work. You mean, it might work,
in a way? Or do you mean that it does not work? Thats not RE-
ALLY what I said.)
(For a definitive overview of the other really that is, the incredulous, sar-
castic, eyebrow-bobbling Really? see Really?!? The Story of a Buzzword
in Ben Yagodas You Need to Read This: The Death of the Imperative Mode,
the Rise of the American Glottal Stop, the Bizarre Popularity of Amongst,
and Other Cuckoo Things That Have Happened to the English Language.)
Revolves and evolves

Note: revolves around but evolves from:
1. We all evolved from mud, or at least most of us did.
2. The story revolves around a tedious love triangle.
Started/began to
Be careful with started to and began to, especially if the action is
immediate:
She started to throw a punch.
Never has a fast action seemed so slow!

He began to fall asleep in class on Monday.
He fell asleep in class on Monday suffices.
Shed (some) light on

If you read many academic articles, you will begin to hate the phrase to
shed some light on...
26
A few examples:
1. This paper aims to shed some light on immigration.
2. This paper strives to shed light on the movie industry.
3. This paper has as its purpose the shedding of light on academia.
Dull, dull, dull. And we have to read on to figure out what the paper is
actually about.
Using the replacement test, we arrive at: By turning on the lamp, I aim
to shed light on the room... Silly-sounding, but no less circular than the
above examples.
There may be arguments for using shed light on. Keep in mind, how-
ever, that:
1. The phrase is overused to the point of clich or nausea.
2. If the noun after shed light on is vague, the sentence is hardly illu-
minating. a, b, and c, do not provide a thesis.
3. The combination aims to or tries to or strives to with shed light
on is almost always laughable.
4. What is some light?
...if you are specific, the phrase to shed light on is tolerable:

This paper aims to shed light on the use of Form T-29a in regulating
immigration.
This paper strives to shed light on the use of professional Slovenian soc-
cer players in the movie industry.
Sure and surely

Note the difference between sure and surely.
1. This passage sure is meant to be ironic. (Slang)

2. The story is surely meant to be ironic. (A suggestion)
Use surely to express your objection to someones words or actions:

But surely he must have mentioned it? (You are wrong in suggesting
he didnt.)
27
Use sure to show certainty:
Im sure he mentioned it. (I know this.)
Temporal and temporary

Be aware of the difference between temporal and temporary:
1. Wrong: I fixed the coffee maker with some duct tape. This is just a
TEMPORAL solution.
2. Correct: This is just a TEMPORARY solution as in ad hoc solu-
tion or band-aid solution or Ill fix it properly next week...
Temporal, on the other hand, can mean either not spiritual, secular
or related to time. Here are a couple of examples from the British Na-
tional Corpus:
...the secular rulers who thought only of temporal gain...
...temporal and social relationships between participants...
That and so that

Spot the Slovenglish in this jingly sentence:
Give me that thing that I cut off the string.
Correct: Give me that thing SO that I CAN cut off the string.
Remember to add so and can to show purpose that is not enough

in English.
If you really want to leave something out in a clause of purpose intro-

duced by so that, try with that:
Give me that thing so I can cut off the string.
Thematize
One word: thematize. What does it mean? According to Merriam-Web-
ster.com, it means: to make something (as an idea) a theme or frame-
work. Whatever that means.
28
Merriam-Webster also offers an excuse:
This word doesnt usually appear in our free dictionary, but the defi-
nition from our premium Unabridged Dictionary is offered here on a
limited basis. Note that some information is displayed differently in the
Unabridged.
This means that thematize is not a common word (in fact, the diction-
aries on our computers dont even recognize thematize or thematise)
and the British National corpus only lists a handful of hits related to the
concept of theme in linguistics.
The point? Dont overuse thematize as an equivalent for tematizirati.

Discusses or analyzes almost always does the trick:
The paper discusses light alloys in bicycle manufacturing.
The article analyses Slovenian foreign policy.
Therefore and zato

A common transfer error is the misuse of therefore students equate
zato with therefore and use it inappropriately instead of so.
1. Wrong: He was tired therefore he went to bed. [sic]
2. Correct: He was tired so he went to bed.
And this is how you use therefore correctly (with the meaning of for
that reason). The example is taken from the BNC.
1. And if the worst does not arise anything else must be better and
therefore easier to handle!
There is/are and exist(s)

Another tip based on a common transfer error. Use There is/are rather
than exist(s) (obstajati).
29
Too long
Too long can neatly be replaced by overly long when used before a noun.
This too long novel is dull.

This overly long novel is dull.
(Hyphenated too-long has a smidgen of humour. E.g. Yet another of

his too-long lectures, moaned Raul. The humour comes from the inten-
tional flouting of the rules.)
Until not long ago

The phrase Until not a long time ago... is less idiomatic than until not
long ago...
Until not long ago, I cheered for Ptuj.
Its obvious that long ago has to do with time, so you can chop time.
Similarly, phrases like a year of days (leto dni?) are redundant. A year
is a year is a year. You dont have to subdivide the time.
(That said, if you are emphasizing the waiting, it can work e.g. Ive
been waiting a week of days for you!)
Yet
Why does this sentence sound odd?
The matter of whether the egg or the chicken came first has not yet been
explained.
The yet is superfluous because the matter is never going to be explained!
Drop the yet if no answer seems likely, as in these examples:

Exactly how Zeus changed himself into a bull has not YET been explained.
Whether the pre-literate Slavs took the name from the Celts has not YET
been explained. (Dont get your hopes up if there are no written records!)
30
If, of course, you can expect an explanation, by all means write:
Why my brother was singing Jingle Bells on the school roof has not yet
been explained.
(In some academic writing circles, adding yet is a hopeful convention:

The manuscript has not yet been re-discovered...)
Young/elderly Hemingway
This funny-sounding combination pops up occasionally:
As a future author, young Hemingway was an avid reader.
or
In her efforts to improve her writing, elderly Munro turned to the
spellcheck.
The combinations young Hemingway and elderly Munro may sound

dismissive to some English speakers.
Note that the versions with the definite article are, according to Quirk et
al., more formal and stereotyped in style: the young Hemingway and
the elderly Munro.
31
STYLE
Adding life to descriptions

Heres how you can add life to descriptions and simultaneously show that
you are thinking about what youre relating.
A neutral account of a man who was imprisoned and tortured in the

16th century (pay attention to the blanks, the capitalized phrases and
the ellipses):
A few weeks later, on his way back to Lancashire, Campion was trapped,
arrested, taken to the Tower and PUT into a cell KNOWN AS Little
Ease. After four days of ______________ confinement [...], he was
______________ taken out, [...] and TAKEN to the mansion of the
______________ Earl of Leicester...
Only a machine or robot could speak so blandly about the lead-up to a

gruesome execution.
Heres the same description, as it appears in Stephen Greenblatts Shake-

speare biography Will in the World. Look at how just a few adjectives and
well-chosen examples add life and personality to the prose:
A few weeks later, on his way back to Lancashire, Campion was trapped,
arrested, taken to the Tower, and THRUST into a cell APTLY NICK-
NAMED Little Ease. After four days of PAINFUL CONFINEMENT
THE CELL DID NOT PERMIT THE PRISONER TO STAND
OR LIE FLAT he was SUDDENLY taken out, CARRIED UNDER
GUARD TO A BOAT, AND ROWED to the mansion of the IM-
MENSELY POWERFUL Earl of Leicester...
Think about this when writing your essays, especially when you have to
re-tell a bit of the plot.
Another example:
Hamlet does not kill Claudius when he has the chance. (Neutral and
dull)
32
Hamlet, FOOLISHLY, does not kill Claudius when he has the chance.
(Lively and interpretive)
Also see the next tip.
Adverbs in neutral and cited sentences

Use adverbs when relating neutral information or citing other sources.
Compare:
1. As Jones states, Hamlet is a famous play.
2. As Jones CORRECTLY states, Hamlet is a famous play.
3. As Jones BLANDLY states, Hamlet is a famous play.
A computer could write the first one, not the second two.
Also see the previous tip.
Appositions and relative clauses

Heres a structure to ponder:
Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most influential philosophers of lan-
guage who explained the essential role of family relationships in his in-
fluential works.
The phrasing with the (restrictive) relative clause is complicated and, in

fact, wrong (since there are not hordes of philosophers who explained
the essential role of...).
Better (as in clearer, easier to understand and more natural-sounding) is

the version with the apposition:
Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential philosophers of lan-
guage, explained the essential role of family relationships in his influen-
tial works.
33
Circularity
Watch out for this type of methodological circularity:
By comparing the two novels, I will establish what the differences are.
By comparing implies a process, but how else can one find differences?
Less grandiose-sounding but more understandable:
I compared the two novels and found many differences.
Develop your own (passionate) voice

This is a bonus tip from Siobhan McMenemy, a fine editor at University
of Toronto Press:
The moment one reads passionate, honest writing, one knows. Its one
thing to be objective, but I dont understand the lack of enthusiasm in so
much scholarly work. I push less seasoned authors to develop their own
voices not only by encouraging them to stop quoting other people and to
tell me what they think, but also by asking them what really matters to
them, when it comes to their subject. Why do they care about it? Usually
when they start thinking in those terms, the writing comes more easily.

Discursive and substantive footnotes and endnotes.6 Keep em short.7
(See footnote 6 for a taste of what a discursive note is.)
In... in... patterns

Try to avoid in... in... patterns. Use adjectives or adverbs to soothe the
readers eye and the hearers ear.
1. In an interview in 2001, Obama states... vs. In a 2001 interview,
Obama states...
2. In general in Atwoods work... vs. Atwoods work generally...
6 This is the beginning of a discursive footnote in other words, of a footnote that, rather than
merely providing bibliographical information that tells the reader where to find the sources you
cite in your paper, is far too long. It threatens to stretch on forever, to boldly go forth into...
7 Long footnotes look German. End of discussion.
34
In other words
See the entry in the section Words and phrases.
Lists
Lists. Always a thrilling topic.
Make sure to order your lists clearly. If you mention The works of Tol-
stoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Hemingway, Faulkner and Woolf..., you can
arrange them:
1. Alphabetically: The works of Chekhov, Dickens, Dostoevsky,
Faulkner, Hemingway, Tolstoy and Woolf...
2. Chronologically (generally by date of birth): The works of Dickens,
Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Woolf, Faulkner and Hemingway...
3. By language: In the works of Dickens, Woolf, Faulkner and Heming-
way, and of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov...
If you order things in a funkier way, say what your logic is.
E.g. These authors, ordered by zodiac sign and a predilection for fried
food, include...
Be sure to signal a change (as with , and of Dostoevsky... in 3, which

moves from English-language to Russian writers). This example does
NOT show that a change is coming:
They need to stop occasionally and realize that the person was not just a
challenging health case but a human being with fears, ailments, anxieties,
relatives, and loved ones.
Theres a comic ring to anxieties, relatives, and loved ones.
A potential solution: ...with fears, ailments, anxieties, WITH relatives,

and loved ones.
Without the change-signalling with, you risk creating a zeugma in the

style of I took my sister and a bag of chips to the party.
35
Long sentences
Heres a quick rule that youll be tempted to break often: dont have two
massive sentences in a row.
A fiction editor once intoned that 20 words is already a long sentence. Two
qualifications: long is not pythonesque; fiction is not academic writing.
In short, follow the guideline from the Oxford Guide to Plain English:
Over the whole document, make the average sentence length 15-20
words. Some word processors calculate this for you.
Look forward
You want each paragraph of your essay to look forward.
Lets try that again.
As mentioned in Writing Short Literature Essays, you want...
When referring to earlier points in your essay, you can almost always
chop I have already. That saves three words and takes the focus away
from the self, repetition and the gloomy past.
Another tip: move I have already mentioned or As mentioned to the

second sentence position.
Compare:
As I have already mentioned in this essay, Slovenia is in Europe. (A
yawning and nostalgic look backwards that is possibly insulting to the
reader. Is it a synonym for Hey, buddy, dont you have ears to hear? I
just told ya!)
Slovenia, as mentioned, is in Europe.
When you read your essay aloud, try saying as mentioned in a sarcastic
voice. That should bring home the point.
Also see the entry Europe in the section Words and Phrases.
36
Making observations
If you make a pithy observation that something is interesting, appro-
priate, ironic or whatever, say why it is interesting, appropriate,
ironic or whatever.
These are cryptically isolated statements:

1. It is interesting to note that some of the research has been devel-
oped in Germany. Here it is obvious that the writer has something
in mind. But what?
2. It is surprising that Toronto won the Stanley Cup. Why is it sur-
prising? (...because exactly one century had passed since their last
championship season.)
Overuse of conjunctions
Avoid using the same conjunctions again and again. But and as are
two main culprits here.
1. Showing contrast:
The academic year is almost over, BUT that doesnt mean I have
stopped already. Some students are tempted to stop, BUT I am not.
BUT this is not a desire that is limited to students.
2. Showing causality:
AS the moon goes around the earth, and AS the earth goes around
the sun, we can conclude that the moon goes around the sun. AS I do
not have a telescope, I have to take this on scientific faith.
3. Fresher:
ALTHOUGH the academic year is almost over, it doesnt mean I
have stopped already. Some students are tempted to stop, BUT I am
not. This, HOWEVER, is not a desire that is limited to students.
BECAUSE the moon goes around the earth, and AS the earth goes
around the sun, we can conclude that the moon goes around the sun.
SINCE I do not have a telescope, I have to take this on scientific faith.
[AS the moon goes around the earth, and AS the earth goes around the
sun... or BECAUSE the moon goes around the earth, and BECAUSE
the earth goes around the sun would of course be pleasant parallelisms.]
37
Another note: starting with Because... signals causality from the outset.
In other words, theres none of the ambiguity that might spring from
As... As I was walking... can continue:
1. ...I was obviously not driving. (Causal)
2. ...down the street, I saw a duck. (Temporal)
Also see the note As and because in the section Words and phrases.
Private companies
Try not to advertise private companies: rather than citing a book from
Amazon, refer to Worldcat; rather than Google, write an internet
search, etc. Such avoidance is, of course, often unavoidable, but keep
this tip in mind.
Redundant complexity
Take three seconds and shorten this sentence:
What Ralph evokes in Randy is something new.
_______ Ralph evokes in Randy __ something new.
Or:
Ralph evokes something new in Randy.
Unless you need time to think, or unless you want to up the anticipation,
chop the needless what and is.
Time to think:
May I take your order?
Well, what I would really like to order from the menu is... (vs. Ill have
a beer.)
Upping the anticipation:

What really, truly annoys me about this menu is... (vs. This menu is
too long.)
38
Repetition of I, this, of and so
1. Too much I:
I will look at J.D. Salingers work in this diploma thesis. I will ex-
amine his life, along with the major experiences he had. I will then
consider...
2. Too much this:

This diploma thesis looks at J.D. Salingers work. This body of writ-
ing will be examined with regard to his life. This approach...
(This tip ignores stylistic and rhetorical repetition in the style of Mar-
tin Luther Kings I Have a Dream speech.)
3. Too much of :
Try to avoid long strings of nouns with of, as in this example:
One OF the effects OF the integration OF moral virtues into the
business plan OF a company is that consumers feel they are donating
to charity just because they purchase a product.
You can almost always avoid such ugly sentences if you intersperse
gerunds and the Saxon Genitive:
One of the effects of INTEGRATING moral virtues into A COM-
PANYs business plan is that consumers feel they are donating to
charity just because...
Of course, One OF the effects OF... could be simplified into: One
effect of integrating...
This is simpler and clearer:

One effect of integrating moral virtues into a companys business
plan is that consumers feel they are donating to charity just because
they purchase a product.
4. Too much so:

Do not use the convenient causal construction ..., so... more than
twice per page:
39
The poem begins with I went, so we immediately know it is about a
past event. It is also in the first person, so we can expect subjectivity.
Other synonyms, near-synonyms and alternatives: consequently,

hence, which is why, as a result, this results in, this means that, this
entails that, therefore...
However, using consequently or hence can lead to lulling rhyth-

mic repetition in your prose that is, the reader starts to expect the
same pattern in each sentence.
See if you can paraphrase and change the sentence structure:

The poem begins with I went, so we immediately know it is about
a past event. Similarly, the use of the first person implies subjectivity.
Repetition of meaning
Hows this for a non-informative (and real!) newspaper headline?
Billionaire investor was keen on investing, fraud trial told
No kidding. And avid dancers like to dance.
Avoid such repetition in your writing.
Unintentional figura etymologica is also common:
The questioning of the suspect included questions like, Where were you
last night?
Too much QUESTIONing and plain ugly.
This, however, is lovely and intentional and begs to be sung: Sing a song
of sixpence.
40
Repetition of vague expressions
Want to make your writing splendidly dull? No problem. Just repeat
words, preferably vague ones:
The good thing about the novel is that its a good read.
Less obviously:
SomeTHING that we might consider is that some THINGS are not
anyTHING special.
For those into soap-box style rhetoric, near repetition through figura ety-
mologica can add comedy:
They poisoned him with poison.
In this poisonous (ouch) example there is little doubt that the repeti-
tion is intentional. Poison, after all, is not a filler-word like good or
thing or dude.
The longer your sentence, the greater the danger of unintentional

repetition:
Within the context of 21st-century considerations of how we are to con-
figure varying and competing perspectives on the individual qua indi-
vidual, it is crucial that we bear in mind the contemporary context.
Admittedly, not many would follow that sentence to its sorry end. Still,
the second context is grotesquely redundant.
Repetition of words sentence-initially

Unless you are aiming for parallel structure, dont start two sentences in
a row with the same word.
An example:
Yet despite his frustrations, he never established his own institution,
even though his reputation would have allowed him to do so. Yet since
the 1990s, American education has been increasingly characterized by
market-driven mentality.
41
Another example:
Last week I came across a thrilling new Swedish mystery novel. The
novels story is well-written and packed with suspense. The novels story is
not a typical mystery because there is no obvious culprit.
(The repetition here is especially harsh because the reader might antici-
pate highly stylized and pleasant parallelisms, only to have those optimis-
tic expectations dashed by the dull repetition.)
Short sentences
Express your most powerful thought in the shortest sentence is pretty
solid advice.
The above quotation is taken from the NY Times Opinionator blog.8

Check out the blog post. You will learn something. Or you might find
the advice glib. But do consider it.
The advantage of short sentences for your main idea: no one will lose
your thesis in the forest of other ideas, the tangle and briars of gnarled
syntax.
The disadvantages: it can sound like brow-beating, a harangue or poli-

ticking. In other words, expressing complicated ideas in short, short sen-
tences is often over-simplifying. Nobody can express nuance in a five-
word sentence. As we hope to have shown in the Check out the blog
post series of sentences above, a row of short sentences kills rhythm.
On a side-note: keep your e-mails brief. If you want to ask someone

something, dont hide the request within 150 words of fluff. Just ask.
Starting an essay
Take a breath and get ready to ingest a long how-to on writing essay in-
troductions or setting the tone for your prose.
8 http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/the-short-sentence-as-gospel-truth/?src=
me&ref=general
42
1. Avoid seems in the first sentence:
This novel seems to be about chickens and flying saucers.
Especially if no contrast comes, this is like starting with, I dunno...

before giving an answer.
And you wouldnt want to do that, right? Oh, sorry. (See 3, below).
2. Wonderfully informative and excruciatingly boring first sentences:

In the novel X by Y...
In the play X by Y...
In the poem X by Y...
Or, if you really want to stretch things out: In the poem The Poem
by the poet John Poet...
You should mention the author and the work in the first paragraph of
literature essays, but try for a hook of some sort.
3. Many, many second sentences begin with But... or However...

Try to avoid this. Or dont, if you want to blend in with the crowd.
4. The first sentence is crucial for setting the tone.

Consider the tone set by these first sentences from real (but slightly
changed) motivation letters:
a) I would like to take a chance and participate in study program

called Zembla Study Tour Thinking Zambla in September 2013.
(THE TONE? What the heck, why not give it a whirl...)
b) I wish to apply for the participation in the Zembla Study Tour,

because when I noticed the advertisement for this tour on my uni-
versitys website I already knew this is the program I would like to
be part of.
(NOTE: The adjudicator cares not how you found out about Eras-
mus, etc. Dont mention it.)
43
c) I, Randy Raoul, currently in my second year of bachelor stud-
ies of English Language and Literature at Philosophical Faculty at
Trondheim University, and in my first year of diploma studies of
English Language and Geography at Pedagogical Faculty at Hono-
lulu University, would like to apply for a spot on the one-month
Zembla Study Tour Thinking Zembla.
(COMMENT: Too much information, too many words, crammed
into one sentence. It also sounds like a legal document.)
d) Being to the point, what my biggest motivation is, I would use Law-
rence Martins words: He pondered and suffered a good deal but he
lacked the courage to dare the first requisite of a practitioner.
(QUESTION: Is this to the point?)
e) You should provide a convincing explanation as to why you wish

to participate in the study tour, what particular contribution you
feel you might make to the success of the tour, and what you an-
ticipate will be the benefit of taking part in the tour.
(LITTLE THINGS MATTER. This candidate clearly uploaded
the wrong file.)
f ) I found this quote which maybe shows my vision. The best way
to predict the future is to form it. Pavel Smythe.
(SPOTLIGHT: This Pavel Smythe sounds fascinating oh, hes
not the candidate! In other words, avoid starting with a quotation.
You want the spotlight on yourself.)
Starting an essay with a quotation

Try not to start your essay with a quotation. Why (not)?
1. You want to establish your own voice from the outset. If the quotation
is superb, youll look dull in comparison!
Talking About Art is Like Dancing About Architecture is what Da-
vid Bowie (or maybe Stravinsky) said. My essay examines the difficul-
ties of...
Whose voice sticks out here?
44
2. If the quotation is not exciting, youve avoided the crucial hook:
Undermining the foreign policy decisions of many EU states is the need
for cohesion at a supra-national level (Dull, 2008). This entails that...
Sometimes quotations are not exciting but remain necessary for your
argument. Fine, just dont give them the crucial first sentence.
3. Too many essays begin with a quotation that is, with thoughts and
information that is NOT from the essay-writer. (Skim an academic
journal some day and see how many papers begin with a quotation,
footnote, or parenthetical reference that is with someone elses think-
ing in the oh-so-important first sentence.)
4. Its often a clear sign that you didnt know how to get into the writing-
mode. Dont we often reach for quotations when we cant think of
something to say on our own?
Strings of adverbs
You may blithely pile up adverbs when describing an action:
My sister scampered slowly, clumsily, hungrily, ridiculously towards the
cookie jar.
That example is clear, fine and nasty.
Here, the two -ly adverbs are dissonant and mildly confusing:
Hemingways works function realistically primarily when they are
autobiographical.
Primarily and realistically are not parallel i.e. Hemingways works

cant function realistically and primarily. In fact, in this sentence, re-
alistically describes what precedes it, while primarily is an element (a
subjunct) with a focus on the clause following it.
Just look at this example. Its meaning is clear:

For the most part, Hemingways works function realistically when they
are autobiographical.
45
Strings of pronouns
Strings of pronouns can kill clarity:
The only one who exacts proper revenge on Sally is Jennifer. After con-
firming that SHE had done HER wrong, SHE stole HER chocolate cake
at HER brothers birthday party.
She... her... she... her... her... is confusing. When the pronoun can refer
to two or more characters, use full names to make things obvious.
This is clearer, if repetitive:

After confirming that Sally had done her wrong, Jennifer stole her choc-
olate cake at her brothers birthday party.
Or:
After confirming that she has been wronged, Jennifer stole Sallys choco-
late cake at her brothers birthday party.
To-infinitival constructions
Heres a nifty construction that, for whatever reason, is underused:
She was among the first to research...
Students almost always opt for:

She was among the first WHO RESEARCHED...
Vagueness, tenses and bland expressions

Spot the stylistic problems in this passage:
Inspiration is something of a strength in this little text, and with that

Im thinking more or less of its rather positive qualities. The sentences are
fairly short and, on the whole, clear, and the story was almost always sus-
penseful. Children will enjoy the humour and optimism, and they will
probably have learned a great deal after having read it. This picture book
will arouse the readers curiosity and make us laugh.
46
This passage is murdered by:
1. Vagueness (which text and picture book is this? What are the
positive qualities?)
2. Too many tenses (Im thinking; the sentences ARE morphs into
the story WAS; will probably have learned; after having read it;
will arouse this is a time machine gone wrong!)
3. Too many useless and bland qualifiers:

Inspiration is SOMETHING of a strength in this LITTLE text, and
with that Im thinking MORE OR LESS of its RATHER positive
qualities. The sentences are FAIRLY short and, ON THE WHOLE,
clear, and the story was ALMOST always suspenseful. Children will
enjoy the humour and optimism, and they will PROBABLY have
learned a great deal after having read it. This picture book will arouse
the readers curiosity and make us laugh.
4. Flipping between: i) first person singular (Im thinking); ii) third

person plural (children); iii) third person singular (the reader); iv)
a warm and fuzzy first person plural (make us laugh).
Heres a livelier version of the same:
Inspiration is a strength in GREEN EGGS AND HAM, and with that

Im thinking of its _____ MOTIVATIONAL qualities. The sentences
are _____ short and _____ clear, and the story IS _____ always sus-
penseful. Children will enjoy the humour and optimism, and they will
______ LEARN A GREAT DEAL FROM IT. This picture book will
arouse THEIR curiosity and make us ALL laugh.
(make us ALL signals an awareness of the switch i.e. it shows that the
switch is intentional)
47
Word order
Changing the typical word order adds life to your prose.
If you (as many students do) write however several times in your essays,
switch it occasionally to the second position:
However, I do not use the word too often.
My brother, however, has serious issues with however.
Similarly, instead of writing such as all the time, try something like this:
In my spare time I watch such cartoons as Tom and Jerry, The Smurfs,
and South Park. (This is a stylistic break from cartoons such as Tom
and Jerry...)
Zero relative clauses

This is less of a tip than food for thought.
Read this sentence aloud (slightly changed from a real, published example):
And universities have similarly raised intellectual property concerns over

ownership of the online courses their professors are now asked to as-
semble, indicating that the future of their profession is at stake.
The sentence is not gorgeous, which is excusable. It is needlessly difficult

to understand, which is not excusable. The short but simple solution?
Add that.
And universities have similarly raised intellectual property concerns over

ownership of the online courses THAT their professors are now asked to
assemble, indicating that the future of their profession is at stake.
Much clearer and you dont have to tax your brains puzzling out the
meaning.
(A final note: youll surely have seen that clear and clarity recur again
and again in these pages. Remember, in essays, clarity trumps style.)
48
PUNCTUATION AND LAYOUT
Take five minutes to review the names of English punctuation marks.

Cover up the second column and see how many you can name.
Heres a table of punctuation marks and their names:
Mark Name Comment

. full stop (BrE), See below for more.
period (AmE)
, comma See below for more.
: colon See below for more.
; semicolon
? question mark
! exclamation mark See below for more.
apostrophe E.g. in the contracted form dont. See below
for more.
- hyphen E.g. in the compound well-intentioned. See
below for more.
dash Used to separate a thought from the rest of the
sentence: He knew nothing about it or so
he said.
_ underscore, un- A series of underscores is used to create a line,
derstrike e.g. on a form or in a test.
... (three) dots, el-
lipsis
/ (forward) slash, Used to separate alternative words or phrases.
stroke Its also called a virgule when used to mark a
line break in poetry.
... single quotation See below for more.
marks, inverted
commas (mostly
BrE)
... double quotation See below for more.
marks (mostly
AmE)
49
Mark Name Comment
(...) brackets or paren-
theses
[...] square brackets These used to be called just brackets.
* asterisk Used to draw attention to something, e.g.
Put an asterisk beside/next to their names.
Also, linguists sometimes use it to indicate an
ungrammatical structure, e.g. John *teached
me how to read.
# hash (sign), also Typically used before a number, e.g. #5
number sign, meaning number five.
pound sign
~ tilde, twiddle, Used with the meaning of approximately,
squiggly (infor- e.g. ~15 hours meaning approximately 15
mal) hours; also used by linguists to mark nasaliza-
tion, e.g. [me~n].
@ at sign/symbol
{} curly brackets,
braces, squiggly
brackets
<> angle brackets Individually, inequality symbols for greater-
than and less-than.
& ampersand It means and.
% percent sign
Apostrophe
An apostrophe has nothing to do with quoting. Do not use apostrophe
as a synonym for quotation marks (AmE) or inverted commas (BrE).
Refer to single quotation marks, not to an apostrophe.
(Another tip: do a search-and-replace in your word processor to make

sure that your apostrophes are all candle-straight or banana-curved.)
50
Block quotations
Block quotations that is, quotations of several lines do not need quo-
tation marks; do, however, indent them. Like this:
Hamlet famously says,
To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
But what do these lines mean?
Colons
Colons cause problems.
In 101 English Tips, one reads:

1. A colon shouts out that an example or summary is about to follow.
2. Another colon tip: when continuing to write after a colon in your
sentence, it is often a reasonable and admirable idea to make it snappy
and not produce a sentence that looks like a little poodle with a long,
long tail. Oops.
3. The only punctuation following a colon will generally be a period or
question mark or exclamation mark (and commas, of course). Do not
start a new clause.
4. This is bizarre because the sentence ends whimperingly:
Ogden Nash writes of a hunter: This grown up man with pluck and
luck / Is trying to outwit a Duck, AND THIS shows...
Write this instead:

Ogden Nash writes of a hunter: This grown up man with pluck and
luck / Is trying to outwit a Duck. THIS SHOWS...
Also, never, ever use two colons in a single sentence. A colon and dash in
a single sentence? Nope.
51
Comma after a lengthy subject
This tip that has been covered before but cant be found in our comput-
ers, must be misplaced somewhere.
Like the comma before must in that clunky sentence.
Nobody would write this: This tip, must be misplaced.
And yet, theres a wild tendency to add a comma to subject phrases that
happen to be longer than the average subject phrase.
Do not add a comma before the verb just because the subject noun phrase
is long (and there is a tone unit break in-between the subject and the rest
of the sentence).
1. This is wrong: Rauls speculation about how he would spend his win-
ter holidays, turned out to be correct.
2. This is also wrong: William Blakes poem about a chimney sweeper,
is called The Chimney Sweeper.
Try the replacement test that is, replace the confusing phrase will some-
thing simpler to see if its the grammatical subject:
Rauls speculation [...] turned out to be wrong.
Blakes poem [...] is called The Chimney Sweeper.
Commas and decimals

Different symbols are used in different languages to indicate a decimal.
Some countries, e.g. English-speaking ones, use the decimal point, while
others, e.g. Slovenia, use the decimal comma. Compare the examples:
1. Slovenian (the decimal comma): Njena povprena ocena je 8,4.
2. English (the decimal point): Her average grade is 8.4.
Also, notice the different delimiters used for numbers with many digits.
1. Slovenian (periods as delimiters): 2.000.000
2. English (commas as delimiters): 2,000,000 (alternative: 2 000 000)
(If you think this does not matter, remember that bidding 1,50 Euros on
eBay.co.uk means a lot of money for, say, a mouse pad!)
52
Comma in comment clauses, participle clauses and appositions
1. Wrong:
The book, as we have seen is long.
The last time I, dressed in green in red attended a party...
Stanko and Janko, the well-known gangsters forgot where they had
parked.
2. Correct:
The book, as we have seen, is long.
The last time I, dressed in green in red, attended a party...
Stanko and Janko, the well-known gangsters, forgot where they had
parked.
Comma in (non-)restrictive relative clauses

Heres one that you all know but that native speakers are forgetting. (Tak-
en from a Toronto Star article.)
The Canadians sleepwalked through the first period and trailed by two
goals against the Slovenians who [sic] came ready to compete.
Hmmm. Was the Canadian hockey team somehow playing two Slove-
nian teams at the same time one that came ready to compete and one
(or more) that didnt?
In other words, use commas in (non-restrictive) relative clauses when

adding information that is not essential for identification.
My brother, who lives in London, is a pianist. (who lives... is a non-
restrictive relative clause; the message is My brother is a pianist. By the
way, he lives in London.)
A restrictive relative clause, on the other hand, is one that enables

identification.
My brother who lives in London is a pianist. (who lives... is a restric-
tive relative clause with the meaning I have more than one brother the
one with a flat in London is a pianist.)
53
Comma splices
Instead of a proper tip, a longish list of comma splices. Read them care-
fully and feel the outrage and the shoddy grammar!
1. The ending is also the climax, almost the whole story unveils in front
of us, but when the friend tells him what the flower means, we are
surprised and understand the meaning of the whole story.
2. Everything could have been easy, if the boy was a homebody, how-
ever he was mischievous.
3. She lays bare the structure of the story, she presents it very clearly.
4. I do not know what the idea was, I was very confused.
5. The content of Gilberts letter to Nevada is also revealed and indeed
resolves an argument, at the same time it also alludes to the somewhat
Biblical explanation of sisterhood between women in the story.
6. People would be very strange to think dead frozen horses are roman-
tic, they are scary.
7. It was shown in the film that there are steeple-chases, in my country
we rear horses mostly for rehabilitation.
8. He did not want to make the scene believable, he wanted the audi-
ence to see the irony he was trying to show by making it obviously
fake.
9. These people have no sense of time, they can never remember what
year it is.
Remember: dont glue two stand-alone sentences together with a piddly

little comma!
For some reason, this type of error is on the rise. It is becoming almost
as common as the splices in which adverbs such as however are used to
separate independent clauses. Compare the examples in 10 (wrong) and
11 (correct):
10. He presented some wonderful examples of cubism by Picasso, how-
ever he failed to mention any other painters.
11. He presented some wonderful examples of cubism by Picasso; how-
ever, he failed to mention any other painters.
Also see Tip 1 in 101 English Tips.
54
Decades
If you dont care for the background of the formidable stylists-vs.- gram-
marians battle, skip to the numbered list below, for it is well known that
Many hundred large volumes have been published upon this controver-
sy and it is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several time
suffered death, rather than submit9 to adding or subtracting an apostro-
phe to 1990s/1990s. Although grammarians point out that 1990s is not
wrong, many style guides beg to differ.
Ben Yagoda writes in How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing
Problems and the Best Ways to Avoid Them: Some publications counte-
nance the 1800s or the 60s, but its wrong. The 1960s, the 60s, and the
sixties are all okay, as long as youre consistent.
The 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style intones: Chicago calls for
no apostrophe to appear between the year and the s. (Interestingly, they
have toned down the wording. The previous edition was absolutely rigid:
No apostrophe appears between the year and the s. End of discussion.)
Leaving aside the entrenched views on the apostrophe, here are some
guidelines:
1. 1970ies (Wrong)
2. 1970s (See above) (Note that this apostrophe has nothing to do with
ownership; that said, some stylists ask rhetorically, What can a de-
cade own?)
3. in the 70s of the previous decade (Too long)
4. 70s or 70s is fine if the century is clear. In formal writing, youll often
want to stretch this out to 1970s/1970s. Note, however, that 70s
has a whiff of I was there. You might sound old.
5. Note the apostrophe before the numeral in Summer of 69 or the
spirit of 76.
Because views are so entrenched on this trivial matter, it is wise to consult

with your teacher/professor/editor/blog readers before submitting your work.
9 These quotations are from Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift. They refer not to apostrophes but
to the important matter of which is the right side for breaking into a boiled egg.
55
Exclamation mark
Dont use too many. You will sound like youd rather be punching out
SMS messages in high school math class than writing a real essay. How
many is too many? Hard to say. But two in a row is like, ohmygad, to-
tally so too much!

Put footnotes/endnotes after the period or comma, not before.10 And
dont leave a space between the punctuation and the superscript number.
Hyphen
In the 18th century... no hyphen.
In 18th-century England... hyphen.
In other words, hyphenate 18th-century if you use it attributively (not

all editors follow this rule. In any case, be consistent. If you hyphenate on
page four, also hyphenate on page 31 of your essay).
And, at the risk of being redundant (see above), DO NOT hyphenate In
the 13th century...
(Also note that some style guides advise against using superscript in ordinal
numerals, e.g. 20th-century authors is preferred to 20th-century authors.)
Indenting
Use the tab key to indent; do not hit the space-bar eight times. Over a
100 page document, this can literally take an hour to fix!
Italicizing the comma

Do not italicize the comma after a list of titles that is, italicize only the
novel title, not the comma that follows. This is a minor point, but it takes
forever for the lowly proofreader to correct.
10 Get it? While were on the topic: use Arabic, not Roman, numerals. ...2, 3, 4, lock the outhouse
door... not ...ii, iii, iv, lock the outhouse door...
56
Percent sign
In English, there is no space between the number and the percentage sign
(e.g. 5%). Add a space in Slovenian, though (e.g. 7 %). (The same is
true for units of measurement, e.g. 5mm vs. 5 mm.)
Period/full stop
A period/full stop tells us that your sentence is over. This means that you
do not need two full stops in one sentence, even when quoting. Thats
why the following is wrong: in the thick of things. (Johnson, 1984).
Period, full stop or dot?

A sentence ends with a period (US) or a full stop (UK), not a dot.
(Talking about a dot at the end of a sentence is as odd-sounding as
reading out: www PERIOD A-B-C FULL STOP com).
Quotation marks
1. Do not use Slovenian quotation marks in English-language papers
(quotation marks not quotation marks).
2. Make sure your quotations marks face in the right direction i.e. that
they are looking at the quoted text.
This is wrong: quoted text.
This is not: quoted text.
3. Dont use two apostrophes (''...'') instead of quotation marks (...).
Quotations placement
Experiment with where you place your quotations.
Compare the following:

1. Weve got him now! said Joe. He cant get down without being
caught!
2. Joe said, Weve got him now! He cant get down without being
caught.
3. Weve got him now! He cant get down without being caught! Joe said.
57
To all four of our ears, the first example is the most lively though its
taken from literature, its easy enough to adapt this type of quoting place-
ment to academic writing.
An invented example:
The verb, points out Professor Bernardi, often comes at the end of a
German sentence.
Also, be sure to comment:

The verb, pointed out Professor Bernardi HELPFULLY/REDUN-
DANTLY/WISELY, often comes at the end of a German sentence.
(Note that this desire for commentary and an interpretative stance is

more keenly felt in literature papers. The grammarian correctly pointed
out that to run is a verb would be laughable in a linguistic paper!)
See previous tips for more examples Adding life to descriptions and
Adverbs in neutral and cited sentences in the section Style.
Quotations within quotations

When quoting within a quotation, use double and single quotation
marks to differentiate:
I am sick of correcting this facile and basic mistake, writes Blake.
Quoting and punctuation

1. This sentence. should never have a period or semi-colon; in the mid-
dle of it.
Nobody would write such foolishness. Nor would anyone write:

What once to me befell. is what Wordsworth says he will relate.
However, when quoting literature and other sources, many students

leave the sentence-stopping (or sentence-pausing) punctuation:
What once to me befell. is what Wordsworth says he will relate.
Get rid of the comma, colon, etc. if it does not fit your sentences syntax.
58
2. At least three students per decade pepper their professors with ques-
tions about quotation marks and punctuation. Inside or outside,
they plead. I MUST know!
In the United States and Canada, the period goes inside the quotation
marks:
Last week I read Shirley Jacksons short story The Lottery.
In the United Kingdom, the full stop goes outside the quotation
marks (if the punctuation is not part of the quoted passage):
Last week I read Shirley Jacksons short story The Lottery.
More thorough explanations:

A question to the Chicago Manual of Style (such things do exist!):11
Q. Realizing that every style guide I have read states that periods al-
ways go inside quotation marks, I argue that, if a quote is only a part
of a sentence, the period at the end applies to the entire sentence, and
not just to the quoted part; therefore, it should be placed outside the
closing quotation mark. Does this reasoning hold any water at all?
A. Surebut for style rules, unlike buckets, holding water isnt always
the main goal. Although the British agree with you and punctuate ac-
cordingly, the time-honored convention in American-style punctua-
tion is to put the period inside the quotation marks.
From Ben Yagodas excellent blog:12
In all circumstances (except in the United Kingdom and certain coun-

tries that were formerly in the British Empire), commas and periods al-
ways go INSIDE quotation marks, never outside. This is true for titles
and air-quote style expressions (which should be avoided anyway), in
addition to direct quotes.
11 Source: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation.html?old=
Punctuation05.html
12 Source: http://benyagoda.com/on-writing/yagodas-rules-for-quotes/
59
Sentence-ending punctuation
If your quotation has sentence-ending punctuation, theres no need to
add another period.
And then, Sally exclaimed, I ran to the waterfall!. [sic]
Larry asked, So what?. [sic]
On a similar note, if your sentence doesnt end, chop the sentence-ending

punctuation:
This is the end. [sic] is how the song starts.
See also Period/full stop.
Spacing and line-spacing

Keep your spacing standardized. If you use a single space after a period,
do it all the time. If you use two spaces after a period, always use two
spaces.
Some students, for some reason, add two or three lines before the final
paragraph. This is the visual equivalent of a drum-roll as you build antici-
pation. Its also completely wrong. Dont do it. Use the same line-spacing
throughout. One line between paragraphs is enough.
Spelling
Spell the name of an author you cite... correctly. Do not leave it to the
proofreader/teacher to figure out whether Holbroke and Holbrooke
are two people or just one person youve re-named in order to torture
your teacher or copy editor.
Square brackets
Use square brackets + ... if you have inserted or changed or omitted
something within quotation marks:
He went to [his] bed.

He went [...] to bed.
He went to [the] bed [that he had slept in the night before.]
60
In any case, be consistent! Do not use round brackets marks (sometimes
He went (...) to bed), then nothing (sometimes He went... to bed
and then square brackets He went [...] to bed).
The Oxford comma

The Oxford comma. If you use it, use it consistently: ham, eggs, and
coffee on page 4 should not be ham, eggs and coffee on page 10 (espe-
cially if the same terms are repeated verbatim).
61
OTHER TIPS AND GUIDES
Abstracts
A few notes on abstracts.
1. Avoid footnotes (they get very ugly very fast, especially if the abstract
appears in two or more languages. In such cases, three harmless-
looking footnotes become six or nine opomb, Funoten, notes en bas
de la page, etc.).
2. Try to pack everything into to a single paragraph; more than two is
ugly.
3. Talk about the paper, not the research that preceded it.
4. Say what the paper is actually about.
5. Pay at least passing attention to the possibility of coming within
range of the word limit.
6. Follow the rules for citing titles: quotation marks for small things,
italics for books, etc.
7. Avoid copy-pasting from your introduction or elsewhere in your pa-
per i.e. show that you are capable of writing different sentences at
will.
8. If you cite an original title, look for the official translation; do not
provide an ad hoc translation of your own for an already-translated
work Shakespeares The Tempest should not become De in
veter!
9. If the work you are considering has not been translated, do not
italicize the title (think of it as advertising: no italics means Dont
bother trying to buy it from your local bookshop.).
10. Use present tense: The paper investigates and not The paper will
investigate...
Diploma thesis advice: general

A few notes:
1. Put yourself into it choose a topic you are genuinely interested in.
Ten horses could not drag me to the computer to write about social
criticism in the works of a 17th-century author. If you have no in-
terest in the 17th century, why devote a book to it?
62
2. If you are writing on a few works, have a firm rationale for why you
chose those works instead of others especially if you are examining
only two of, say, Charles Dickens novels.
3. Get to the point. You should be well into your argument by page
10. If youre not into your argument by page 25, it looks like you are
running away from argument.
4. Plot summaries and biographies (though sometimes necessary) are
usually tedious. Work on the assumption that your reader is familiar
with the plot of Waiting for Godot. (Im thinking of page-long sum-
maries and chapter-long biographies that are solely factual.)
5. Make sure to add clear argument and analysis to every single para-
graph i.e. dont write something thats irrefutable and just as easily
found on Wikipedia.
6. A rule of thumb: Quote from the literature in every paragraph.
7. Comment on every quotation.
8. Do not quote critics just because they are famous (of course, no
critic is Hollywood-famous!). If you do quote them, take a stance on
what they say. Do you agree with them? Why? Why not?
9. Write something every day. When you dont feel like writing and
when the ideas arent flowing, at least play around by searching for
words you use too often or vague words such as thing and some-
how, fixing the bibliography, verifying those little typographical
things that take up too much time, making sure that the details are
right (i.e. that poems you refer to are in fact poems, not novels; that
Harry Potter is not referred to as Harvey Potter).
Diploma thesis advice: technical details and citing

A few notes:
1. Get rid of the hyperlinks. They are: a) unsightly; b) potentially em-
barrassing if a mere click on Shakespeare sails the reader to where
you found your information.
2. Try not to refer to anything you do not know. If you have never read
a Hemingway novel, dont discuss his influence on your author.
3. Lists are almost boring. Try to avoid epic lists.
4. Learn where to place the period in in-text quotations.
63
Correct: This is the quotation (Author, 23). The next sentence starts.
Wrong: This is the quotation. (Author, 23) The next sentence starts.
In block quotations, the period comes before the reference. Heres an

example:
indented block quotation meant to illustrate the point that I
am striving to make. (Author, 23)
5. Spell the names correctly. Sound obvious? We have never received

a diploma thesis without at least one typo in the name (Those Mcs
and Macs from Scotland are particularly tricky).
6. Save first names for your friends and family. Write Atwood is not
my buddy, not Margaret is not my buddy.
7. Quote from the original source. As Shakespeare notes on EASY-
QUOTES.COM, ... looks hilariously lightweight. Its easy enough
to start with the page of quotations, then go to the original.
Two further arguments for now using the easy and general source:
a. Many quotations are incorrectly attributed or quoted.
b. Check out the quotation in context there is nothing funnier
than quoting a villain as a beacon of humanity because you missed
sarcasm (come to think of it, a lot of things are funnier than that,
but you get the idea).
Presentations
A few presentation tips. Adapt them according to the class and subject
matter (linguistics papers tend to be more formally rigid):
1. Your first sentence does not have to be This presentation is about...
Think of movies that start with action scenes before the opening
credits roll. Why not lay out your topic two minutes into the presen-
tation? (Also, if you have the topic emblazoned across your Power
point, you can be subtle: As you can see...)
2. The typical tripartite structure is not always necessary. First I will...,
then I will, then I will... Sometimes a narrative, meandering struc-
ture is more fun and useful. Especially with less academic topics
say, chocolate or my puppy Leonard there can be a gap between
64
form and content (First, I will elucidate how we acquired Leonard
from the pound; then I will examine the factors involved in re-nam-
ing Fluffy into Leonard; in the third section, I will explain how
Leonard prefers...).
3. Limit yourself. If have ten minutes to work with, skip the nine-
minute-biography, stick to three rather than nine points. You can
cover your bases by saying, Of course, we dont have time for... or
Its too bad we cant discuss the late Wittgenstein at this point...
(i.e. show that you know more than you are relating).
4. Consider the audience and the time of day. Early morning? Your
classmates might be asleep and might need to be coaxed into Deep
Thinking. Late afternoon? The later in the day, the harder youll have
to work to get or keep our attention. Is this a Practical English class?
Give us a chance to participate!
5. Engage the audience at least every two minutes. Have students
read from the overhead; ask a rhetorical question; ask if we agree
with something none of these takes any time away from your
presentation.
6. Dont use more than three borrowed words in a row. Even if you
are not plagiarizing, the audience can hear a different voice. (Of
course, look up the meaning and pronunciation of words that are
new to you.) If you are paraphrasing another thinker, tell us!
7. Be fair with questions: its humane and fair to lead into a tricky
question with a series of little ones. Few people will spring to answer
an out-of-the-blue questions such as Can anyone briefly explain
the essential differences between verb movement in Slovenian and
English? (A pre-question here could be: Which language lets you
move things around more? Slovenian or English?)
8. Dont be a control freak. Discussion can be scary because someone
might ask a very tricky question or seem to outshine you during
your moment of presentation-glory. Worse, however, is ignoring the
audience altogether.
9. Make sure that what you say cant be delivered in paper form i.e.
that your presentation is not merely an essay read loud; even if its a
mere matter of adding humour or faking enthusiasm while the sweat
pools in your armpits.
65
10. Powerpoints (sp?). Nothing to tell you. Students all seem to have
grasped that the overheads should be digestible, fun, not overly long
and not too distracting.
11. Videos. If you play a clip: keep it short; ending with a clip is danger-
ous (you want the final statement to be you; no need to compete
with Spielberg).
12. You dont always have to end with a bibliography or works cited
(even if you do mention your sources, one or two minutes is more
than enough).
13. If you say, In conclusion... finish up within a minute.
14. Lastly, observe the time limit. If you have twenty minutes to present,
dont blab for half an hour.
66
REFERENCES
(Modern Language Association i.e. for Literature Papers)
Blake, Jason. 101 English Tips, A Quick Guide to Avoiding Slovenglish.

Ljubljana: Znanstvena zaloba Filozofske fakultete, 2012.
<http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/101%20Tips%20-%20
BLAKE.pdf>.
------. Writing Short Literature Essays - A Textbook with Exercises for
Slovenian Students. Ljubljana: University of Ljubljana, 2011.
Clark, Roy Peter. The Short Sentence as Gospel Truth. Opinionator.
7 September 2013. <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.
com/2013/09/07/the-short-sentence-as-gospel-truth/>.
Cutts, Martin. Oxford Guide to Plain English (3rd Edition). Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2009.
Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary. 2001-2014. 25 October
2012. <http://www.etymonline.com/>.
Hasan, Mehdi. Ed Balls Interview, Part Two: Ive Never Been A
Bitch. The Huffington Post. 1 October 2012. 7 October
2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/09/30/ed-
balls-interview-bitch_n_1926677.html>.
Intitut za slovenski jezik Frana Ramova ZRC SAZU, Laboratorij za
korpus slovenskega jezika. nova beseda. 19 July 2011. 10 June
2014. <http://bos.zrc-sazu.si/s_beseda3.html>.
Jurko, Primo. Divergent Polysemy: The Case of Slovene Namre vs.
English Namely. ELOPE IV.1-2 (2007): 29-41.
Lipovek, Franika. Misconceptions about Article Use in English.
ELOPE III.1-2 (2006): 99-113.
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. n.d. 1 March 2014.
<http://www.merriam-webster.com/>.
Patterson, Don. Reading Shakespeares Sonnets: A New Commentary.
London: Faber and Faber, 2010.
Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
Language. London, Harlow: Longman, Pearson Education,
2008.
67
The British National Corpus, version 3 (BNC XML Edition). British
National Corpus. 2007. Oxford University Computing
Services on behalf of the BNC Consortium. Website. 10 June
2014. <http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/ >.
The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Browse Q&A: Punctuation. n.d.
11 June 2014. <http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/
data/faq/topics/Punctuation.html?old=Punctuation05.html>.
The University of Chicago Press. The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th
Edition, The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers.
London: The University of Chicago, 2010.
Thesaurus.com. Thesaurus. 16 November 2012. <http://thesaurus.
com/>.
Yagoda, Ben. You Need to Read This: The Death of the Imperative Mode,
the Rise of the American Glottal Stop, the Bizarre Popularity of
Amongst, and Other Cuckoo Things That Have Happened to
the English Language. New York: Riverhead Books, 2014.
------. How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and
the Best Ways to Avoid Them. New York: Riverhead Books,
2013.
------. Yagodas Rules for Quotes. n.d. 7 March 2013. <http://www.
benyagoda.com/content/yagodas-rules-quotes>.
Yahoo! Answers. Can i dye my hair from a reddish/purplish colour to a
light brown colour? n.d. 8 June 2014. <https://answers.yahoo.
com/question/index?qid=20110608040550AASbExU>.
68
Jason Blake teaches in the Department of English at the Univer-
sity of Ljubljanas Faculty of Arts. He is the author of Canadian
Hockey Literature (University of Toronto Press, 2010) and Writing
Short Literature Essays: A Textbook with Exercises for Slovenian Stu-
dents (Znanstvena zaloba Filozofske fakultete, 2011), along with
Culture Smart! Slovenia (Kuperard / Random House, 2011). The
current Editor-in-Chief of the Central European Journal of Can-
adian Studies / Revue dEtudes Canadiennes en Europe Centrale, he
also has translated or co-translated many literary and non-literary
works from German and Slovenian.
Andrej Stopar is a lecturer in the Department of English at the

University of Ljubljanas Faculty of Arts. His research interests are
primarily focussed on (generative) syntax, discourse analysis, lan-
guage testing, and translation. The courses he has taught include
Language in Use, English Grammar for Teachers, Translation (Slo-
venian to English and English to Slovenian), Slovenian Morphol-
ogy, and English Pronunciation. He has translated or co-translated
a number of literary and non-literary works from English, Chinese,
and Slovenian.

102 English Tips: Another Quick Guide To Avoiding "Slovenglish"

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

102 English Tips: Another Quick Guide To Avoiding "Slovenglish"

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

102 English Tips: Another Quick Guide To Avoiding "Slovenglish"

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

102

Jason Blake and Andrej Stopar

Authors: Jason Blake and Andrej Stopar

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts 2014;

All rights reserved

Published by: Znanstvena zaloba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v

CIP - Kataloni zapis o publikaciji

ISBN 978-961-237-677-2 (pdf )

PUNCTUATION AND LAYOUT

OTHER TIPS AND GUIDES

Read and return to 101 and 102. Do so frequently and critically. Do so

Also, be on the lookout for sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek comments in

(A) few and (a) little

Here, few things is a synonym for I have learned virtually nothing...

Sometimes a missing article makes a big difference:

There are a few solutions here:

Some other adjectives in ly are: fatherly, friendly, lonely, elderly and

Also see the tip Look forward in the section Style.

Readers anticipate sentence direction that is, we all anticipate how a

Two more details:

Borrow and lend

Unlike native speakers, Slovenians rarely mix up borrow and lend:

Unless the car/bicycle/skateboard is totalled as in flattened from

Does a good job

Is there NO other way of saying s/he done good [sic]?

See if you can avoid it in your essays.

England/English and Britain/British

Oops. The point? England is only a part of Britain. Britain includes

For different/several reasons

First, firstly and the first

Consider these (correct) examples:

A four-hour meeting? Persuasive interrogation? Thankfully, just a signa-

Correct: I can meet you BETWEEN 1 and 5.

How it would be like to...

Wrong: I wonder how it would be like to climb Everest.

The Google test:

When you summarize a complicated argument with In other words...,

A whimsical but useful example:

A negative example (changed very slightly from an academic article):

Of course, some eloquent speakers of English also adore this phrase...

From a Huffingtonpost.co.uk interview with a politician:

That sort of fund manager is a different world from investment bank-

If you use It is so as a synonym for the situation is thus..., your sen-

Just say: THIS IS BECAUSE they ran over budget...

It [i.e. the movie] is so awful!

It seems (to me)

According to the sexist example cited in the Online Etymology

Consider this example:

This is also possible:

That sentence is potentially ambiguous because it could be understood as

let similar to I allowed

Of course, left is stronger in tone:

Also, use allow (and not let) in the passive voice:

Three examples from an online book-search for let alone consider:

Compare these distortions of Dr. Seusss Green Eggs and Ham:

Bizarre (after Sam tries the eggs and ham):

Ponder the Slovenian original and its (wrong) translation:

Heres an elegant and correct instance of namely in English, courtesy of

Do you need to use it three times in a single page? Or twice in a short

_____ Ralph evokes in Randy something new.