Today's Writing Tip Is on "For Whom Are You Voting?"

As we start the Republican National Convention and move into the Democratic Convention next week, many people will be asking each other which candidate they prefer.

Technically, the right way to do this is to say, "Whom are you voting for?" because the sentence has a direct object. Or, you can say or write, "For whom are you voting?" This phrasing is correct; however, I don't like it. I think it sounds stuffy.

Sometimes the only really important thing about grammar is to know the rules so that you can understand when you are breaking them. In conversation, I would opt for the more casual, "Who are you voting for?" And if I were writing a dialogue in a fictional narrative or quoting someone in a blog post, I would still use the informal version.

But if I were writing for a serious website, of course I would choose the official version. We are seeing more of a trend toward casual speech and writing as part of a desire to move forward in the modern world. Just as we wouldn’t say, "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?", it sounds stilted and uptight to answer the phone by saying, "It is I" or "For whom are you voting?" I'm going to declare this to be a style issue in conversation and when we are quoting dialogue, but I know that many people will disagree.

Of course you can always circumvent the problem, as I did in the beginning of this piece, by saying, "Which candidate do you prefer?" And the answer in this particular election may be "neither."

 

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor http://tinyurl.com/7wnk5se and two erotic short stories, which she wrote under the pen name Tiffanie Good. Silver Publishing just released "The Pink Triangle," a tale of friendship, lust, and betrayal. You can view her story here: http://tinyurl.com/6v65rgr 

 

Today's Writing Tip Is From Worse to Worse

I'm surprised at how often I see the phrase "from worse to worse" in print. It doesn't make any sense. It's a lot like the term "I could care less." Neither one says what you want them to say.

Let's reason this out. If I am number 10 in line in the grocery store and I move forward one spot, I become number nine. If I move back one spot, I become number 11. In either case, there is a sense of motion and movement. Something changes.

If I go from worse to worse, nothing much changes. I am still number 10 in line at the grocery store – or maybe I'm 10 1/2. I have to go from worse to worst in order to see a significant change. An easy way to remember this one is to think of the opening line in A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Thus, you want to go from worse to worst. Although of course, you don't really. That is the outcome that most of us are hoping to avoid.

As a postscript, I will add that the correct way of saying I don't give a damn is "I couldn’t care less," because if you could care less it means that you already care. If you couldn't care less, you care so little that your interest in the matter is currently negligible. Thus, it couldn’t become any more unimportant to you; hence, you couldn't care less.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor http://tinyurl.com/7wnk5se and two erotic short stories, which she wrote under the pen name Tiffanie Good. Silver Publishing just released "The Pink Triangle," a tale of friendship, lust, and betrayal. You can view her story here: http://tinyurl.com/6v65rgr