February 15 Quiz with ANSWERS!
1) Earth, Wind & Fire were one of the most musically accomplished, critically acclaimed, and commercially popular funk bands of the ’70s. [From Pandora]
A group is an it, and so is singular: Earth, Wind & Fire was one of the most…
2) These are from a smoke and pet free home.
Suspended hyphen time: a smoke- and pet-free home.
3) 20 Image’s Of The Titanic That’ll Give You Chills [Headline from Huffington Post]
With few exceptions, the plural of a word in American English is formed by adding –s or –es. The exceptions are a) when a word changes entirely, like mouse and mice, b) when a word stays the same in the plural, like trout and species, and c) when an acronym with periods, like M.B.A., is plural, you add an apostrophe plus s.
4) Better Fitness In Middle Age May Stop One Of Your Organ’s From Shrinking [Headline from the Huffington Post]
Same here. The only supposedly authoritative publication that does a worse job of editing than the Huffington Post is Wikipedia. The Wikipedia staff is too lazy to impose any sort of style on its publication, and so Wikipedia is stuffed with every punctuation and grammar mistake known to God and man.
5) Friedman’s Shoes was the place where a man seven-feet tall with a size 22 foot could buy shoes the way everyone else does — right off the shelf.
No hyphen when the compound adjective is placed after the noun it modified: a man seven feet tall, or, you could have written “a seven-foot-tall man.”
6) In 1998, the NBA lockout, hit many of their best customers in the pocket.
In this sentence, “their” refers back to Friedman’s Shoes, which, as a company, is singular, an “it.” Plus, you’ve got a comma between the subject and its verb—a big, big, big no-no.
7) Our team of experts are available to speak to your organization at no cost.
“Team” is a collective noun, and is singular. And, as with most mistakes, when you put this sentence into Microsoft Word, you get underlining, which helps a writer lean in a bit, to see if he or she has made a mistake. Use Word!
8) Toastmasters International, “Where Leaders Are Made” is the world’s largest non-profit educational organization dedicated entirely to improving leadership and communication skills.
Here we have parenthetical information about Toastmasters,
“Where Leaders are Made,” that should be enclosed by commas. A pair of commas. Plus, drop the hyphen in “non-profit”; it should be nonprofit.
9) His books include his latest titled “Things LEADERS Say: A Daily Guide to Help Every Leader Empower & Inspire”, and his award-winning business humor book “Kiss Your Customer: 77 Reasons Why Sales & Service Are Just Like Dating & Relationships”.
Wow. Book titles are italicized. Plus, whenever you do use quotation marks, they are always placed outside periods and commas.
10) He is a Corporate Trainer, Author, Educator, Professional Coach, Adventure-Based Facilitator, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Compassion Fatigue Therapist, A Critical Incident Stress Debriefer with Specializations in Corporate Crisis Intervention for Workplace Violence, working with Victims and Families in the Wake of Mass Disasters, as well as after Domestic Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction. He works with companies all over the world. His diversity of knowledge about people and group dynamics keep him in demand. He uses his expertise and educational understanding to help participants work together to increase performance and develop cohesiveness. He has given hundreds of presentations to Associations, Companies, Women’s Groups, Churches and School Students.
Great example of capitalization run amok. Horrible. Another problem, though, is that “knowledge” is singular, and so the verb form should be “keeps,” not “keep.”
11) Carrie strength in Global Awareness and International Relations comes from being an Advocate for 31 International High School Exchange students from 13 different countries over a 5 years during their exchange year in the Tampa Bay Area.
Should be “Carrie’s strength.” Then there’s the nasty “over a 5 years” phrase. Plus, what’s this about all the capitalization?
12) She has appeared on many TV & Radio Interviews.
Again, why are “radio” and “interviews” capitalized?
13) She shares a systemized strategy for achieving success beyond your wildest dreams that is based upon four foundational pillars – standards, discipline, accountability, and systems.
“Systemized”? huh? Is that a word? Well, it is in the dictionary, so I’ll let it slide, but I’d go with “systematized.” And, I don’t like “foundational” with “pillars.” That is a meaningless phrase. Let’s call it “pillars” and leave it at that.
Rewrite: She shares a systematized strategy for achieving success based upon four pillars: standards, discipline, accountability, and systems.
14) She delivers an inspirational, powerful message that motivates the audience to take action, change their mindset and empower others.
“Audience” is a collective noun. It’s singular. So, “their” should be “its.” If that feels awkward, write “audience members.”
15) She is the first Hispanic Female to be hosting the podcast.
“Female” is not a proper noun, and so should not be capitalized.
16) David’s keynote program is not so much a typical general session ‘speech’ as it is a full-blown high-energy one-man show.
In American English, use double quotation marks first. If you need quotation marks inside those quotation marks, then and only then do you use single quotation marks.
Also, here you’ve got three adjectives—full-blown, high energy, one-man—modifying “show.” I’d drop the “full-blown,” which doesn’t add anything.
17) Here you experience presentations by some of the best presenters the National Speaker Association has to offer and you get to interact with a wide range of accomplished professional speakers from the Central Florida area.
This is called a run-on sentence. Either break this into two sentences, or stick a comma after “offer.”
18) Please make sure to select the proper affiliation you have with our Chapter (different fee’s apply).
Wow, the plural of fee is fees. Also, I’m not keen on capitalizing “chapter.”
19) Our greatest marketing challenge is to know intimately what the client needs, what keyword phrases are important to THEM and also how we see ourselves.
“Client” is singular. You cannot say “them” (it’s got to be him or her), and you sure as heck shouldn’t make matters worse by capitalizing your mistake!
20) He alls the “Findability” or industry experts call it SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
This sentence, aside from the typo, is awful. I really can’t rewrite it because it doesn’t make any sense. Why is “Finability,” which is not even a word, capitalized? And, I always suggest placing the acronym after the phrase that’s being abbreviated.
21) He is a top rated presenter, having delivered 100+ presentations to the CEO organization Vistage and scoring as their highest rated speaker.
I don’t believe it, but, whatever. “Vistage” is a company and so is singular: its highest rated speaker.
22) The Global Speakers Federation (GSF) is the world-wide professional body serving the interests of their individual members while advancing the professional speaking community globally Through the relationships with member associations and global meetings industry partners, the GSF provides education to support the unique skills for presenting to audiences outside of the cultural and linguistic set of a speaker’s home country.
Again, “body” in this instance is singular, and so the phrase should be “its individual members.” Plus, there was no period after “globally.”
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