(July column)
Summer seems a good time to step away from the weightier issues and dip into the grammar grab bag for some common problems. Let's start with plurals:
Brown Publishing Co., along with Brown Media Holdings Co., also plan to sell their assets in 10 states to an unidentified bidder the companies have chosen.
Intervening "along with" phrases do not change the number of the subject:
Brown Publishing Co., along with Brown Media Holdings Co., also plans to sell their assets in 10 states to an unidentified bidder.
If "their" is bothersome, change it to "the." And the sentence can end at "bidder.” It’s news if the companies were told what to do; otherwise, that they get to choose is understood.
Each of the 12 jurors in the cockfighting case … were subpoenaed to appear in court Wednesday.
Each of these states stand to gain at least one U.S. House seat, with Texas picking up as many as four.
"Each" takes the singular -- don't be fooled by intervening "of" phrases." So each of the jurors "was" and each of the states "stands."
Higher education officials argue that tepid state support for colleges and universities have forced them to rely more on tuition and fees.
The number of new listings in the Columbia area and statewide have risen in the first four months of 2010.
Tepid state support "has" forced them, and the number of new listings "has" risen. In the last sentence, “number" remains the subject, despite multiple items after the preposition. If “number” is paired with "the," it almost always is singular. Paired with "a" signals plural ("a number have").
Banks are now struggling not only with the real estate investments that sparked the crisis, but also with the car loans, credit card debt and other consumer debt that has taken a hit with the faltering economy.
All three things -- car loans, credit card debt and consumer debt -- have taken a hit, but separately, so the plural "have" is preferred. If the plural bothers you, make it "consumer debts."
I'm seeing more muddled sentences when it comes to mixing singular and plural pronouns referring to the same thing:
And though House leadership has had its differences with Haley in the past … House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham said they could work with Haley.
"It" and "they" both refer to "leadership." It's a simple fix: And though House leaders have had their differences. You can also delete "in the past" -- "had" makes that clear.
Here's a case where the writer might invoke synesis, which allows a plural to be considered as a singular concept (think of "the data is sound,” now accepted for when the concept represents a mass, not just individual items):
Coupled with the Panthers' extensive cutting of veterans, there is a perception the team's talent level and competitiveness has dropped over the past weeks.
Talent level and competitiveness are related but separate concepts, however, and the verb should be "have." But here's an interesting one to discuss:
These days, an army of 450 workers fan out over the eight acres that will become the $786 million expansion of the center, geared to catapult Philadelphia into the major leagues of convention cities.
Is it "fan" or "fans"? Most of the dozen people I asked at the recent American Copy Editors Society convention still favored "fans," as do I. The 450 are working in the larger sense as a unit. But a minority argued for "fan," that each worked separately.
To illustrate, consider the phrase "a group of doctors." If "group" describes just a loose collection doing similar things but without close coordination, then "have" is the better verb. But if the doctors have come together to act in concert, then "has" is preferred.
No prestige in this: A recent story talked about "the cache of serving on the board."
The correct word is "cachet," which means status or the state of being admired. "Cache" is a collection, or, in computing, storage from which data can be quickly retrieved.
What a difference a letter makes. And with "cache" probably now more familiar to people than "cachet," it might be better to use "prestige" instead.
Doug Fisher, a former AP news editor, teaches journalism at the University of South Carolina and can be reached at (803) 777-3315. Read past issues of Common Sense Journalism.
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