IT'S GRAMMAR TIME - LEAD VS. LED

The pair of words, lead and led, has tripped me up in the past because the word lead, usually pronounced leed can be pronounced led when talking about the metal of lead, defined by Dictionary.com as "a heavy, comparatively soft, malleable, bluish-gray metal, sometimes found in its natural state but usually combined as a sulfide, especially in galena." The proper word is also lead when using the metal in a cliche as in "He has a lead foot," describing a perpetual speeder. Because lead sounds like led and my fingers sometimes fly faster than my brain, they insist on writing lead when I mean led.

The word lead (pronounced leed, not describing the metal), can be used as a present tense verb, noun, or an adjective. According to Dictionary.com, the present tense verb means to go first, show the way, guide, or influence.For example, on my desk is a Isabel Bloom heart I received at a Women's Connection conference that says, "Lead with your heart."

According to Dictionary.com, as a noun, lead (leed) means the position in first place or ahead of others, something that leads (or goes first, shows the way, guides, or influence), or a particular type of leash. As an adjective, Dictionary.com says lead describes the most important thing, that which goes first, or that which leads. As a noun, an example would be, "I got the lead in the school musical." And, as an adjective, "I got the lead role in the school musical."

Led, on the other hand, is simply the past tense and past participle version of the verb, lead, not to be confused with the capitalized version, LED, that Dictionary.com includes which describes a type of light bulb.

Fortunately, just like this lead vs. led mistake can be easy for your fingers to make as you're flying along writing on your keyboard, it's just as easy for your brain to correct it during the editing and proofreading process. Just remember the only time you use the led-pronounced version of lead is when talking about the metal. If you are using the word as the past tense of the leed-pronounced verb of lead, then use led.

May you always be in the lead position after you have led your followers to lead.

-The Wordsy Woman

COMMA SUTRA - POSITION FOUR

Time to attempt to master another comma position: between adjectives. When using adjectives to describe a noun in sentences, at times you will need commas between them, at times you will not, and at times there will be commas between some of them but not others. Unlike with the intuitive comma use, often you can't tell when a comma should or shouldn't be used just by reading the sentence out loud. Fortunately, however, there is a rule you can use.

When using two or more adjectives, commas should be placed between those that describe the noun independently and separately. No comma is appropriate when the multiple adjectives are dependent upon each other. Diana Hacker (2009) in her A Pocket Style Manual refers to the distinction as coordinating adjectives and cumulative adjectives (p. 59-60). To test whether the adjectives are coordinate or independent, read them with the word "and" between them.

For example, from Missing Emily: Croatian Life Letters on page 13:

"I did not think again about the letter until I arrived home from school the first of March to find a thin envelope with a border around the outside like a red, white, and blue candy cane and several cancelled stamps addressed to me on our kitchen counter."

If you use "and" instead of the commas:

"I did not think again about the letter until I arrived home from school the first of March to find a thin envelope with a border around the outside like a red and white and blue candy cane and several cancelled stamps addressed to me on our kitchen counter."

This makes sense so the commas are appropriate. In fact, commas are needed so your words don't read like they were written by a preschooler. In this case, you could also determine the commas are needed by reading it aloud. If you try to read it without, "outside like a red white blue candy cane," you might pass out from loss of breath (especially because it is quite a long sentence anyway).

According to Hacker (2009), cumulative adjectives don't describe the noun separately and reading them with "and" would be cumbersome and nonsensical. For example, from Missing Emily on page 12:

"A passing elbow collided with mine, sending my books flying to the floor in slow motion."

Reading "A passing and elbow collided with mine" doesn't made sense so a comma would not be appropriate. As has been the case with all of the Comma Sutra positions thus far, whether to use a comma or not is still a subjective decision to a certain degree. The "and"s might make sense to some but not to others. The important thing is to consider the use of commas in your sentences and make purposeful choices about whether or not to use them.

Happy Comma-ing,
-The Wordsy Woman

Source:

Hacker, D. (2009). A Pocket Style Manual (5th ed.). Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

GO FORTH AND EDIT

I'm an obsessive editor. I didn't say I'm a perfect editor; I'm just obsessed about editing. Or more exactly, proofreading. You see, I make a lot of typos. A LOT. Seriously, the best things ever invented were the backspace and delete keys. My typing fingers just have minds of their own - or maybe they are just faster than my brain. They just get going and they get so far ahead that they start to make mistakes, stumbling over each other. I have been able to train them a bit over the years, though. Sometimes they just tap the backspace key before I've even realized I made a mistake.

I suppose the obsession started in college. I learned to proofread everything because a well crafted sentence may just be the one thing that sets you apart and earns you that higher grade. I started proofreading my emails when I started to work as a legal secretary in DeKalb, Illinois. The boss gently suggested one day I might want to proofread my emails before I sent them out. The thought, somehow, had never occurred to me before. This is when email was just getting started. I'd sent handwritten or even typed letters and wouldn't have thought of stamping them and throwing them in the mailbox without reading them first - but email? Go figure. But I did it and I realized, "Wow, I'm a typomaniac." So I started proofreading all of my emails. When I became a paralegal, I continued. In a law firm, the appearance of meticulous accuracy is of utmost importance, so, naturally, you want that to trickle through down to every last email.

So it became a habit. I proofread work emails, home emails, and emails to myself. I'm not saying they never get through without a single mistake but they do get through with a lot less than if I hadn't done that final check. When texting came along, I continued. I proofread every text I send, even to my kids, and even to make sure I have the correct texting shorthand.

The ability to proofread and edit is one of the many things I love about written words. If I only could do it before my mouth opens and I speak, the world would be far better place. So my advice about proofreading is you don't have to be obsessive like me, but when you are communicating in business or with anyone who has any control over your fate, don't skimp on proofreading.

-The Wordsy Woman