Day 226: Use were for the unreal situations and statements contrary to fact.

Writers get confused between using was and were for describing situations that are not real. Let’s look at an example to understand what I mean by an unreal situation. Consider this scenario.

My uncle had a barbeque last weekend. I did not go, but your brother was there. I have never met your brother. Today, you come to me and ask, “Hey, what do you think of my brother?” and I respond, “I don’t know him.” You look confused and ask, “Didn’t you meet him at the barbeque?” And I explain, “If I WERE at the barbeque, I would have met him.”

In this scenario, we are describing an unreal situation and making a statement contrary to fact. We already know that I was NOT at the barbeque, so writing and talking about being there is describing an action that didn’t happen. It is unreal. In cases such as this, we use were and not was. (For grammar junkies, this is called the subjunctive mood.)

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Here are two more examples to demonstrate this concept.

“If I WERE a millionaire, I would buy a better car.”
(I’m NOT a millionaire (yet), so this situation is unreal.)

“We should continue to work as if he WERE still supervising us.”
(He is NOT supervising us at the moment, so this is unreal.)

Day 227: Focus on success to avoid describing failure.

This is a form of spin that helps you create a more positive impression than the facts merit. Everything you write will create an impression. This technique guides your reader into interpreting the facts in a complimentary manner.

Let me give you an example that paraphrases a radio advertisement I heard recently. A woman said, in paraphrase,

“I lost 25 pounds using the Super Stepper.”

Some listeners will think, “Wow! That’s pretty good.” Because I am an astute consumer, I wondered how long it took to lose those pounds. Maybe the weight loss occurred over a year, in which case I would consider the Super Stepper a failure. However, the advertisement doesn’t give all the facts; it focuses on success, and it has told the truth. Here’s another example.

“Our new economic plan has created 25,000 new jobs.”

That’s sounds pretty good. The plan seems to be successful, right? What is not being said is that during the same time, 50,000 jobs were lost. This means that for every new job, two were lost. This is a failure. However, when someone hears this statement, he or she will think the plan is a success. The statement focuses on success, not failure, and it has told the truth.

Here’s the bottom line. Describe your successes to avoid describing failure.

Day 228: Use an en dash to connect words that modify a third term.

The en dash is the “middle-length” dash: shorter than the em dash and longer than a hyphen. While the primary use of the en dash is to show a range of values (e.g., 15–18), its secondary use is to connect two non-self-modifying words that together modify a third term. Consider this example.

“The Bush–Kennedy education plan has received much criticism.”

In this example, the terms “Bush” and “Kennedy” together modify a third term: “plan.” However, they do not modify each other, i.e., “Bush” does not describe “Kennedy” and vice versa. For this reason, they need to be connected with an en dash. Here is another example.

“U.S.–Saudi negotiations are proceeding smoothly.”

Here, the words “U.S.” and “Saudi” do not describe each other, but together they describe “negotiations.” For this reason, they need to be connected with an en dash.

Most word processors will convert space-hyphen-space to the en dash. Also, you can usually find the en dash under symbols or on the character map. However, make sure the en dash has NO spaces between it and the words on either side.

Some text editors do not convert the hyphen to the en dash. If you cannot produce the en dash, you can simply use space-hyphen-space.