LET'S COMMUNICATE 
Agriculture Communication Newsletter 
June 2004, No. 102

CONTENTS

Write the Right Word
The Core Rules of Netiquette
Ag Com Contacts
Chuckle of the Month

Write the Right Word
At our Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) international meeting, I took part in a breakout session titled "Grammar is for Lovers... of the Language." We were asked to complete a what-you-already-know quiz before the session, and I'll admit I missed several. See how you do.

1. Julie took a break for _____ she hadn't eaten since breakfast.
a. dinner, because
b. dinner because
2. The first _____ shocked us.
a. witness' testimony
b. witness's testimony
3. The first _____ shocked us.
a. witness' story
b. witness's story
4. The _____ live next door to us.
a. Jones
b. Joneses
5. _____ mother is here.
a. Bill and Susan's
b. Bill's and Susan's
6. The faculty _____ attending the meeting.
a. is
b. are
7. His whereabouts _____ unknown.
a. are
b. is
8. Tri-City Hospitals bargained with _____ employees' new union.
a. its
b. their
9. Between you and _____, this doesn't make sense.
a. I
b. me
10. _____ ignoring this problem won't make it go away.
a. You
b. Your

The Core Rules of Netiquette
In her book Netiquette, Virginia Shea lists 10 core rules. Rule 1 is Remember the human.

The golden rule your parents and your kindergarten teacher taught you applies to e-mail: Do unto others as you'd have others do unto you.

Would I say this to the person's face? If the answer is no, rewrite and reread. Repeat the process till you feel sure that you'd feel as comfortable saying these words to the live person as you do sending them through cyberspace.

When you communicate through cyberspace, your words are written. And chances are they're stored somewhere where you have no control over them. In other words, there's a good chance they can come back to haunt you.

You don't have to be engaged in criminal activity to want to be careful. Any message you send could be saved or forwarded by its recipient. You have no control over where it goes.

And remember, our work computers are owned by NDSU and the State of North Dakota, so this holds especially true for us.

We'll cover rules 2-10 in future issues of Let's Communicate, but if you just can't wait, see http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html .

Answers to Write the Right Word
Please don't complain to me if you don't agree with these. Even the professional writers in the session had different opinions, but the presenters went with the majority of several references.

1. Julie took a break for dinner because she hadn't eaten since breakfast.
b. When a dependent, restrictive clause (one that is necessary for the sentence to make sense) follows an independent clause, do not use a comma to separate them. In other words, the second part of the sentence is required for the first to make sense, so don't separate them with a comma.
2. The first witness's testimony shocked us.
b. With possessive singular nouns, add -'s to form a possessive of a singular common noun that ends in -s. However, add only an apostrophe if the next word begins with an -s or an -s sound.
3. The first witness' story shocked us.
a. See explanation in #2 above.
4. The Joneses live next door to us.
b. This is simply a plural proper noun, not a possessive proper noun, so no apostrophe.
5. Bill and Susan's mother is here.
a. First, decide if the sentence includes separate possessives or joint possessives. Since this sentence says mother is, Bill and Susan must have the same mother. Add -'s only to the last noun in the string of nouns if the nouns share possession.
6. The faculty is attending the meeting.
a. Collective nouns are singular in form but plural in meaning, and they generally take singular verbs. In this example, the collective noun faculty refers to a group working together in agreement, so a singular verb is needed. I won't argue whether or not it's possible for a group of faculty to agree. :-)
7. His whereabouts is unknown.
b. Uncountable nouns do not have a plural form, although they look like plurals. Some take singular verbs, some take plural verbs, and some take either a singular or plural verb, depending on the context. Whereabouts takes a singular verb.
8. Tri-City Hospitals bargained with its employees' new union.
a. This must be one singular hospital system, but also it's an entity, not people directly. Their refers to people.
9. Between you and me, this doesn't make sense.
b. A common mistake. Flip the sentence and leave out you and to test -- This doesn't make sense to me.
10. Your ignoring this problem won't make it go away.
b. Use the possessive case when the pronoun is followed by a gerund (or verb acting as a noun). I would just rewrite the sentence to leave out the pronoun and say, Ignoring this problem won't make it go away.

Ag Com Contacts
Just a reminder that all news release ideas should be directed to Rich Mattern at richard.mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu  or 231-6136 and all educational materials, such as publications, should start with Sharon Lane at slane@ndsuext.nodak.edu  or 231-7883.

Chuckle of the Month
We journalists are taught to leave out the comma before the conjunction in a simple series unless it's needed to clarify information. How would you rewrite this hypothetical book dedication? With gratitude to my parents, Mother
Teresa and the pope.