{"id":1487,"date":"2016-08-29T22:00:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T02:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/?p=1487"},"modified":"2018-07-05T15:59:29","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T19:59:29","slug":"summer-reading-v","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/summer-reading-v\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Reading V"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"15468765294_59647ee07e_z-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Do you have a perfect score for August? If so, the pressure’s on to close out the month with one more A+. Make your choices.<\/p>\n

1. In lieu of\/In light<\/em> of<\/em> the growing friction between Andrew and Becky, we are assigning him to a different team.
\n2. Supposably\/Supposedly<\/em>, Carol once performed in an off-Broadway musical, but I am skeptical.
\n3. I heard the Old Mill Road construction won’t be completed for a while\/awhile<\/em>.
\n4. Because this year’s convention is within driving distance, we are sending an unusually large contingency\/contingent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The answers<\/h2>\n

1. In lieu of<\/em> means “instead of” or “in place of.” Here we want in light of<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

2. Supposable<\/em> (meaning “able to be supposed or imagined”) and supposably<\/em> are in the dictionary, but most of us will never need either word. We do often want another word for “purportedly,” however, and that would be\u00a0supposedly<\/em><\/span>\u00a0\u2013 which\u00a0frequently carries a touch of irony in that something is supposed to be true, but we aren’t buying it.<\/p>\n

3. Yes, awhile<\/em> is a word, but in the above example we want two words: a<\/span> while<\/span><\/em>. Here’s the difference (grammar alert!): Awhile<\/em> is an adverb, so it modifies a verb. (“Seeing as the drinks are free, let’s stay awhile.”) But following a preposition like “for” or “after,” we need an object of that preposition, so we want a while<\/em>. (“We’ve decided to stay for a while.”)<\/p>\n

A while<\/em>\u00a0is also the choice when we need a direct object. (“Please give me a while to make my decision.”)<\/p>\n

4. The word for a delegation or representative group is a\u00a0c<\/span>ontingent<\/span><\/em>, not a\u00a0contingency. <\/em>We want\u00a0contingency<\/em> when we are expressing uncertainty or referring to something unknown. (“I thought I was prepared, but I hadn’t allowed for that contingency.”)<\/p>\n

Note that contingent\u00a0<\/em>can also be used to express uncertainty. (“My attendance at the event is contingent on my being in town.”)<\/p>\n

In addition to presenting workshops on writing in the workplace, Norm Friedman is a writer, editor, and writing coach. His\u00a0100+ Instant Writing Tips<\/a>\u00a0is a brief \u201cnon-textbook\u201d to help individuals overcome common writing errors and write with more finesse and impact. Learn more at\u00a0http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/index.shtml<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you have a perfect score for August? If so, the pressure’s on to close out the month with one more A+. Make your choices. 1. In lieu of\/In light of the growing friction between Andrew and Becky, we are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1487"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1499,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions\/1499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}