Everybody’s an expert

[ksmith]

From the last batch of spam:

I’ve been told that all one needs to break into the fiction scene is a draft and a phone call.

And grammar. That helps, too.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Comments

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

Morning brain cannot spot the grammatical error in your spam sentence. What do you not like about it?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure that because "draft" and "phone call" are joined by "and", that they needed to use "are" instead of "is".

I’ve been told that all one needs to break into the fiction scene are a draft and a phone call. You need both, not either or.

"Is" just doesn't seem right to me.

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

I want "is" to agree with the pronoun "one", I think. The phrasing "all one needs [...] are [something]" grates on me.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I take your point. "...all you need are..." would work better.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Ah! Thanks. I could tell the phrase was clumsy but was too embarrassed to ask why it was incorrect!

And can I say how much I enjoyed both your contributions to The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I am far from an expert grammarian. I hate to say it, but I write by feel and flow, and I am guessing that I often make mistakes. But the sentence just didn't flow right. So I dug around online and checked some decent grammar sources before I posted, but even then I thought long and hard. A sentence that's grammatically correct isn't always the one that flows nicely, and vice versa. I fully expected someone to post that there was nothing wrong with that sentence.

And thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed Continuing Education. I wrote it after a bad week at the day job, in case you couldn't tell....