What to Do When a Possessive Blocks Punctuation

What to Do When a Possessive Blocks Punctuation What to Do When a Possessive Blocks Punctuation What to Do When a Possessive Blocks Punctuation By Mark Nichol When one refers to a city followed by the name of the state or a larger entity in which the city is located, the larger entity is set off from the smaller one by a pair of commas. But how do you treat such a reference when the place name is possessive? Revise the reference. A DailyWritingTips.com reader sent me this note: â€Å"I came across this in this morning’s New York Times: â€Å"In Portland, Oregon’s Pearl District, Dave Trausneck said he draws inspiration from the many states he has called home.† I suppose there should be a comma after Oregon’s but it sure would look hinky. It’s an awkward little phrase. What do you think? Should it be recast to read, â€Å"In the Pearl District, in Portland, Oregon, Dave Trausneck said he draws inspiration from the many states he has called home†? Oddly, as far as I know, this question is not resolved in any writing or editing handbooks, but some online commentators agree with the reader and me that a comma after Oregon would be quite hinky. But the New York Times usage, as she suggests, possesses some hinkiness of its own. I would change it with a revision similar to hers, but with a construction that reduces the comma count: â€Å"In the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon, Dave Trausneck said he draws inspiration from the many states he has called home.† A similar aberration appears in such sentences as â€Å"The Albany, New York-based company was founded in 1999.† Technically, the hyphen, to demonstrate that â€Å"New York,† not just York, is being attached to based as a phrasal adjective, should be an en dash, but that subtlety is lost on many readers (and writers). Regardless, it’s better to write around this style break: â€Å"The company, based in Albany, New York, was founded in 1999.† Alternatively, consider whether â€Å"based in† is superfluous it’s relevant only if the company is headquartered in Albany, New York, but has other locations and delete the phrase if appropriate: â€Å"The Albany, New York, company was founded in 1999.† Then there’s the intrusive insertion of a parenthesis between the possessive form of a name and the noun it refers to, as in â€Å"The law went into effect when Russia’s (then the Soviet Union) road use was not as heavy because fewer citizens owned vehicles.† Should â€Å"Soviet Union† also be possessive? No, because it’s a parenthetical insertion of the different name of the country during the period being referred to. But revise the syntax to avoid the possessive form altogether: â€Å"The law went into effect when road use in Russia (then the Soviet Union) was not as heavy because fewer citizens owned vehicles.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:15 Terms for Those Who Tell the FutureConnotations of 35 Words for Funny People40 Irregular Verbs That Can End in â€Å"-t†

7 Steps to Stop Overthinking Everything in Your Life

7 Steps to Stop Overthinking Everything in Your Life You know you do it. It takes you half an hour to decide which sandwich to order at lunch. A week to decide what to do with your weekend. Years to decide in which direction you want to take your career. You tell yourself just to make a darn decision, but as soon as you do the chorus of doubts and second-guessing starts. If you want to make faster and better life decisions, it’s important to stop overthinking everything in your life. Here are 7 excellent strategies for how to clear your head.1. Zoom out and look at the big pictureBe a bit more mindful and start observing your thoughts from a distance. Rather than getting all caught up in the moment, observe your process and try to take the panic out of it. Simply noticing the restlessness of your mind without being swept away by that can help.2. Write it downIf you don’t have someone to talk your options through with, you can always talk them through with yourself- at least on paper. You’ll be able to organize (and see) your thought process and perhaps see the situation much more clearly.3. Stop thinking so muchSometimes designating â€Å"no-thinking times† is the way to go. If you have trouble sleeping, for example, limit yourself to not thinking about stressful things after 8 p.m. Or, you could schedule specific thinking time (say in 20 minute sections) and try to keep the hamster wheel still the rest of your day. When your time is up, move on to something more productive and try again in your next designated time slot.4.  Walk away for a momentIt’s really hard to concentrate on two things at once. Distract yourself from mental torture by doing literally anything else. Find an absorbing activity and use it as a cure-all for depressed or stressed moments.5. Be proactiveBreak a thought spiral by taking proactive steps towards getting something done. Pick one thing you can do now and focus on that. Do that one thing. And whenever you find yourself worrying endlessly about the f uture, take a break and repeat.6. Listen to and trust yourselfYour own opinion matters. Respect it. Trust yourself to make the right choice. And let go of the doubts.7. Know you can change your mindEven if you do make the â€Å"wrong† choice, don’t despair. It’s not worth gnashing your teeth over a decision when you’re really just worried you won’t choose correctly. Take away that fear by realizing that, no matter what happens, you can always change the wrong decision and correct things. No decisions are final. So no decisions require agonizing deliberation.