Questions and Answers

Email questions to Pacini.Novelist@gmail.com

This section is especially devoted to teen and new creative artists. All answers are provided by D.B. Pacini unless otherwise noted. More questions and answers will be added soon.

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Q: My teacher marked the word "between" wrong on my last story. She suggested that I use the word "among" instead. I thought the word "between" was the correct word. Can you tell me why it wasn't?

A: No, I can't. You didn't send me the passage that included the word. Buy a copy of The Elements of Style by E.B. White. White shares, "When more than two things or persons are involved, among is usually called for: 'The money was divided among the four players.' When, however, more than two are involved but each is considered individually, between is preferred: 'an agreement between the six heirs.'"

Also, talk with your teacher. Ask her to give you more examples.

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Q: My teacher said that we should allign our meanings with grammatically important words. What does he mean?

A: Ask him what he means. Ask him during class so your classmates can hear his answer. The strongest words in a sentence are usually a subject and a verb.

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Q: Is it okay to put Dec.- Tues.- Vets. Day- St.- Blvd.- yrs- in my writing?

A: I suggest that you use December, Tuesday, Veterans Day, Street, Boulevard, years.

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Q: I wrote a story that wasn't true about gang members. It was a story that I made up completely. We had to write a story that was at least 1500 words. My English teacher said it was really good but that she didn't approve of the racist language. I am not a RACIST! Why did she say I was?

A: Did your teacher say you are a racist or did she simply say that she did not approve of the racist language that you included in the story? Racist language is language that is offensive to a specific ethnic group of people. It can be derogatory names or it can be demeaning sterotypes.

Disgusting examples: Wetback, nigger, cracker, dumb Pole, dago, lemonhead, redneck, zipperhead, berry picker, whitetrash, gook, and butterhead.

Butterhead is racist/derogatory slang for blacks. On The Sopranos TV show, Tony Soprano called Noah (Meadow's girlfriend) a butterhead.

A story that is completely made up is called fiction.

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Q. I put theirselves in my story and my friend says it is wrong. This is what I have and I think it is correct. The two skateboarders knew theirselves that they were going to crash.

A. I think your friend feels you should have used the word themselves. Try---The two skateboarders knew they were going to crash.

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Q. If everybody knows clichés then why can't we use them? If we use them they'll help people know what we are saying. If you say he can't act his way out of a paper bag everybody knows that you're saying he is a terrible actor. I think clichés are good. What is wrong with saying that he walked out on the stage for his audition and everybody could tell that he couldn't act his way out of a paper bag?

A. Try to avoid clichés unless you are using them on purpose. Your writing will be amateurish if it’s littered with tiresome clichés. Strive to be original.

For example: One could tell after watching the young man's audition that he had about as much acting experience as the director's unborn child.

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Q. I know this is a dumb question, but what is the difference between envelop and envelope and who's and whose? Also, your and you're?

A. Not dumb, smart.

Envelop: To enclose or encase completely with or as if with a covering.

Envelope: A flat paper container, especially for a letter, usually having a gummed flap. Something that envelops; a wrapping.

Who's: A contraction of who is or who has.
(In this case a contraction is a shortening of a word or phrase by the omission of one or more sounds or letters. Other examples: She's for she is, and aren't for are not.)

Whose: The possessive case of who.

Your: Of or relating to you.

You're: You are.

Examples in a sentence:

A swirling fog envelops the forest as the sun begins to set.

A box of envelopes is on my desk.

Who's going with you to the game?

A chameleon is a lizard whose skin changes colors when it is nervous, angry, or afraid.

Please leave your muddy boots on the front porch.

Will you take the dog for a walk when you're finished with your homework?

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Q. What does B.C. and A.D. mean?

Answer: B.C. is an abbreviation used to date events that took place before the birth of Jesus Christ. B.C. stands for "before Christ."

B.C.E. is an abbreviation sometimes used in place of B.C. It stands for "before the Christian era."

A.D. is an abbreviation used to date the number of years that have passed since the birth of Jesus Christ. It may appear before the date or after the date (Examples: A.D. 1999 or 1999 A.D.). It stands for anno Domini, a Latin phrase meaning "in the year of our Lord."

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Q. What does understatement mean?

A. Undestating is a form of irony that intentionally represents something as less than it is. For example, American swimmer Michael Phelps won eight Olympic gold medals in Beijing in 2008. He has won a total of 48 career medals: 40 gold, six silvers, and two bronze. This includes all of the Championships in which he has competed: The Olympics, the World Championships, and the Pan Pacific Championships.

To say that Michael Phelps is a pretty good swimmer is a huge understatement.

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Q. Why didn't e.e. cummings capitalize his name?

A. e.e. cummings was an American author of the twentieth century who encouraged the use of many unconventional styles of writing with his poetry. He often avoided capitalizing words and names, and experimented with grammar, syntax, and typographic conventions.

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Q. Why do people say big brother is watching you?

A. Big brother is watching you is a warning that appears on posters throughout Oceania, the fictional dictatorship described by George Orwell in his book Nineteen-Eighty-Four (also titled 1984). The 1949 English novel is about life under a futuristic totalitarian regime in the year 1984.

The term Big Brother is also used to refer to any government that invades the privacy of its citizens.

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Q. My teacher says yahoo is not only the internet yahoo that we have for search engines and email addresses but yahoo is a word invented by Jonathan Swift who was apparently a writer. Is that true?

A. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was indeed a writer. I'm sorry, I don't know if he invented the word yahoo. The yahoos are the crude and dirty brutes of the land of the Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift. They are irrational people; they represent the worst side of humanity. Their masters are rational horses, they represent humanity at its best. Perhaps Jonathan Swift did invent the word yahoo.

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