Professional editor's corner articles

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Professional Editor's Corner Articles
https//polishedpaper.com
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• The British Council (2006) found that 375 million
  individuals speak English as a first language,
  another 375 million as a second language, and 750
  million as a foreign language. That amounts to
  about 1.5 billion, or one-fifth of the worlds
  population. Clearly proficiency in English is of
  increasing importance.
• In the course of our work at Polished Paper, we
  see a lot of writing from non-native speakers of
  English. In fact, we have regular customers on
  every continent! Well, except for Antarctica.
  That has allowed us to note a few common problem
  areas. In this blog entry and others to come,
  well look at some basics, important aspects of
  English to get right so that you dont
  immediately stand out as a non-native English
  speaker.

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• Well start with definite and indefinite
  articles. They are important in English, but a
  great many languages use neither (198 to be
  exact). A couple of major examples are Chinese
  and Russian. For native speakers of such
  languages, understanding the difference between
  definite and indefinite articles can pose a
  challenge.
• Lets start with the difference between abstract
  and concrete nouns.
• Abstract nouns are general. They refer to ideas,
  feelings, or qualities. Examples include peace,
  civilization, society, love, communism,
  democracy, beauty, and Manifest Destiny.
• Concrete nouns are specific. They refer to a
  person, place, or thing that you can perceive
  with one of the five senses. You can see them,
  smell them, touch them, hear them, and/or taste
  them. Examples include sneeze, planet, curry,
  city, Pyramids, soil, and vice-president.
• So what are the kinds of articles and which do we
  use with abstract and concrete nouns?

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• Nouns in English appear 1) with NO article, 2)
  with the INDEFINITE article (a before nouns
  starting with a consonant, an before nouns
  starting with a vowel), or 3) with the DEFINITE
  article (the).
• Basic Rules
• 1. Abstract nouns (in their most basic form) do
  not require an article at all.
• Society is a collection of individuals who have
  common goals and values.
• Civilizations come and go.
• 2. Concrete nouns can take either a/an or the
  in different circumstances. It depends HOW
  SPECIFIC the noun is. That is, it depends whether
  you are talking about ONE OF MANY or JUST ONE (no
  other exists).
• Can I have AN apple? (Any apple is fine.)
• Can I have THE apple on the counter? (I want one
  specific apple the apple on the counter. No
  other apple will do.)
• 3. We sometimes make abstract nouns less general
  by adding detail. When we do that, we use either
  a/an or the depending on how specific we are.

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• ONE OF MANY
• A love that has no conditions is the best.
• An idea I like is getting kids to do creative
  writing in first grade.
• JUST ONE
• The ancient civilization of Egypt emerged about
  five thousand years ago.
• The democracy of the United States is much
  different from the democracy that the Athenians
  practiced.
• Rules for Plural Ideas
• 1. When you would use a/an for a noun in the
  singular, drop it in the plural.
• I want a black horse. (Any black horse is okay.)
• With the plural, we still have this idea of ONE
  OF MANY. But instead of one member of a single
  group, we have one group within a larger group.
• Black horses are my favourite kind. (Out of all
  horseswhite, grey, brown, and blackblack horses
  are my favourite.)

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• 2. When you would not use an article or when you
  would use the for a noun in the singular, do
  the same for the plural.
• Friendship is more important than work.
• Friendships are more important than work.
• In both cases, these are general, abstracts.
• For the in the plural, we are still talking
  about JUST ONE (only now, we mean just one
  group).
• The girl who lives next door is pretty. (Of all
  the girls in the world, there is only one girl
  that lives next door.)
• The girls who live on my street are pretty. (Of
  all the groups of girls in the world, there is
  only one group of girls on my street.)

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