Don't dress up as Captain Obvious this Halloween

One of my pet peeves in writing and speaking is obviousness. If possible, don't tell me what I already know. Of course, some obvious information might be needed to introduce new material or used as background later in the story, and that's fine, but obvious information shouldn't dominate a story.

Here's an example of a headline I saw Wednesday from Yahoo News:

Northeast struggling to get back to normal

Ya think?

It has been less than 36 hours since Hurricane Sandy, one of the worst storms in U.S. history, did major damage to New York City, New Jersey and other areas. So, some editor decides it would be a good idea to go with the stale and overused "struggles to get back to normal" headline. The only thing more obvious (and more cliche) is "(insert city here) begins to clean up."

Another area of obviousness is photo captions, especially regarding sports photos. I can't tell you how many times I've seen photos of baseball pitchers with the caption: John Smith pitches the ball in Tuesday night's game against Jonesville. In many cases, it's not necessary to tell me what someone is doing in a photo - I can usually figure that out for myself. Tell me who the person is, what group the person is with, when the event happened, the result of the event and other information, such as statistics or the highlight of the event, that can't be seen in the photo.

Writing or saying the obvious is a sign of laziness. Usually, the cure to obviousness is specificity. If you don't generalize, you'll have a much better chance not stating what is apparent to everyone.

Playing the percentages

Sorry for not posting for such a long time. I kept putting off a new post because I was focusing on other things, and suddenly, 2 ½ weeks have sped by.

I’ll get back to posting with an issue that pops up from time to time, and it can be confusing: Should you use a singular verb or plural verb with the word percent?

This is fairly simple when a noun/pronoun follows the phrase percent of. When a noun/pronoun that follows percent of is singular, use a singular verb. When a noun/pronoun that follows percent of is plural, use a plural verb. For example:

Twenty-five percent of the ocean is polluted.

Twenty-five percent of the oceans are polluted.

Twenty-five percent of it is polluted.

Twenty-five percent of them are polluted.

The professor said 25 percent of the student body takes night classes.

The professor said 25 percent of the students take night classes.

OK, that’s clear. But, what about when percent stands on its own? The Associated Press Stylebook says percent takes a singular verb when standing alone. Treat percent as a singular noun:

The teacher said 60 percent is a failing grade.

OK, so what about when percent is standing alone, but a noun/pronoun is implied after percent? For example:

The students are going on the field trip. Twenty-five percent (has or have) sent in permission slips.

The AP doesn’t address this issue, so I will. Although percent is standing alone, the implied construction (derived from the previous sentence and common sense) is percent of students. Students is plural, so the verb should be have. If there is no noun/pronoun after percent but a noun/pronoun is implied from context and common sense, determine whether it is singular or plural and then use the appropriate verb.