Brooks Messes Up in Politics and Punctuation

Tested Over Time

• 
  

By DAVID BROOKS

Published: March 28, 2008

McCain opened his speech with a description of his home on the day of Pearl Har father leavingbor, and then being gone for much of the next four years.

"Father's leaving, " not "father leaving": possessive before gerund

Comma after "Harbor" is redundant: it splits compound gerund phrases that act as object of the preposition "of."

Op-Ed Columnist

And the Good News Is ...

By GAIL COLLINS

Published: March 8, 2008

The good news is: While Barack may understand the audacity of hope, only Hillary really gets the audacity of audacity.

People abuse the colon all the time. You need a whole sentence before it most of the time. Here Ms. Collins does need the introductory sentence. ldd