AboutCatherine Van Herrin Expertise I am a professional writer, editor, and proofreader with 23 years' experience. My specialty is copyediting and proofreading manuscripts. I am extremely detail-oriented. I use AP Style.
I provide crystal-clear, clean grammar; and strict attention to style, consistency, flow, logic, accuracy, and spelling.
No sentence diagraming or basic explanation of verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.
Experience
Experience: BA, English. Twenty-three years' professional experience in editing, writing, and proofreading. Full-time freelancer. I provide crystal-clear, clean grammar; strict attention to style, consistency, flow, logic, accuracy, and spelling, and I work quickly and efficiently.
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION:
Speeches, Biography, Autobiography, Short stories, Novels, Medical journal drafts and articles, Art history, Headline/subhead writing/lead paragraphs, pulled quotes, book critiques/reviews, How-to (special circumstances only; inquire specifically}, Career, work/lifestyles, resumes, CVs, Health, Calendars/copy, Photography/copy, Metaphysical, astrological reports or copy,
Family, historical summaries, self-publishing, Academic manuscripts [university level and above only], Self-help, holistic, spiritual, romance, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Ghostwriter/co-author [special circumstances only; inquire specifically], Consultancies, contributing writer, Op/Ed columnist, poetry.
Publications Online e-zines; poetry presses; please inquire for details.
Education/Credentials BA, English, University of Georgia.
Graduate Study, English, Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX
Past/Present Clients Will provide full list of references upon request.
Expert: Catherine Van Herrin Date: 5/10/2008 Subject: Which sentence is correct?
Question Dear Catherine Van Herrin,
I have a questions to ask you. Look at this:
I was about to attend the meeting yesterday, but some urgent matter prevented me from coming.
I was to have attended the meeting yesterday, but some urgent matter prevented me from coming.
Which of these two sentences is correct??
I asked an American friend, and she said the first one is correct. But she can't tell me why the second one is wrong. Could you tell me why?
BTW, some people even tell me the first one is wrong, because "was about to" can't go with "yesterday" in a sentence. Is it true??(I doubt it!)
Thank you very much, Catherine Van Herrin.
Answer Dear Sandy,
Gracious, this is one of those cases in which I think sometimes the language is taken quite a little TOO seriously; I'm certainly a lover of language, but I don't think it's necessary that we follow every "rule," so to speak, because many of them tend to change as the population changes, time passes, new "words" are included in dictionaries, etc.
Many words and phrases seem -- and are -- are a bit anachronistic today, such as Winston Churchill's famous and oft-quoted sentence, stemming from his insistence to never end a sentence with a preposition: "This is a situation up with which I shall not put!"
Of course, according to all the grammar books, he is absolutely correct, but do we live by books alone? We must change as the culture changes, as inventions are created or new medical findings are discovered -- we have to give these "names" as well, etc. This is just my brief theory on what it really means to be "right" or "wrong," but it's not addressing your question, so on to that! SMILE
The second sentence does sound awkward, but it's not "wrong"; again, this is one of those phraseologies that were and still are used much more readily among the very erudite: I mean, I would say that myself if I felt it "matched" the dialogue and speech patterns with the group/person to whom I was speaking; it isn't incorrect at all.
The first sentence is also correct; for example, you can most certainly say, "I was about to eat that yesterday, but I'm so glad I didn't!" or "She was about to jump out of that plane yesterday before her parachute was properly engaged! We were just beside ourselves!"
