THE ‘ONLY’ MISTAKE

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This article is specially written for the new writers among us. For those who want to master the writing techniques.

James J. Kilpatrick, a renowned columnist, states in his article that one among many techniques that a writer should master is the proper placement of ‘only.’ And this is true. Let us use ‘only’ in sentence because until then, we won’t be able to understand its proper placement.

For example: Only Steve hit Dan in the nose. Steve hit only Dan in the nose. Steve hit Dan only in the nose. Each sentence carries a different meaning. This means that the trick is to slip the ‘only’ (or any other defining adverb) close to the word you intend to modify.

Another example is: The Editor read my article, varying the placement of ONLY results in different quite different meaning. The Editor only read my article means that Editor did nothing else. The Editor read only my article means that he/she didn’t read anyone else’s. The placement of ONLY is confusing but it is a crucial one.

The truth is that many experienced writers also fail in the ‘only’ test. The Washington Post has a stable of first-rate sportswriters and all of them stumble over their only’s. One among the many writers is Sally Jenkins. She covers golf. For example, years ago in her scolding to Tiger Woods for sulking at Oak Hill, she wrote that, “He hung his head, flapped his arms, and tossed his clubs as he hit only four of 14 fairways.” The point was not that Woods ‘only hit’. The remarkable thing was that he hit only four.

And it’s not ONLY Washington Post but also numerous others including The Wall Street Journal. It reports that certain rules laid down by Attorney General John Ashcroft “only apply to terrorist investigation.” What they really meant to say is the rules apply only to terrorist investigation.

The New York Times is also notorious for messing up on ‘only’. A play based in Ireland “could only take place in a culture of shame.” Whereas it should have been in written, ‘A play based in Ireland could take place only in a culture of shame.’ Some companies that only own newspapers are concerned that television stations are too expensive to buy.” But what did they really mean to say? They meant, “Only own newspapers.”
The National Law Journal reported that in a recent case “the jury only deliberated for 90 minutes”. Well, the real sentence – “deliberated for only.”

The Stuart (Fla.) News quoted the head of an advertising agency: “Our philosophy is that we only have one client – the one we’re with at the time.” Tut, Tut! Oh my god! Did they really mean that they have only one client?

In short, ‘only’ should be placed with lot of care. Variation of ‘only’ can change the meaning of the sentence. Al though, many strict grammarians have a certain rule with the use of ‘Only’but if the context is sufficiently clear, there is no chance of being misunderstood.