Make Your Editor Cry: “All” and where to stick it
In negative statements, place the word all where it belongs. Physically stick it as closely as possible to the subject it actually modifies.
Suppose you have several bushels of apples. Suppose that some of the bushels of apples have rotten apples. But suppose some bushels are just fine with no rotten fruit.
So, in the negative, all has a very specific place it needs to appear in the sentence, which is as close to the bad apples as it can get.
Incorrect:
All the bushels didn't have rotten apples.
Correct:
The bushels didn't all have rotten apples.
In the incorrect example, the implication is that literally ALL of the bushels are just fine because ALL of them have no rotten apples whatsoever. In the correct example, you understand that some apples are rotten in some bushels while some other bushels are just fine.
Gregg Bridgeman is the Editor-in-Chief at Olivia Kimbrell Press. He is husband to best-selling Christian author Hallee Bridgeman and parent to three. He continues to proudly serve in the US Armed Forces and has done so in either an active or reserve capacity for more than twenty years as an airborne and air assault qualified paratrooper, earning a Bronze Star for his service. Most importantly, he was ordained in October of 2001 after surrendering his life to Christ decades earlier.