CONTENTS FEATURE: Don't let 'me,' 'myself' and 'I' confuse you SPOTLIGHT: EditPros clients in the news NET NOTES: Captivating web sites FEATURE: Don't let 'me,' 'myself' and 'I' confuse you      Beware of overcompensation. Just as a nervous driver can create a hazard on the roadways by erratically exaggerating an adjustment, a tentative writer or speaker can overcompensate when straining to use proper grammar. That's evident in sentences such as: "The president nominated Frankie and I to serve on the disciplinary commission." "Between you and I, the commission could have benefited from Frankie's experience." "That's a matter for my lawyer and I to discuss."      Maybe so, but first take it up with a grammarian.      The problem is that people who easily recognize the difference between subjective and objective evaluations are not always successful in distinguishing between subjective and objective pronouns. As a result, their language betrays them as plainly as a prankster's note declaring "I played hooky from fifth-grade English" taped to their back.      Those are glaring errors because the rules governing the use of first-person pronouns "I" and "me" are quite simple. A pronoun is a "placeholder" that takes the place of a person's name. The use of the pronoun enables Richard to say, "I became a chef" and "the restaurant owner hired me" instead of "Richard became a chef" and "The restaurant hired Richard."      But pronouns have distinct subjective and objective "cases" that must be observed. Notice that Richard didn't say, "Me became a chief." He chose "I became a chef" because "I" is the subjective case, which is used when the pronoun is the subject of a sentence.      He also properly said, "The restaurant owner hired me" because "me" is the objective case form of the first-person pronoun. A pronoun must be used in the objective case when it is the direct or indirect object of a verb, or is the object of a preposition—in other words, when it is receiving rather than initiating action. Here are some correct examples: "Carol ridiculed me." Carol initiated the action, the recipient or object of which was "me." "Later, Carol offered me her apology." The subject "Carol" initiated the action ("offered"), the direct object of which was "apology" and the indirect object of which was "me." (The understood meaning is "she offered her apology to me.") "Carol offered her apology to me." Here, "me" is the object of the preposition "to."      Unbroken bad habits dating from childhood contribute to improper use of the objective pronoun "me" among adults. Posing a question to a class of schoolchildren and asking who knows the answer invariably induces shouts of "Me!" The grammatically correct response would be the subjective case "I," because the thought expressed is "I do."      Yet many adults fail to shed themselves of that improper childhood usage habit. That's evident in a sales representative's declaration that "Helene and me were responsible for resolving the dispute with the client." If Helene were not involved, you'd say, "I was responsible for revolving the dispute." Consequently, the proper statement is, "Helene and I were responsible."      But many adults are fooled into choosing "I" when they're uncertain just because they think it sounds better and more erudite than "me." The example sentence "The president nominated Frankie and I to serve on the disciplinary commission" is grammatically incorrect because the objective-case pronoun "me" should be used instead of the subjective-case pronoun "I." With only one nominee, the proper sentence would be, "The president nominated me." Add Frankie, and the proper construction is "The president nominated Frankie and me."      Likewise, the correct pronoun choice is "me" in the sentence "Between you and me, the commission could have benefited from Frankie's experience." That's because "you and me" are objects of the preposition "between"—they're the words to which "between" points.      For the same reason, "That's a matter for my lawyer and me to discuss" is the correct construction because "lawyer and me" are objects of the preposition "for." For verification, try a similar sentence with only one direct object, such as "This package is for ___." You wouldn't insert "I"; the correct pronoun is "me," because it is the object of the preposition "for."      Correspondingly, don't say, "As for Wilma and I, both of us support the reorganization." Instead say, "As for Wilma and me."      The reflexive pronoun "myself," meanwhile, should be used only under specific circumstances—when the person receiving the action is the same as the person initiating the action. In the sentence "I told myself to avoid risks," the pronoun "I" shows who initiated action, and the reflexive pronoun "myself" shows that the same person received it. It also can be applied as an intensive pronoun, as in, "I myself discovered the missing cash," as a way of emphasizing that no one else was involved in the disclosure. Under other circumstances, use of the reflexive pronoun is improper, as in this example: "Sheldon encouraged Stephanie and myself to apply for the grant." Since Sheldon initiated the action that you received, the correct pronoun is "me" rather than "myself"—Sheldon encouraged Stephanie and me.      Just remember, if you're initiating the action, use "I," as in "Joan and I went to the conference" (not "Joan and me went"). If you're receiving the action that someone or something else initiated, use "me," as in "Virginia forgot to inform Angelo, Christine and me" (not "Angelo, Christine and I").      Between you and me, the rule is as simple as that. Yes! EditPros can make certain that the subjective and objective pronouns in your written materials are used properly. SPOTLIGHT: EditPros clients in the news Ecosystems book co-edited by UC Davis scholars is published      A book titled "Managing for Healthy Ecosystems," four editors of which are associated with the University of California, Davis, has been published. The book was released by Lewis Publishing, an imprint of CRC Press, which is a pre-eminent publisher of books for academicians in science, medicine, environmental science, engineering, business, technology, mathematics and statistics. "Managing for Healthy Ecosystems," with a cover price of $299.95, is a compilation of scholarly papers presented at the August 1999 International Congress on Ecosystem Health hosted in Sacramento by UC Davis.      About one-fifth of the 276 contributors and four of the six primary editors—including Calvin O. Qualset and Ardeshir B. Damania—have a UC Davis connection. EditPros edited manuscripts for the book, working with Qualset and Damania of the UC Genetic Resources Conservation Program.      The other principal editors are David J. Rapport, William L. Lasley, Dennis E. Rolston and N. Ole Nielsen.      "Managing for Healthy Ecosystems" (ISBN 1-5667-0612-2) concerns one of the critical issues confronting civilization: the dwindling capacity of Earth to sustain life for a growing human population that is exerting increasing pressures on the environment. Peer-reviewed research findings presented in the book discuss the socioeconomic, ecological and human health implications of environmental degradation, and offer some suggestions for alleviation in the context of global political and economic realities. Net Notes: Captivating Internet resources OnlineConversion.com http://www.onlineconversion.com/      If you've ever needed to convert acreage to square footage, or stones to pounds, or knots to miles per hour, you know how handy the conversion calculators on this site can be. Here you can transform dates from the Julian calendar to the contemporary Gregorian calendar, and even obtain precise measurements for a "drop," "dash" or "pinch" of a cooking ingredient. The site can perform 30,000 conversions involving 5,000 units of measure. Medicare Nursing Home Compare http://www.medicare.gov/Nhcompare/Home.asp      This official U.S. government site enables access to detailed information about the past performance of every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home in the country. The site is operated by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Grant-writing Tools http://www.npguides.org/      Learn the steps of preparing grant proposals by visiting this site, a noteworthy resource for volunteers and staff members of nonprofit organizations. A tutorial sequence describes the proper way to prepare a letter of inquiry, a budget and a grant proposal. The site is operated by SeaCoast Web Design of Portsmouth, N.H., which specializes in developing Web sites for nonprofit organizations. 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