Is it "was" or "were"? And other grammar questions... Please help? :)

College Essays
1

<p>Hey everyone!</p>

<p>I had a former english teacher read over an essay of mine, and he made some corrections. I would assume he is correct in his changes, but some don't sound right to me...I'm probably wrong, but what do you think?</p>

<p>I said:
If I was going to give the speech, it better be good!
He said:
If I were going to give the speech, it better be good!
I am talking about a speech that I ended up giving years ago... I don't know if this changes anything... but it is past tense and it something that did happen.</p>

<p>Also, here is another sentence:
I wrote: .... in the contest, in which I had to... etc.
He changed it to "for which"... does it really matter grammatically? Or is it stylistic because I think in which sounds better in the whole sentence. </p>

<p>if you say shy, as in I tend to shy away from... do you need the away? or can you just say I shy from?</p>

<p>Thanks all!</p>

2

<ol>
<li>Your teacher correctly changed the verb tense to the subjunctive, although he didn’t change the colloquial “it better be good.” I probably would have suggested, “it would have to be good.” This may be an example of a sentence that would be better if it were completely rewritten. (Hey! I used the subjunctive, too!)</li>
<li>I think “for which” is better. You aren’t “in” the contest.</li>
<li>You shy away from something. You can shrink from something.</li>
</ol>

3

<p>Thanks, so i should be:</p>

<p>“If I were going to give it, it would have to be good”</p>

<p>Could I say, “it had better be good”. My essay is not very formal, and it kind of sounds awkward, (maybe it’s just me, within the paragraph).</p>