December 23, 2024
Folks who are passionate about English and grammar love to talk about William Shakespeare. He’s called “The Bard”—not “a bard,” “THE Bard”—because he’s widely considered to be the greatest English poet (and one of the greatest storytellers) who ever lived. Read more…
December 10, 2024
Is it FBI or F.B.I.? PhD or Ph.D.? And once we solve the question about periods or no periods, we still have spaces and capitalization to contend with. Let’s talk acronyms! What Is an Acronym? An acronym is a word Read more…
Don’t panic! It’s true that words such as “FBI” and “TBA” are actually NOT acronyms at all, so you might be thinking that everything you’ve ever known is a lie (at least I did when I started learning about this). Read more…
December 5, 2024
I’m back to disprove yet another grammar myth. We’ve talked about avoiding contractions, putting two spaces after a period, ending a sentence with a preposition, and splitting infinitives. Now it’s time to tackle yet another “rule” that is actually complete Read more…
Has a teacher ever told you that you should never use contractions in formal or professional writing? Maybe you got an essay back with all the don’ts and I’ms scribbled out and replaced with do nots and I ams. I’ve Read more…
December 2, 2024
One of the quickest ways to date yourself as a writer is to add two spaces instead of just one in between each sentence. Listen, I KNOW your English teacher told you that you have to do it. But it’s Read more…
NASA will install a new laser that travels at 671,000,000 mph; the ETA of their new toy is Jan. 5th, 2025. As far as I know, nothing about that sentence is true (NASA, unfortunately, does not discuss their new gadgets Read more…
November 12, 2024
If you went to the grocery store with your roommate, would you say “He and I went” or “He and me went”? And if your friend graciously offered to drive you both, would you say “They drove him and I” Read more…
September 4, 2024
If I had to use just one word to describe the most common mistake that writers make with commas, I’d say “overuse.” Sins of omission with commas are rare; sins of commission are plentiful. Part of the trouble is that Read more…
August 30, 2024
If there’s one thing that separates a pretty decent writer from a really good writer, it’s knowing how to AVOID dangling or misplacing modifiers. Although it’s a common mistake, dangling your modifiers in public is absolutely frowned upon (and can Read more…