January 7, 2025
Commas have many, MANY uses, from separating elements in a series to setting off introductory phrases to separating a speaker from their quotation to surrounding nonrestrictive clauses and so much more. But there are definitely some times when you should Read more…
January 6, 2025
Punctuation marks don’t just exist to end sentences. They have a whole range of jobs, like introducing quotations, marking transitions mid-sentence, and connecting compound words. Another one of their many jobs is to REPLACE missing letters or words, and this Read more…
You know, I really wish there were just one hard-and-fast set of grammar rules that everyone agreed on and followed all the time. That’d make things much easier for writers, editors, students, and anyone learning English as a second language. 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…
October 22, 2024
I’m not the only person who has favorite and least-favorite grammatical rules, right? For example, the Oxford comma is definitely up there as one of my favorites. Unfortunately, the rule we’re talking about right now—the suspended hyphen—is one of my Read more…
October 21, 2024
It might sometimes seem like people just toss hyphens randomly into their writing. And with so many different rules and various situations when you do or don’t need a hyphen (even for the same word!), it’s very possible that some Read more…
Babysit or baby-sit? Common sense or common-sense? First aid, first-aid, or firstaid? There are three different kinds of compound words—open, closed, and hyphenated—and it can be tricky to keep them all straight! Overview: What Is a Compound Word? A compound Read more…
October 7, 2024
Parentheses are a great tool you can use to add extra information or commentary to your text. If you want to toss in some examples or clarifications, they’re super handy. Little jokes and sarcastic comments love to be nested inside Read more…
October 3, 2024
Parentheses have all kinds of different functions: In academic papers, you’ll see them used for citations and maybe even in a few mathematical equations. In more casual writing, they’re used to insert extra information or relevant commentary. They’re handy if Read more…
October 1, 2024
Let’s take it back to the basics and talk about what the heck an apostrophe is and how to use it in your writing. Where Does It Come From? Oh, yeah. I said we’re taking it back, so we’re taking Read more…