August 23, 2024
One of my favorite books about grammar is Eats, Shoots & Leaves. In one chapter, the author (Lynne Truss) enumerates the many different roles of a comma and, after all that, reveals “the big final rule for the comma”: She Read more…
August 21, 2024
Here’s the problem with “affect” and “effect”: When we say them out loud, they often sound like the exact same word. Because we don’t get to practice differentiating them in our speech, when it comes time to write them down, Read more…
August 20, 2024
If you really stop and think about which form of “they’re,” “there,” or “their” you need, chances are pretty good that you’ll figure it out and arrive at the correct conclusion (likely by remembering your middle school English lessons). I Read more…
August 16, 2024
Back when I was a hiring manager, one of the most common red flags that would cause my co-editor and me to toss out a résumé was spelling errors. Granted, we were hiring writers, so the ability to spell-check was Read more…
August 13, 2024
Colons and semicolons are spicy punctuation. If commas and periods are salt and pepper, then colons and semicolons are cayenne pepper. Here’s why: You can usually get on OK without ever using a colon or semicolon in your writing. Just Read more…
August 7, 2024
The Oxford comma (also called the serial comma) might be the most controversial punctuation mark ever. People fight over it. Heated words are exchanged. Angry glares are inevitable. Broken friendships are possible. Seriously, though, there has been many an argument Read more…
August 5, 2024
A common query in English is whether that first little vowel in further/farther really makes any difference. If you’re running a longer distance than someone else, are you going further or farther than them? And if you’re expounding on an Read more…
August 2, 2024
If you’re feeling sorry for someone, do you feel “bad” for them? Or should you feel “badly” instead? I’m writing about these two because I hear them get mixed up ALL THE TIME. I never judge people who mix them Read more…
July 31, 2024
One sure-fire way to sound fancy is to (correctly) use “whom.” Consistently using it is so rare that we really only expect it from people like the Dowager Countess of Grantham (the posh grandmother on Downton Abbey, of course). It’s Read more…
July 30, 2024
Taylor Swift’s documentary “Miss Americana” was a beautiful work of art that I LOVED—except for one scene. While discussing the lyrics for her song “The Man,” she has a moment of doubt about the chorus: “If I was a man Read more…