Look, it’s perfectly acceptable to use the verb look, but don’t hesitate to replace this fairly ordinary-looking word with one of its many more photogenic synonyms. Many of these substitutions come in especially handy when it comes to finding one word to take the place of look-plus-adverb or look-plus-adjective-and-noun, as the definitions demonstrate. 1. Blink: … Read more
Many words derived from Latin have two (and occasionally three or more) possible plural forms. The distinction is usually between popular usage based on English plural endings grafted onto Latin terms and scientific or technical form based on a traditional reading of the original language. Here are discussions of alternatives for plural forms of six … Read more
The store of nouns in English, just like that of English verbs, is enhanced by the language’s generosity in permitting adaptation of words from other tongues more than once. In the case of most of the word pairs listed below, the terms were introduced at different periods of history, hence their slight differences in spelling. … Read more
An appositive phrase extends a sentence by adding more information in apposition (meaning “related to” or “juxtaposed with”) to a word or phrase preceding it. This post describes how to use each of four forms of punctuation to extend a sentence by adding an appositive phrase. 1. Colon A colon signals to the reader that … Read more
Parts of speech serve our communication needs with hardly a conscious thought on our part, but they operate according to a complex, interdependent set of rules and procedures. Here are the basic principles of the noun. A noun was traditionally described (at least, in the US public school system I oh so slowly passed through … Read more
Paraphrasing, rewording of spoken or written content, is a necessary skill for every writer. This post discusses the purposes of process of paraphrasing. Why Paraphrase? Quoting directly without attribution is plagiarism, an offense against those responsible for crafting the original message. In a scholarly setting, it constitutes academic dishonesty, which when committed by students is … Read more
There’s no shortage of synonyms for shortage, and though many of the terms are close in meaning, the variety of connotations is sufficient to merit this list. 1. Crunch: a sudden shortage (informal) 2. Dearth: a shortage, especially one with dire and severe effects, such as one of food 3. Deficiency: a shortage, including one … Read more
In 1995, when the Internet was still a relatively obscure phenomenon, a newspaper copy editor named Bill Walsh began sharing his knowledge and opinions about his craft on a website called The Slot. Five years later, Walsh transferred that lore to print with Lapsing into a Comma: A Curmudgeon’s Guide to the Many Things That … Read more
Religion, legends, and literature alike are replete with various conceptions of ethereal or terrestrial paradises or places with romantic flair. Here are a dozen examples of ideal locales, including their names, their origins, and their definitions. 1. Arcadia (the Greek region of Arcadia): an idealized, unattainable pastoral state, bereft of civilization 2. Atlantis (allegorical legend … Read more
One does not rely on the entertainment industry to model proper grammar and punctuation, but is it too much to expect that movie titles make grammatical sense? Evidently, it is; filmmakers and film studio marketing staff have more important things to do than ensure that titles correctly use hyphens and apostrophes, appropriately employ punctuation marks, … Read more
What’s the difference between congruent and congruous? The distinction is slight, as the meanings are nearly identical. However, the former term is usually employed quantitatively, while the latter word is generally used qualitatively. The noun congruence and its adjectival form congruent refer to agreement or coincidence. In geometry, the words denote having the same size … Read more
Responses to one of my recent posts brought up two interesting related issues: misunderstandings about idioms and their origins, and about linguistic terms. First, numerous readers wrote to Daily Writing Tips recently to inform me that I had misspelled a word in one of the items in “35 Fossil Words”: It’s “just desserts,” not “just … Read more