Two Verb Puzzles in the News
I suppose I may be exposing my own comprehension failings by writing about two verb uses that puzzled me recently. […]
Bedbugs and Bessie Bugs
The other day, I heard a celebrity say that someone was “as crazy as a bedbug.” I laughed, amused that […]
Creative Writing 101
What is Creative Writing? Creative writing is anything where the purpose is to express thoughts, feelings and emotions rather than […]
5 Problems with Parenthesis
Parenthesis is the strategy of setting a word, phrase, or clause off from a sentence to interject additional information into […]
Deck the Halls with Etymology
Traditional Christmas songs are a treasure trove of archaisms and words that have changed their meanings through the centuries. “Deck […]
Illeism and other English Words from Latin Pronouns
We’ve all noticed it in the speech of celebrities—a tendency to refer to themselves in third person. “Make no mistake, […]
Indirect References to Questions
When referring to a paraphrased question, writers often introduce grammatical mistakes in the course of confusing the query for a […]
Use Correct Tense with Third Conditional Sentences
Most English speakers have no difficulty with first and second conditional clauses, but a great many speakers get into trouble […]
Impeachment Latin: 8 Terms Related to Politics
The phrase at the heart of the current impeachment process, quid pro quo, is unaltered Latin, but several words less […]
Reluctancy and Humbleness
Synonyms are good. They enable us to narrow a concept to the exact connotation we wish to convey. Unnecessary synonyms, […]
Interview with David Hauser, Author of Unstoppable
Over the coming months we will publish interviews with book authors, focusing on the process of actually writing the book, […]
What Do You Mean by “Woke”?
The verb to wake has a long history in English. Its most common meaning today is “to become or cause […]