In an NPR story about the election of Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy’s vacated Senate, a Massachusetts legislator, Jim Vallee, declared: “He’s not a one-dimensional caricature.” Caricature does not mean the same thing as character. And it is character that is often characterized (!) as being “one-dimensional.” Novelists do not want to be accused creating … Read more
This is a guest post by Brad Painting. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here. One of the great things about freelance writing is that you can invent your own projects and put your creative juices to the test. But what if your creative flow seems blocked, as writers … Read more
A reader wonders: Can the word ‘prepone’ be used as an antonym of ‘postpone’? I’ve often heard people using this term but never been convinced about the usage. If this term is not correct or non-existent, what is the correct antonym of ‘postpone’ if any at all? The word prepone to mean “to move forward … Read more
Last week I found the word slinked in manuscripts submitted by two different members of my writers’ group. In both mss I drew a wavy line under it to represent the shudder that the -ed past ending on this verb stirred in me. The principal parts of slink are slink/slunk/slunk.: Then I got to thinking … Read more
The words “flammable” and “inflammable” mean the same thing: “easily set on fire.” Why is this? In English, the in- prefix is often used to reverse the meaning of an adjective. Thus inactive is the opposite of active and inelegant is the opposite of elegant. So why isn’t inflammable the opposite of flammable? The reason … Read more
Saad Khan asks to know the difference between being and been. Been is the past participle form of the verb to be. It is used with the auxiliary verbs has, have, and had to form perfect tenses: How long has it been since you were in Paris? He had been writing that novel for thirty … Read more
Maim means to cripple someone. It can also be used generally, where it means to damage something, making it defective. Workers at drilling sites are surrounded by heavy machinery that can kill or maim in an instant. (USA Today) Automakers Say Cuts in Duties Would Maim Industry (NY Times)
Shubhankar Adhikari writes: My query concerns phrases such as “one of the largest,” “one of the biggest”;, et al. Is it OK to use these expressions. Should we not use “one of the larger”? After all, we are comparing things. My journalism instructor thinks the superlative cannot be used, as there cannot be more than … Read more
A reader called my attention to a sentence in which these words appeared: …a cesspool of its own crapulence I turned to my browser and found so many examples of “wallowing in their/his/its own crapulence” that I conclude that the expression has already become a cliché. Apparently a lot of people imagine that crapulence means … Read more
Ludicrous is an adjective used to describe something so absurd that it provokes laughs and mockery. One synonym is ridiculous. A San Diego stock adviser who is accused of bribing an F.B.I. agent to give him confidential government information may have had prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal prosecutor said yesterday. But … Read more
This is a guest post by Rhonda Franz. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here. The great thing about being a writer with young children is the material. There’s emotion (good or bad) in everything from how their first word was “NO,” to the way they walk when they’ve … Read more
Clayton Doak objects to the indiscriminate use of the word individual where person will do. Ex. This individual was charged with criminal trespass. The word individual comes from a Latin word meaning “indivisible.” Synonyms for its use as an adjective include single, separate, discrete, independent, sole, lone, solitary, and isolated. The colloquial sense of individual … Read more