Hyphens are helpful little things that aid in reader comprehension. Although confusion is not at great risk in phrases like “sharp-dressed man” (though the omission of the hyphen suggests that the passage literally refers to a dressed man who is sharp) others, such as “small-business owner,” can at the very least conjure distracting imagery if … Read more
Navigating the formatting rules about titles of compositions — books and chapters, movies and TV shows, albums and songs, and the like — can seem like negotiating a minefield. Here’s a handy map to help you maneuver through the terrain: In print, two primary formats exist for identifying a creative work. Titles of entire bodies … Read more
Sentences can be simple. Or, by inserting a phrase within a sentence, as I’m doing here, they can become complex. Doing so by adding what’s called a parenthetical phrase, or a parenthetical, makes sentences richer and more informative; no one wants to read sentence after sentence at the level of complexity of “See Dick run.” … Read more
Antonym, homonym, pseudonym. Do nyms make you numb? Here’s a handy guide to words, familiar or unfamiliar, for classes of words: Acronym: An abbreviation, pronounced as a word, consisting of the initial letters of a multiword name or expression. It can consist entirely of uppercase letters (NASA) –thought British English has adopted an initial-cap style, … Read more
You want to earn a bit of extra money. Or you’d love to be a published writer. Or you’re looking for an exciting and rewarding career. Whatever your reason, you’ve started to think about freelance writing online. It sounds like a dream come true: you could work from home, at any time of the day … Read more
Homonyms are words that sound like, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Some of the most commonly confused pairs of words are illustrated in the following examples: 1. “The color complimented her unusual skin tone.” Unless the color was personified and therefore had the power of speech as well as discernment, it complemented, … Read more
One of the most effective ways to achieve a rich, expressive writing style is to strive to find the ideal words to express yourself. For example, whether you’re writing a report or a novel, always review your writing to make certain you are using vivid descriptions. Nouns Let’s say you want to describe a box. … Read more
An appositive is a word or phrase that refers to the same idea as another word or phrase in proximity. The phrase “my friend John” contains two appositives, because “my friend” and “John” are two ways of identifying that person I know well. For many writers, how to punctuate appositives is problematic. Here are some … Read more
When it comes to mechanical aspects of writing, few details seem to trip writers up as much as capitalization: when to use uppercase letters, and when to use lowercase letters. Specific job titles preceding a person’s name are capitalized, but descriptions are not. For example, “Marketing Director John Doe” is correct, but “Marketing Chief John … Read more
A couple of years ago, a visitor to this site posted a comment asking for help. In a Word document, this person had written the sentence “The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem and without emphasis on them, this poem has little to no meaning.” Word’s grammar check admonished the … Read more
Quotation marks are signposts indicating that spoken or written words are being expressed. They have other purposes, too, but this post confines itself to this role. Despite the ubiquity of quotation marks, some people still err in placement of the closing mark. Generally, a close quotation mark follows rather than precedes a sentence’s terminal punctuation, … Read more
Most people know what an acronym is. But few are as familiar with term initialism, or of an important distinction between the two. An acronym is an initial abbreviation that can be pronounced as a word, such as NASA or WASP. This term is also used to refer to a series of initials pronounced individually, … Read more