It’s better to give than to receive, and it’s easier to precisely describe giving than receiving, thanks to numerous synonyms for give. Here are dozens of them, with connotative definitions. 1. Accord: to give what is due 2. Administer: to give medication, to perform a religious ritual, or to carry out a punishment 3. Afford: … Read more
You may never work with an editor, but whether you do, or you work only with an internal editor, Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction will provide insight into the process of developing content. Good Prose, a collaboration between Tracy Kidder, who won a Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine in 1982, … Read more
Confusion often arises as to how or whether to punctuate appositive phrases, which are descriptions that identify someone or something named in the same sentence. Here are three statements with punctuation problems that illustrate the peril of improper punctuation, with explanations and suggested revisions. 1. “The fog arrived unannounced — ‘on little cat feet,’ as … Read more
The proper use of the relative pronouns who, that, and which relate the subject of a sentence to its object, hence the name. The question of which of the three words to use in a given context vexes some writers; here’s an explanation of their relative roles. Who, Whom, and Whose Who and whom refer … Read more
Judging from the relative ease with which I accumulate real-world examples of dangling modifiers — introductory phrases that provide additional information but do not integrate grammatically with the sentence’s subject — I conclude that this error is among the most common of grammatical sentence-construction flubs. Here are five more examples from my overstuffed vault. 1. … Read more
Like is associated with various uncouth usages — “They were, like, all over the place”; “I was, like, ‘Really?’” — common in speech but easily avoided (except for comic effect) in writing, but many people are unaware that another widespread usage is considered improper in formal writing. As a preposition meaning “similar to,” like is … Read more
When we refer to something as being obvious, the connotation is often negative. Here are some synonyms for obvious that sometimes or always connote an uncomplimentary attitude about the subject at hand. 1. Blatant: crassly or offensively noisy, obtrusive, or obvious (possibly from the Latin word blatire, meaning “to chatter”) 2. Brazen: contemptuously bold (from … Read more
You want to improve your grammar, but you’re disinclined to invest time and energy to laboriously study print or online resources about sentence construction. You’ve seen ads on the Internet about grammar checkers, and you decide to check them out. How useful is grammar-checking software? After visiting five grammar-checker websites and using (the free versions … Read more
What determines whether a verb-to-adjective transformation ends with the suffix -able (as in assessable) or with -ible (as in accessible)? Why do some root words accept both options? What happens if the word ends with an e? Answers to these and other questions about -able and -ible follow. The suffixes -able and -ible both express … Read more
Last year, an advertising executive named Ted McCagg embarked on a whimsical endeavor: Using a bracketing schematic like that employed to record the outcome of athletic tournaments — in which, in each iteration, the number of selections displayed is reduced by half according to some criterion, until only one choice remains — McCagg subjectively selected … Read more
Even the boldest, most confident writers can cower in fear and sob with frustration when confronted with the problem of whether to use who or whom in a sentence. Heck, I know it confuses me. Here’s the distinction: Use who to refer to the subject of the sentence (“I am the person who you are … Read more
Each of the three sentences shown below contains a minor error that nevertheless muddles the intended meaning. The discussion following each example identifies the problem and sets up a resolving revision. 1. “Instead of focusing on rebuilding the Republican Party, she said that party leaders should focus on rebuilding the middle class.” This sentence implies … Read more