The careful writer always reviews their prose, and one of the qualities they aspire to demonstrate is conciseness, or brevity of expression. Revision of the following wordy sentences, accompanied by commentary about the revision, provides specific examples of the types of verbosities to eliminate. 1. There are seventy-seven industry-specific codified standards, launched in November 2018 … Read more
Would you like to learn English and improve your grammar without getting off the sofa and without cracking open a textbook? Google Home could be just what you need. It’s a device a bit like Amazon’s Echo (though created by Google, not Amazon) that connects to the Google Assistant to let you get answers and … Read more
Is “math” or “maths” the correct word to use as the shortened or colloquial form of the word mathematics? The answer is that it depends on where you are. To North American speakers of English, the word to use is “math”, as in “I majored in math”, and “maths” would sound wrong. Speakers of British … Read more
Stories have been around for longer than we’ve been writing them down. The three-act story structure was even there before we knew what to call this method of storytelling. If you’re learning how to write a book, or just want to ensure your story structure is made for those looking for a good read, using … Read more
A reader asks: what is the difference between while and whilst? Both while and whilst have been in the language for a very long time. While was in use in Old English; whilst is a Middle English development of while. As conjunctions they are interchangeable in meaning, but whilst has not survived in standard American … Read more