Worshipped and Worshipping Revisited
A recent comment on a past post, “Worshiping and Kidnapping” made me doubt my sanity: You note that Merriam-Webster lists […]
5 Types of Case and Punctuation Problems with Quotations
The following sentences demonstrate issues writers confront when they write sentences that incorporate quotations that are not framed with attribution […]
Adverb Placement
A reader wants to know “if there is a rule for the proper placement of an adverb in sentence structure.” […]
Wringer or Ringer?
The other day I read an essay in the Washington Post in which a woman describes herself as having been […]
Questions on WAS and WHO
A reader poses two grammar questions, one on linking verb agreement and one on pronoun case. Question One What is […]
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 […]