I follow Tom Nichols. He’s a bit conservative and crotchety, and his obsession with people in sandals amuses me, but he’s sharp as hell, and not afraid to state his mind. He went to Harvard, which isn’t a bad…
“E-greg-ious” Errors
A former boss/editor of my past had a list of “egregious” errors. As a grammar and mechanics/ linguistics geek, I kept track of it. I’m not sure I care about all the fine distinctions in other’s writing, but it’s fun…
Links for responding to grammar and mechanics issues
In text citation basics at http://tinyurl.com/4ramuvg Ellipsis use at http://tinyurl.com/4evw5yl Word count at http://tinyurl.com/49ve7cv Semicolons and Colons at http://tinyurl.com/4cgdfd3 Scare quotes. http://tinyurl.com/4hr7rax Re: Block quotes and other expectations of in-text citation at http://tinyurl.com/678cfsw
“Very” is not appreciated.
http://i.imgur.com/otjdOWB.jpg
On Commas: the controversy!
How do we feel about where the period goes at the end of a quote? Students, when consistent, tend to use logical punctuation (see Slate article for argument). If they (students) choose “logical” punctuation, they have to state that in…
Rules for beginning writers.
Got wind of this advice for beginning writers from BoingBoing, who found it from VS Naipaul. 1. Do not write long sentences. A sentence should not have more than ten or twelve words.2. Each sentence should make a clear statement.…
All grammar and style advice should be funny
Fake APStylebook posts style advice for writing – the site makes me laugh consistently and sometimes I agree with their point. Sometimes it’s bogus – but generally funny. attached is a screengrab from what I found worthy of retweeting (BTW:…
Passive voice
When I speak of excessive use of passive voice (or passive verbs) I refer to the over use of “to be” verbs: is, are, was, were, be, being, been and am. Passive verbs are to writing what salt is to…