Amelioration: A Nice Semantic Shift

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“Penpointing” and Other Near-Misses in the Media

I had a hard time penpointing the problem. (automotive site)

2 2024-11-29 01:25 查看原文

How Spelling Diverges Between American and British English

As George Bernard Shaw is said to have said, “England and America are two countries separated by the same language.” It’s easy enough to find books and Web

3 2024-11-29 11:54 查看原文

Prodigal vs. Prodigy

Prodigal means “to spend wastefully.” So, what does that have to do with the biblical parable of the prodigal son, and what does being prodigal have to do

1 2024-11-27 03:47 查看原文

3 More Examples of Misplaced Modifiers

Words and phrases that provide additional information to clarify relationships between people, places, or things should, for the sake of clarity, be carefully

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Intrusive Misuse of Colons

Writers often mistakenly introduce intrusive “colonization” where it is not necessarily. In each of the following examples, as explained in the discussion,

3 2024-12-19 20:07 查看原文

3 Cases of Superfluous Semicolons

Semicolons serve one of two purposes: A semicolon can act as a weak period to separate two independent clauses so closely associated that dividing them into

3 2024-11-27 08:25 查看原文

3 More Sentences with Unnecessary Semicolons

1. Some new entrants probably need to have a deeper focus on security and privacy than they have; not least because it is only a matter of time before they,

1 2024-11-28 19:17 查看原文

The Dash Family's Roles

The en dash is the oft-neglected middle sibling of the horizontal-line family of symbols that serve to connect words and numbers for various reasons.

1 2024-11-28 19:17 查看原文

3 Cases of Missing Parenthetical Punctuation

In each of the following examples, a complementary comma that provides closure for a parenthetical phrase is missing. Discussion after each sentence explains

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3 Types of Solutions with Semicolons

In each of the following sentences, a structural flaw is easily repaired by use of one or more semicolons in place of one or more commas. Discussion and

2 2024-11-28 16:24 查看原文

3 Errors in Using Parentheses

Parenthetical marks can cause difficulties for writers—and, as a result, for readers. In each of the following examples, parentheses are misused; discussion

1 2024-11-27 06:02 查看原文

Time to Re-Read Orwell?

George Orwell didn't have time to collect many royalties on his phenomenally successful novel 1984.

2 2024-11-28 07:26 查看原文

10 Types of Hyphenation Errors

I’ve written more than once about hyphens, including this previous post, but it remains a troublesome topic, so I’ll approach it from this direction, too: the

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Finding, Founding, and Funding

Find, found, and fund could conceivably be related on the basis of the notion of obtaining something, but the words (except in the case of the link between

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Punctuating Appositives

A reader requests clarification on the punctuation of appositives:

2 2024-11-30 04:47 查看原文

The Language Police

Lovers of language and literature, especially those with children or grandchildren still in Grades K-12, will find The Language Police by education historian

1 2024-11-29 08:52 查看原文

Word Games to Improve Your Writing

It’s hard work to increase your vocabulary by memorising long lists of words and definitions, or to improve your spelling by constantly writing out words you

1 2024-11-29 21:18 查看原文

25+ Pieces of Writing Software You Should Know About

Of course, all you really need in order to write is a notebook and pen. But there are lots of software packages that can make life easier for writers.

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How To Write Every Day (and why you should)

If you aspire to be a writer, and read tips from well known authors, you’ll have come across the advice that you should write every day.

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Slink, Shrink, and Wink

Last week I found the word slinked in manuscripts submitted by two different members of my writers’ group. In both mss I drew a wavy line under it to

1 2024-11-29 04:04 查看原文