Sarcastic vs. Sardonic vs. Facetious

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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

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 Types of Erroneous Use of Dashes

Dashes, like semicolons, are basically commas with superpowers. However, while semicolons take the place of commas to set off independent clauses or separate

1 2024-11-29 21:19 查看原文

5 Cases of Insufficient Punctuation

In each of the sentences below, the omission of one comma (two commas, in one case) obscures the intended meaning. Discussion and revision following each

1 2024-11-29 14:18 查看原文

5 Types of Unnecessary Hyphenation

The sentences below, each followed by a discussion and a revision, illustrate various ways in which a hyphen is used extraneously.

1 2024-11-29 14:18 查看原文

Metaphorical Usage and Scare Quotes

Writers often mistakenly believe they are being helpful when, in the act of using a word or phrase in a nonliteral sense, they frame the term in quotation

1 2024-11-29 09:55 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 Types of Extended Phrasal Adjectives

Each of the following sentences includes a phrasal adjective (two or more words that modify a noun) consisting of several words, and each requires hyphenation

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3 Cases When Hyphenation Doesn’t Help

Writers are often confused by the complexity of hyphenation rules, mistakenly omitting them when their presence would help clarify meaning and inserting them

1 2024-11-30 15:46 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

The Argentine and Ukraine

A reader wonders about the phrase “the Argentine”:

2 2024-12-09 08:30 查看原文

Punctuating Appositives

A reader requests clarification on the punctuation of appositives:

2 2024-11-30 04:47 查看原文

Classic vs. Classical

What’s the difference between classic and classical? Both words, befitting their roots in the word class, refer to quality, but the meanings are distinct.

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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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Prevaricate vs Procrastinate

Two commonly confused words are prevaricate and procrastinate. They are similar in being quite formal, Latinate, words but have different meanings.

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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