7 Sound Techniques for Effective Writing

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In the Last Throes

An amusing egg-corn that has just appeared on my radar is that of writing in the throes of as "in the throws of."

2 2024-12-03 08:51 查看原文

“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

Ever and Never

Ever and never are adverbs employed in strictly defined ways. Here are the parameters of usage for the two terms.

1 2024-11-28 19:18 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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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

3 Common Types of Phrasal-Adjective Hyphenation Errors

One of the most ubiquitous categories of error in written composition is failure to provide a visual clue to readers that two or more words preceding a noun

1 2024-11-27 14:35 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

5 Functions of Quotation Marks

This post discusses the use of quotation marks to distinguish dialogue, parts of compositions, phrases as phrases, scare quotes, and epithets.

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7 Types of Punctuation Errors

Each of the following sentences below demonstrates a specific type of error involving internal punctuation, usually involving a problem with a comma.

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3 Cases of Too Many Commas

This post illustrates several types of sentences that incorporate excessive punctuation. Each example is followed by a discussion and a revision.

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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

5 Categories of Unnecessary Scare Quotes

Each of the sentences in this post demonstrates a distinct example of superfluous use of quotation marks to call attention to a word or phrase. The discussion

1 2024-12-16 22:16 查看原文

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

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

Word of the Day: Pedantic

Pedantic (pə-dăn'tĭk) is an adjective that represents an excessive concern for precision and formal rules. It can also refer to the ostentation of knowledge.

1 2024-11-29 14:17 查看原文

Rifle vs. Riffle

A reader has a question about the verbs rifle and riffle in relation to papers:

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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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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

2 2024-12-24 04:55 查看原文

Verb Review #1 Run and Drink

Native English speakers frequently make mistakes with the irregular verbs run and drink, even in contexts that call for standard usage:

2 2024-12-13 04:55 查看原文