When you curl up with a good book, chances are that it’s conversation-heavy. Who doesn’t love coffee and good conversation, after all? Trying to wade through a story that’s all narrative is so boring, it’s like watching your computer defrag. … Continue reading
Posted in: Best Practices, Style Guru, Writing Tips
Tags: Punctuation, quotations, quote marks, quotes, Style Guru
Confusion about similar words abounds, especially when they sound alike. Writers sometimes use one word when they really mean another. Have any of these tripped you up? Accept, except – These are often misused and confused. Accept means to receive … Continue reading
Posted in: Best Practices, Style Guru, Writing Tips
Tags: grammar, spelling, Style Guru, Word combinations
Explaining the difference between “that” and “which” has been in my idea file for a while. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know the answer – it’s a common conundrum. Now that I’ve had requests to cover this topic, your … Continue reading
Posted in: Best Practices, Style Guru, Writing Tips
Tags: essential clauses, grammar, nonessential clauses, style, That, which
Ali recently asked me why people send us copy that has two spaces after periods and other punctuation. I was tempted to tell her that it could be one of four reasons: A) Outside writers need more breathing room than … Continue reading
Posted in: Best Practices, Style Guru, Writing Tips
Tags: fonts, grammar, Punctuation, sentence structure
Fellow word nerds may understand my fascination with the English language. The rest of you probably think I’m one sentence shy of needing some serious help. Who else but brainiacs and the truly twisted delve into the dictionary for fun? … Continue reading
Who doesn’t relish a challenge, especially when it comes to dependent clauses, parallelism and collective nouns? OK, so that’s a stretch, but go with it. Find the errors in the sentences below and I’ll send you a fabulous prize. Not … Continue reading
Posted in: Best Practices, Journalism, Style Guru, Writing Tips
Tags: grammar, sentence construction, Style Guru
Since newspapers seemingly can’t afford to hire more copyeditors, the ones who are still at the helm are probably overtaxed. I don’t have to hunt for errors anymore – they pop right off the page. I finally finished reading a … Continue reading
Posted in: Best Practices, Journalism, Style Guru, Writing Tips
Tags: grammar, style, Style Guru
Imagine my despair when I realized I’m down to the grammar dredges in my ideas folder. Those would be my least favorites, such as “who” vs. “whom” and “that” vs. “which.” I guess I can’t avoid these forever, so I’ll … Continue reading
Posted in: Best Practices, Style Guru, Writing Tips
Tags: personal pronouns, Style Guru, who, whom
Trying to ease back into Style Guru mode on the heels of vacation is a fruitless endeavor. My mind is focused on mountains, vineyards and sunsets – not dangling modifiers, misplaced clauses and subject-verb agreement. Between winery tours in Virginia, … Continue reading
Posted in: Best Practices, Style Guru, Writing Tips
Tags: English, grammar, parts of a sentence, sentence structure, Style Guru
Here lies “in order to.” People loved the phrase so much; they used it in just about every context – from white papers and websites to newsletters and blogs. I lost count how many times it showed up, along with … Continue reading
Posted in: Best Practices, Style Guru, Writing Tips
Tags: in order to, Style Guru, writing
