Using Quotation Marks (American Style): Sometimes I get lucky and a connection asks a great question that turns into an article, like this one. Recently, Donna Shattuck asked about using quotation marks or parentheses, but because this article is already…
Still Another Quiz!
More Devilish Details in a New Quiz!
More Devilish Details Since many readers of my posts seem to love quizzes — short ones that don’t seem too daunting — here’s another one for you! And for the one that preceded this, click here. Which ones are correctly written…
Use the Oxford Comma!
Why use the Oxford comma? An exchange with one of my readers on Medium in The Writing Cooperative – Joe Varadi – prompted me to write this follow-up to my The Devil is in the Details post about details we often miss as…
Devils and Details!
Ah, devils and details. You’ve heard expressions that include that idea, right? Well, for me, because I’m an editor / copyeditor, I see typos everywhere — and I know many of you do as well. We can’t know if the…
Parentheses ( ), Brackets [ ], & Braces { }
I was looking up ways to explain (in my Brush Up on Your Business Writing workbook) how these three different punctuation marks highlight information, and I realized I had NO idea when we are supposed to use braces. So I…
Parentheses With Other Punctuation
Following up on posts using colons, ellipsis marks, and semicolons in sentences, here’s a quick primer on using parentheses, which generally enclose nonessential (although important) information. And please remember: The examples below show how to punctuate using parentheses. In many of these examples,…
Dangling Participles
Most regular readers of my blog know how much I love injecting humor into lessons. The old adage of a spoonful of sugar is really true! A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down! And humor is everywhere if…
The Dreaded Comma Splice
Happy Monday once again, dear colleagues. And since it’s Monday, it must be American Grammar Checkup day. At the risk of belaboring a point, I keep noticing in many professional documents two sentences separated by only a comma. I’m certain…
Ellipsis Marks (aka Ellipses): Think THREE
Good Monday morning! I thought today I would just mention a “mark” that is often misunderstood and misused: the ellipsis mark. There are several instances where we can and should use this mark, but way too many folks use it…
End of the Year, that is! Here’s My Last Monday Grammar Checkup for 2015 — and it’s a QUIZ!
I started my blogging here on LI about a year ago, and a few months into it, I began to shape my weeks. Mondays were for Grammar Checkups, Tuesdays for Tricksters, Wednesdays for Words and Woes, Thursdays for Thoughts, and…
Using Hyphens
Good morning, dear readers! Here’s another installment of my Monday grammar checkup posts, this one on using hyphens in compound (multi-word) adjectives, those that come right in front of a noun and modify / describe it. I often see this…
Quotation Marks: American Rules
English is a funny language, as so many of us have proven in our writing. And it changes from country to country: Punctuation rules, spelling, and usage are all different depending on where we live and which version of English…