Featured Posts
Once is more than enough
Almost no one eats the same for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Most of us pick up the remote when we realize we have already seen the episode on the screen. And we can probably all agree that if the local department store only carried socks, we would not be regular visitors (even if we like socks). We are no different when it comes to what we read. Words are a reader's sustenance, entertainment and shelter. And one of the reasons a reader engages with a writer's work is the same impulse that … [Read More...]
Writing and Editing
It’s not just that I care. I’m right.
Last night my sister-in-law called me to a share her frustration with an editorial in the local paper. The thing is, she wasn't calling to discuss the content of the piece, but rather to confirm that a distracting word choice in the conclusion was, … [Read More...]
Writing: Misplaced Modifiers
The key to avoiding (or removing) wayward modifiers is to attend to the meaning and purpose of EVERY word in a sentence. If you cannot explain what the word or phrase is doing, why use it. It's the nutritional equivalent of eating berries off of an … [Read More...]
Fun with Grammar
The Grammar War Address
[In honor of President Lincoln's birthday and teachers everywhere] Last week and every other week your students brought forth on their assignments, a new grammar, conceived in Laziness, and dedicated to the pure delusion that all words are created … [Read More...]
Tangled Up in Rules
[Sincere apologies to Bob Dylan. This is surely an example of dragging genius into the depths] Tangled Up In Rules Late one mornin’ the clock was tickin’, I was pushin' the edge Wond’rin’ if commas worked at all Was a period right … [Read More...]
