It seems like such a simple thing. When writing a basic sentence, you end it with a period (also known as a full-stop). Obviously, when asking a question you use a question mark (?), and you follow up an exclamation with an exclamation point (!). You might be leading into…
Criticism
Did anybody else read Copyblogger today? Brian Clark collected a fantastic group of quotes demonstrating how even the brightest people can lack foresight in matters of creativity, and reject things that would have made them (more?) famous, rich, or renowned. His point is that you shouldn’t make assumptions, but my…
Sorry
Sorry, folks, no Mangled Monday post today for two reasons. One, it’s taken me over 24 hours to get this far into writing a post, but two, mostly, because I have a fever today and am not thinking as clearly as I need to be to write a post worth…
Simplicity
I’ve talked about not over-using the same, tired words, which ties into other, earlier posts that stressed the importance of a good vocabulary. Having a healthy variety of words to play with can only help the quality of your writing, right? Well, yes, but here’s the Catch-22. I’m sure that…
MM: Simply Capital!
So, Brad was wondering what words in titles need to be capitalized. This is actually one of the topics I keep meaning to write about, so I’m glad he asked. Here’s a quick overview for you: You capitalize the first and last words, all the nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs,…
Good Writing Equals Professionalism
I’ve got an object lesson for you today, so let’s start with a story: I recently bought a new camera (a Nikon D40 DSLR, which I love, thank you), but I’m irritated with Adorama camera. Even though we’re in different states, they charged me sales tax. I sent an e-mail…
OT: Inhale Now
As a purely side note, because I’m a good daughter, I’m attaching a link here to my father’s website, InhaleNow.com. He started it because he’d been looking for air purifiers to help with my asthma (because he’s a good dad). Providing a link was the least I could do, since,…
MM: Alot
Seen in the wild: This sign so incensed my sister, she went back and took a picture just for us. See it? It asks, “Have alot of square footage?” This is a simple one, folks. “Alot” is not a word, unless you are referring to that little town in India.…
Context
I was visited by the Language Log yesterday, and it was not a friendly visit. Back in 2007, I wrote about the venerable Strunk and White grammar book, and in that post mentioned in passing that the authors were against split infinitives. Geoffrey Pullum, in his post yesterday, was apparently…
Simmering
I mentioned that I was having trouble coming up with bad-grammar examples to Melissa the other day, and she said something that made me think. @Deb, probably because whenever we try to come up with examples, they evade us. It happens to me all the time. That is one reason…