Myself (and Other Reflexive Pronouns)

Myself (and Other Reflexive Pronouns)

Elsewhere on this site, we explain when to use I and me. This article is specifically about myself and other reflexive pronouns. People commonly misuse myself. Sometimes they mistakenly use it as a subject, such as in the expression “Anna and myself are going home.”...

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One Space or Two after Periods?

One Space or Two after Periods?

Do you insert one space or two after a period? Many people are surprisingly (even absurdly) passionate about their preference, yet this seemingly minor issue is not nearly as cut-and-dried as it may at first appear.  A Little Background on a Longstanding Debate The...

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What We Wish Every First-Year College Student Knew

What We Wish Every First-Year College Student Knew

Other posts in this blog are devoted to writing and editing concerns, but this one is not. A few years ago, a neighbor asked if I would have coffee with her college-bound son and give him some advice. Having made a list of thoughts to share, I decided to clean it up...

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The Subjunctive Mood

The Subjunctive Mood

Most of us use phrases such as "if I were you,” “if need be,” “be that as it may,” “God bless you,” “far be it from me,” and so on—but few of us are aware that we are employing the subjunctive mood when we do so. This lack of awareness is not surprising given that...

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Bi and Semi as Prefixes

Bi and Semi as Prefixes

If you receive a paycheck on the fifteenth and thirtieth of each month, are you paid bimonthly or semimonthly? If a newspaper is published every two weeks, it is a biweekly or a semimonthly publication? The answer is not simple. If we check Webster’s for definitions...

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Misplaced Participles

Misplaced Participles

Did You Say What You Think You Said? Misplaced Participles Recently, in part one of our series on misplaced modifiers, we explored how word order can affect the clarity of a sentence. That post looked at familiar one-word modifiers such as only and almost, and it also...

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