Parallel Structure
Often our writing includes lists. If these lists are to be logical and readable, the items in them must be parallel with one another. That...
The Passive Voice
If you use your word processing software’s grammar checking feature, then you have probably had it tell you that some of your sentences—specifically, some of...
Using Numbers, including Percentages
Style manuals do not agree on the issue of when writers should spell out numbers and when they should use numerals. And even a single...
Typing Characters That Don’t Appear on the Keyboard
One of the many advantages personal computers have over typewriters is that we can type a whole host of useful characters that are not visible...
En Dashes and Em Dashes
A number of our readers have written to ask us to explain the difference between the hyphen, the em dash, and the en dash. Distinguishing...
