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...
Possessives: Joint or Separate Ownership
Which of these two constructions would be correct if John and Rob each wrote a separate report and the administrative assistant filed them both? The administrative assistant filed John’s and Rob’s report. The administrative assistant filed John and Rob’s report. The...
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...
The Comparative and Superlative Degrees
Did you know that if a person has only two children, neither child should be described as the oldest or the youngest ? This usage mistake, which reveals a failure to understand the difference between comparative and superlative modifiers, is very common—and it's the...
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...
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...
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...
Beware the One-Word Misplaced Modifier
One noteworthy characteristic of effective writers is their logical and strategic arrangement of words. They know that to convey their messages accurately, their sentences must be clear and unambiguous. They also know that careless word order—in particular, the...
Names: Making Them Plural and NOT Possessive
Each year, as the festive season approaches and people make plans to send holiday greetings, many of us would benefit from a reminder about how to make last names plural. (Hint: Apostrophes need not apply.) If we pause to think, we will likely remember that...