Titles of Works: Italics or Quotation Marks?
When we refer to the title of a work, how do we know whether to use italics or quotation marks? Italics for Works That Stand Alone With some exceptions, most style books tell us to use italics when we write the title of a work that stands alone as a single entity....
Anymore and Everyday or Any More and Every Day?
This site addresses a number of confusing word pairs, including less and fewer, effect and affect, and lie and lay. Sometimes writers are confused by the difference between the one-word modifiers anymore and everyday and the two-word phrases "any more" and "every...
Effect or Affect?
We deal with many confusing word pairs on this site, including lay and lie, I and me, and bad and badly. This article helps us distinguish between effect and affect, two words that cause a great deal of trouble because each of them can serve as a noun or a verb. Which...
Semicolons
Semicolons have two functions: First, they are used to separate items in lists when one or more of those items has internal commas. As such, they function more or less like commas on steroids. In their second function, however, they are more like periods because they...
Lie or Lay?
This website addresses a number of confusing word pairs, including effect and affect, sit and set, and bad and badly, just to name a few. But none are more confusing than lie and lay. These verbs have traditionally held very different meanings. Simply put, to lie...
Quotation Marks and Punctuation: Inside or Outside?
With the possible exception of the Oxford/Harvard/serial comma, very few usage issues elicit responses as passionate as the topic of punctuating with quotation marks. American vs. British Conventions If I were in charge of writing the rules about the use of quotation...
Apostrophes to Make Words Possessive (Even the Tricky Ones Ending in “S”)
In another article, we address the problem that arises when people try to use apostrophes to make words (especially names) plural. Here we are dealing with words—both singular and plural—that actually do need to be possessive and thus need apostrophes: Where do they...
“GET OFF MY LAWN!” A Curmudgeon’s Rant about Sloppy Writing and Thinking
One of my favorite pastimes is to look for continuity errors in movies and television shows. I take great pleasure (rather embarrassingly) in noticing that a character’s wine glass shifts positions as shots change or that a medieval knight is wearing a wristwatch....
Bad or Badly?
Even skilled writers sometimes get confused about when to use the adjective bad and the adverb badly. Which of These Sentences Use Bad and Badly Appropriately? Our stock performed badly last year. Tim delegates badly. We felt badly about our stock's performance last...