What We Wish Every First-Year College Student Knew

What We Wish Every First-Year College Student Knew

Most of this website is devoted to writing and editing matters, but the following post is not. Instead, it grew out of a collective desire among a few college professors to help the new college student make the most of the post-secondary experience. * * * * * * * For...
Alumnus, Alumni, Alumna, Alumnae

Alumnus, Alumni, Alumna, Alumnae

As spring graduation season wraps up here in the United States, now is a good time to talk about alumnus, alumni, alumna, and alumnae. Many of us struggle to remember which of these terms are masculine, which are feminine, which are singular, and which are plural. The...
Myth Rules: Eight So-Called Rules to Ignore

Myth Rules: Eight So-Called Rules to Ignore

My first exposure to the phrase “myth rules” was the use of that expression in Edgar H. Schuster’s 2003 book (which I highly recommend), Breaking the Rules: Liberating Writers through Innovative Grammar Instruction. But long before I discovered Schuster’s list of...
Passive Voice and Active Voice

Passive Voice and Active Voice

Those of us whose word-processing software includes a grammar checker have probably encountered the green squiggly line of doom wagging an accusatory finger at a passive verb. But what is the passive voice, and why is it considered undesirable? (If you learn better by...