Our word processing software and enhanced keyboards can work magic, especially in regard to inserting characters and symbols that aren’t on our Roman alphabet keyboards. Lawyers and legal secretaries must type a section symbol in legal citations, whereas bankers...
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....
This article focuses on abbreviations for two Latin phrases. We often see i.e. and e.g. used incorrectly (and illogically), so it’s easy to get them mixed up. (Elsewhere on this site, we have articles on many confusing word pairs, such as effect and affect, lay...
We can improve our writing by focusing on any unit of style—from choosing the just-right word to sculpting clauses, sustaining longer sentences with grace, and arranging them in effective paragraphs. Here we will focus on the humble sentence, with an emphasis on...
Pardon Me—May I Beg Your Question? Often I hear newscasters say something like this: “Which begs the question—why was the senator naked in the first place?” Do they understand what “begging the question” really means? Nearly as common as the impropriety of...
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 style manual will point out that the guidelines change according to the type of number and the context in which it is being used....
