Elsewhere on this site, we address confusion with myself and other reflexive pronouns. This article focuses specifically on knowing when to use I or me. Consider these sentences, which we will address in the discussion below: Harry and I will take the annual report to...
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...
Communication is difficult enough under the best of circumstances, so we need to do everything possible to ensure that our writing is as clear and unambiguous as possible. One extremely common mistake that hampers clarity and can result in ambiguity is failing to have...
One of our newsletter subscribers wrote to ask us which phrase—”the reason is because” or “the reason is that”—is correct. Here are two examples of those constructions in a sentence: The reason we were late is because there was an accident on...
Which sentences correctly use between or among? I am having trouble choosing from among the three candidates we interviewed for the manager’s position. The contract dispute was to be settled in negotiations between the subcontractor, the electrician, the...
We talk about hyphens in several different articles on this site. One article distinguishes hyphens from en and em dashes. Another talks about open, closed, and hyphenated compound words. This article add information about using a hyphen with adjectives. Start with a...