Reading time: Less than 2 minutes This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss an article from the Economist on the passive voice…. When I work with many writers — particularly academic ones — I […]
Passive voice vs. word choice Read More »
Viewing time: 3 minutes and 49 seconds The Write Question is a weekly video podcast about writing that I started in 2017 and that ran, more or less weekly, until April 2022. This is a republication of the third issue, which ran on Feb. 17/17. Transcript Welcome to The Write Question, the video-podcast designed to answer your
How can you learn (English) grammar? (video) Read More »
Reading time: About a minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post about dangling participles and other jokes of grammar… I have something lighter for you today: A bunch of bar
Dangling participles and other jokes of grammar… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post on grammar mistakes that even smart people make…. My parents rigorously correct my grammar when I was a
Grammar mistakes even smart people make Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post about incorrectly used words… One of my pet peeves is to see a grocery store sign reading, “this aisle
101 incorrectly used words Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Grammarly is a free app with a paid-for premium option. Is it worth spending the money for the more expensive option? One of my clients has a subscription to the grammar-checker service Grammarly. The basic function offered by Grammarly — identifying most spelling and grammar errors — is no charge. But if you
Is it worth paying for Grammarly? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss an article about grammar barbarians written by Jay Thorwaldsen… I was lucky enough to grow up with parents who corrected my
A battle with grammar barbarians… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute Have you ever wondered where to put only, the adverb? There’s a rule for that! This week I was working on a website for a client. Things were going relatively smoothly until the boss took a phrase I’d written and moved around the word “only.” To protect confidentiality I can’t
Where to put only… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute Here’s why I care about correct use of the pronoun who — and why you should care, too… I try not to be outraged by simple grammatical errors. I grew up in a household where my father heaped scorn on people who didn’t speak correctly. As a result, I
Who cares about “who”? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss an article on the grammar of Christmas carols… I regret to confess that I began playing Christmas carols on the piano
Exploring the grammar of Christmas carols Read More »
