Tag: grammar
When to Use Into or In Using in or into is easy to master. When you use the word in, position is indicated. His pen was in his shirt pocket. Into, however, points to movement—of something or someone. He put the thermos into his briefcase. Here are a few example sentences of when to use […]
Do You Need an Editor? Writing a book is easy. Writing a good book is much more difficult. And no matter how good a story you tell, in order for it to be made into a good book, it needs to be edited, and not self-edited. I have seen a few people who were able […]
Dilemma or Catch-22 What is a dilemma? Dilemma is one of the rare words that is so specific that it denotes the precise meaning—at least the original definition does. Let’s take a look. Many of the dictionaries did a good job of defining the true meaning of this, and most without waffling. Vocabulary.com had a […]
Meaning of Cognizant and Meaning of Prophylactic In my continuing quest to make note of words that have jumped to the forefront during this pandemic, I’ve identified two more offenders—cognizant and prophylactic. Don’t get me wrong; the words aren’t at fault, they’re fine words. I blame the people using them. The reporters, doctors, and analysts […]
Is Safe Haven Redundant? A lot has been written regarding “safe haven.” Some of it even by me in my grammar books. What draws the ire is the phrase’s built-in redundancy. But is safe haven redundant, and does it matter? Let’s look further. Is Safe Haven Redundant? The problem with words is that they’re subject […]
Plethora—It’s Not What You May Think If you listen to people speak, you’re bound to hear the word plethora used sooner or later. And when you do, it will probably be used erroneously. Last year, I decided to do an informal self-conducted poll, and, in a thirty-day span, I heard the word used eleven times. […]
When to Use Mitigate You might recall I mentioned that during any time of crisis, the not-so-often-heard words come out of the woodwork. We discussed the prevalence of proximity or should I say the misuse of close proximity earlier, but it’s long past time to delve into when to use mitigate and mitigation. Nowadays it […]
Many people say your sentences shouldn’t contain a split infinitive. In my early years of school, teachers drummed this rule into students’ heads—usually right after ensuring they wouldn’t end sentences with prepositions. Let’s first look at the issue of spit infinitives, and then we’ll show why it isn’t an issue. I realize I said I […]
Grammar Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult Grammar is difficult for a lot of people, but it doesn’t need to be. The biggest hurdle to learning grammar is the terminology. Most books, and most teachers, use grammatical terms when they’re not necessary. While researching my book, I ran across the following terms on more than a […]
Eg/Ie/Ergo/Et Al/Etc. There are some people, especially those in the legal and insurance professions (as well as writers), who love to use Latin abbreviations or Latin expressions. There’s nothing wrong with that, but, far too often, I have seen them used improperly. The problem with using Latin expressions is if you’re going to use them—many […]
Mike Landis
Giacomo Giammatteo
Mona Curington
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