writing
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 […]
It’s been a long time but finally I’m ready to release a few new books. The first is The Ranger, the fifth in the Blood Flows South series. Tip and Connie are back, but this time, Gino and Ribs join them in hunting down the infamous killer known as the Ranger. He’s the one who […]
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 […]
That’s right; anyways is not a word. Despite what you may have heard on numerous TV shows (especially NYPD Blue), the correct pronunciation is anyway without an “s.” So you’d say: ✅ “I’m going to do it anyway.” Not … ❌ “I’m going to do it anyways. I was going to do this post a while ago, […]
People who write for a living, such as writers and journalists, have usually had more than a few years of training by the time they become professionals. With that in mind, you’d think they would find it easy to determine whether a word should be capitalized or left lowercased. But capitalization rules don’t tell you […]
DOUBLE NEGATIVES Children learn this so-called double-negatives rule right after their “ABCs” or it seems that way. When I was a kid, if a teacher heard you say “I don’t got no . . .” or anything resembling that phrase, you were bent over the desk and rewarded with a beating (usually with a fiberglass yardstick). I realize teachers […]
Hyphens and How to Use Them When it comes to hyphenation, prose often suffers from the Goldilocks effect: either too much or too little, but seldom just right. Here are some erroneously constructed elements along with repaired revisions that let them eat, sit, or sleep with contentment. With no more delay, we’ll start. If we […]
When to Refer to Animals by Gender I’m writing this post in response to an email question I received regarding how to refer to animals when writing. Should I refer to the dog as it or he? They asked. The answer to when to refer to animals by gender is both simple and not so […]
The Truth About Redundancies People don’t seem to care much about redundancies, but that might be because they don’t know the truth about redundancies. What truth? The fact that while you may not care about them, the people who do are silently snickering every time you use one. And while they may not say anything […]
7 Common Grammar Mistakes And How to Correct Them The how-to-correct-them-part is easy. Practice using them right. Make a habit out of it. Don’t simply read this article, and then forget it. Read the article, and then select one of the grammar rules and practe using it properly for several weeks. After that, your list […]
Mike Landis
Giacomo Giammatteo
Mona Curington
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