Why Do I Need A Copy Editor? The online bookstores are overflowing. Bowker Identification Services estimates there will be more than 300,000 new books published in 2013. Along with all of that new reading material comes an equally significant increase in the number of reviews citing mistakes in those books, particularly the self-published ones. I…
Apostrophes, the Easy Punctuation? Apostrophes cause a lot of confusion for writers. People use them when they shouldn’t and don’t use them when they should, but they are an easy punctuation mark to learn. Apostrophes are not that difficult to master. Dig into this article, and you’ll have proper usage committed to memory. If all…
“Parentheses” — When and How to Use Them I’m guessing most of you know how to use parentheses, but you may be surprised at some of the rules regarding how to punctuate them and when to use them. Let’s take a look. The spelling of the word itself is the first thing to look at….
More Latin Plurals We’ve already tackled data and media, but those two words are by no means the only problems when it comes to plurals used as singular. When dealing with Latin words the question “is it plural or singular” comes up often. Many of these words have long since been fully assimilated into the language…
When Is “Currently” Needed? Almost never. It’s one of the words that aren’t needed, and yet I hear it used frequently. Some of the worst misuse can be found on answering machines and voicemails. I’m currently away from my desk. Or even worse, I’m currently away from my desk right now. The business world is…
Plot Holes and Plot Devices Anyone who has read my blog for a while probably knows I don’t like plot holes. It ticks me off when I’m rolling along with a story, flipping pages (virtual pages) as fast as my eyes can read and then…I fall into a plot hole. What I do next depends…
I often have to look things up in a dictionary or a style guide. I don’t enjoy admitting that, but it’s true. I write books on grammar, writing, and publishing as well as blog posts for several sites. This continual use of those resources has caused me to have a problem with dictionaries (style guides…
Dictionaries Aren’t Always Right In a continuing quest to point out the inconsistencies and problems with dictionaries, I wanted to bring to light something I stumbled across the other day. My wife and I were doing crosswords, and she asked me about a clue regarding fish. Asp was the answer, and it surprised me because…
Using Commas with As Well As A lot of people pay no attention to commas, and it shows. Commas are critical to reading enjoyment. They instruct readers when to pause or slow down just as other punctuation helps readers know when to get excited or surprised, stop for a long pause, stop-and-go more quickly, etc….
Using Commas with Like and Such As In this post we’ll address the often confusing issues of when to use “like” and when to use “such as” along with using commas with like and such as. Like and “such as” are often used interchangeably and for good reason—they are extremely close in meaning and usage….