Category: Grammar & Editing

January 20, 2022

7 Common Comma Mistakes

I wanted to call it “Common Comma Conundrums” (I’m a sucker for alliteration), but I figured “Common Comma Mistakes” was more searchable. Oh, well. Either way, it’s a list of comma errors that people make a lot and how to fix them. The 7 Most Common Comma Errors 1. Comma Splice A comma splice is when you join two sentences...

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November 4, 2021

Loose versus Lose

“Loose” versus “lose”: these two are so misused it drives me nuts. Seriously, I recently saw someone make this mistake in ballotpedia and came across “a mind is a terrible thing to loose” somewhere else (it might’ve been funny if it’d been deliberate). To fix this, let’s talk about the difference between “loose” and “lose” and when to use which...

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October 7, 2021

Why Recognizing the Parts of Speech of Words Is Important

One of the first things we learn in English is the basic parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. Over the years, I’ve had many students who could glibly quote the definition of each, but they couldn’t find an example of one in a sentence. That scares me because recognizing the part of speech of words is important to almost...

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September 12, 2021

How to Tell a Transitive Verb from an Intransitive Verb

First, let me just say that remembering the terms “transitive” and “intransitive” isn’t that important unless you’re going to be teaching English. It can, however, be useful to know how to tell a transitive verb from an intransitive verb, so we’re gonna focus on that aspect. Transitive Verbs versus Intransitive Verbs:Definitions and How to Tell Them Apart What Is a...

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August 26, 2021

Don’t Use a Colon After Include

You know who you are. Yeah, you. I’m calling you out – don’t use a colon after “include.” Or “includes.” Or “including.” Or any other verb that has to have something after it to make sense. If you feel personally attacked by that, then, yes, I’m talking about you. But don’t worry: you’re not alone. A large faction of the...

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May 20, 2021

Should I Use Number or Amount?

It all started with an Instagram ad. Yeah, you read that right. It’s actually a pretty funny mug, too (painfully true: just the way I like ’em). Then, I saw, “amount of rodeos.” And an article about whether to use “number” or “amount” was born. That’s the mug in all it’s glory. It might’ve been mine, too, except for one...

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November 14, 2017

The English Building Block Most Kids Are Missing

When you’re trying to teach kids higher English skills, it can be really frustrating when they are fundamental skills they simply don’t have. In my experience, the English building block most kids are missing is an understanding of clauses. The Clause: English Building Block & Gamechanger Defining Characteristics of Clauses Since this is a blog for writers, I’m assuming that...

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October 26, 2017

Up With Which I Will Not Put: Not a Winston Churchill Quote

Nope. “This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put,” is not a Winston Churchill quote according to quote investigator. We have been mislead yet again by the internet (well, it actually started with newspapers and such). On the other hand, it’s an excellent example of why I’m not a big fan of trying to...

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October 24, 2017

Learning Direct and Indirect Objects from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

If you haven’t read, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, I highly recommend it – it’s a great children’s book. It’s also a useful tool to begin learning direct and indirect objects. How to Use Direct Objects and Indirect Objects First, I’d like to break down an action into two parts: cause and effect. The cause would be the...

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October 13, 2017

How to Recognize Logical Fallacies by Type

With all the ridiculous reasoning being thrown around the news, internet, and more, I’m constantly reminded that people don’t recognize logical fallacies. With each reminder, I’d start thinking, maybe, if more people knew how to recognize logical fallacies (& resist), there’d be less bad reasoning in the world. So I thought I’d write an article about a handful of extremely...

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