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Previous Articles
Punctuation
- Using a Comma before And
- Using the Serial Comma (the comma before and in a list)
- Punctuating with Parentheses
- Using the Semicolon
- Using the Colon
- Using Commas between Coordinate Adjectives
- Punctuating with Quotation Marks: Part One
- Punctuating with Quotation Marks: Part Two
Grammar
- Deciding If Collective Nouns Are Singular or Plural
- Splitting Infinitives
- Ending Sentences with Prepositions
- Maintaining Parallel Structure
- Starting Sentences with And or But
- Avoiding Four Verb Errors
- Understanding the Passive Voice
(transitive passive verbs vs. transitive active verbs)
- Using the Possessive Case with Gerunds
(Why we should write "I am bothered by his being late," and not "by him being late")
- Signing Your Holiday Greetings: Plural vs. Possessive?
(Happy holidays from "the Williamses" or "the Williams'?)
- Using the Posessive Case: The Issue of Ownership
- Understanding the Subjunctive Mood
(If I were or was?)
- Using Modifiers with Precision: The Case for Only
- Using Comparatives and Superlatives
- Understanding Reflexive Pronouns
(When to use the pronouns that end with the suffix -self, such as myself, herself, etc.)
- Recognizing Singular Indefinite Pronouns: Part One
(The indefinite pronouns everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, and so forth are singular, so pronouns that refer to them must also be singular.)
- Recognizing Singular Indefinite Pronouns: Part Two
("Either is" or "either are"? "Neither is" or "neither are"?)
- Making Nouns Possessive When They End in s, x, sh, ch, and z
- Making Verbs Agree with Relative Pronouns
(Should we write "which is" or "which are," "that is" or "that are"?)
- Deciding if Nouns are Possessives or Attributive
(When to use apostrophes in titles and names such as "Father's Day," "Veterans Day," "Bankers Association," and "English Majors Society")
Mechanics
- Capitalizing Appropriately: Proper vs. Common Nouns and Adjectives
(Addresses the fact that people tend to over-capitalize words in sentences)
- Handling Vertical Lists
(Issues that must be addressed when using bulleted or numbered lists)
- Capitalizing Words in Titles
- Handling the Titles of Works
- Handling the Titles of People and Positions
- Using Numbers
- Typing Characters That Are Not on the Keyboard
- Handling Ellipses
(Those groups of three and four "periods" that indicate missing words)
- Hyphenating Compound Words
- Using One or Two Spaces after Periods (and other typography issues)
- Understanding En Dashes and Em Dashes
- Using Hyphens in Adjective Phrases
Word Usage
- Which or That?
- Who or Whom?
- The Verb Include to Preface a List
- Nauseous or Nauseated?
(Do you, yourself, feel ill, or do you make others feel ill?)
- "The Reason Is Because" or "The Reason Is That"?
- Word Related to Graduates, Graduation, and Degrees
- Cyberlanguage (see also "Update on Cyberlanguage" below)
- Update on Cyberlanguage
- Regardless or Irregardless?
- Sit and Set
- Lie and Lay
- Anymore and Everyday
- Good and Well as Modifiers
- The Latin Abbreviations i.e. and e.g.
- Anxious and Eager
- The Prefixes Bi and Semi
- Bring and Take
- The Articles A and An
- Drug/Dragged and Loan/Lend
- Here and There
- Between and Among
- I and Me
- Effect and Affect
- Like and As
- Criteria and Media
- Bad or Badly?
- Less or Fewer?
Other Topics
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