I’m a grammar geek and I’m old: I don’t get nauseous. I’ve never received a kudo. And I never, ever lay on my yoga mat. Read more.
grammar geek
Making Friends — Trying To — With the Dread Serial Comma
My book contract says that I’m to deliver my book manuscript “in conformity with the provisions in ‘The Chicago Manual of Style.’” That means that, at long last, I’m finally going head-to-head with the serial comma. Read more.
The Writing Room: Different From, Different Than – Which Is It?
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Some of my favorite books on the craft of writing. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall[/caption]
Some of my favorite books on the craft of writing. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall[/caption]
I was at the gym working on my pecs and abdominals the other day when I spotted a flyer announcing, “Belly fat is different than other fat.” Shouldn’t that be different from? What’s correct? I hadn’t a clue. Read more.
Noah Lukeman on the Colon, That Most Majestic of Punctuation Marks . . .
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Noah Lukeman[/caption]
Noah Lukeman[/caption]
Ever since I read Noah Lukeman’s treatise on the comma in a 2006 issue of The Writer’s Chronicle, I have been a fan. A devotee. No, let’s face it, a groupie. Read more.
Book Openers: Barack Obama — How He Got So Smart
Barack Obama was a president who could think. His memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” explains how Obama got so smart. Read more.
What’s Rhetoric? Let My Two-Year-Old Enlighten You
My daughter Christina discovered the art of rhetoric when she was being weaned from baby bottle to plastic cup. She’d say, “I want milk and I don’t want it in a cup” — an elegant illocutionary statement that usually got her what she wanted, her bottle.