Anyone who follows me on Twitter has probably seen me tweet one of my shrink tips. They’re examples of wordiness I’ve come across while editing, and I share them with my condensed, edited versions. Usually, my shrink tips involve removing a word or two, but over the last couple of months, there’ve been a handful… Continue reading 5 examples of wordiness fails (and how they should’ve looked)
Category: Grammar
Why you must give up using “very” and “really”
We often use “very” and “really” for emphasis. They’re easy to use; we just plop them in front of another word to give that other word more impact. For example, “I’m very hungry” tells the reader I’m not just your run-of-the-mill hungry. It’s more than that. The problem, however, is that since this practice is so… Continue reading Why you must give up using “very” and “really”
Don’t worry, it’s all right to use “alright”
As someone who gets paid to correct others’ grammar, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that I’ve heard more than my fair share of people spouting off grammatical rules. Some of those rules are legitimate, while others are made-up and nothing more than myths. In fact, here’s a myth: “Alright” isn’t a real… Continue reading Don’t worry, it’s all right to use “alright”
Do you use ’s to make words plural? Please stop!
Without even trying, it seems I’ve had a bit of a theme in my writing posts recently: writing blunders on social media. Have you read my posts on alot vs a lot and the overuse of the ellipses? It seems I’ll be carrying on this theme with today’s post: the use of the apostrophe when… Continue reading Do you use ’s to make words plural? Please stop!
The problem with alot
Every once in a while, I see a “alot” pop up in writing (unsurprisingly, it’s often in Facebook comments). I saw it today, and it prompted me to write this post. When it is used, “alot” describes a large quantity or amount of something (e.g. alot of peppers, alot of heat, alot of pain). This… Continue reading The problem with alot
Starting sentences with conjunctions: another myth busted
One grammar rule you may have heard in school is to never start a sentence with a conjunction (such as “and” or “but”). This is actually another one of those made-up, recent inventions that has no basis in fact. Actually, English speakers have started sentences with conjunctions for 1,200 years.
Difference between assume and presume
Last week, after reading another one of my difference between posts, Laura Crowe asked me to write a post about the difference between assume and presume. https://twitter.com/LCCopywriting/status/606412621659676672 While some people use “assume” and “presume” interchangeably, there’s a subtle difference between the two.
10 stuffy phrases and how to fix them
If you’ve ever read a contract you had to sign, an academic paper, a court brief, or some similar document, you likely came across language that seemed difficult to understand. You may have found yourself rereading words to understand sentence meaning, or you might have even started dozing off. As my long-time readers know, I prefer… Continue reading 10 stuffy phrases and how to fix them
It’s okay to use “they” as a singular pronoun
If you hang out with anyone who’s a grammar snob, you’ve probably heard them correct someone using “they” as a singular pronoun. I was actually doing some research on this usage recently, and I discovered some interesting tidbits.
Difference between defence and defense
One of the challenges of living in Canada is trying to know what spelling to use. For some words, we use the American spelling (e.g. analyze, tire), and for others, we use the British spelling (e.g. metre, catalogue). In some cases, either is acceptable (e.g. colour and colour, theatre and theater), and yet in some… Continue reading Difference between defence and defense