One thing I specialize in is whittling down wordiness. You could argue that wordiness is even a pet peeve of mine. A popular wordiness culprit is the use of the word “currently” (and its cousins “now” and “presently”).
Category: Grammar
Don’t always use a comma before “and”; here’s when you do
A common practice I’ve noticed while editing others’ works is the tendency to place a comma before the word “and”, no matter the circumstance. I can think of only 3 instances where a comma should come before “and”, which I’ve outlined below.
Everyday vs. every day
Two commonly confused words are “everyday” and “every day”. (Yes, I realize the latter isn’t actually one word.) The difference is subtle but important. “Every day” means each day. “Everyday” means commonplace or usual. For example, compare the following:
A run-on sentence is not a very long sentence
A few years ago, when I was working as a writer for a private company, a coworker accused me of writing run-on sentences for YouTube video descriptions. When I reviewed the descriptions, I saw no run-on sentences at all. It turns out, he was referring to sentences he considered too long; they weren’t actually run-on… Continue reading A run-on sentence is not a very long sentence
I could care less
Have you ever used the phrase “I could care less”? If so, you might be using it incorrectly. It should probably be “I couldn’t care less”. When you say “I could care less,” you’re telling people that you care right now, but under certain conditions, you could care even less than you do now. When you… Continue reading I could care less
Difference between ought to and should
Last week, a client sent me a 16-page document to edit. Several people at this company disagreed with the usage of “ought” in the document (which appeared at least a dozen times), recommending it be replaced with “should”. In actuality, I don’t find much difference between the two, at least not in the sense of indicating obligation.… Continue reading Difference between ought to and should
Don’t use capitalization for emphasis; use this instead.
From time to time, I come across people using capitalization to emphasize words. This is wrong. Let me show you why. Consider this sentence:
Who for persons and that for things. Wrong.
We hear a lot of grammar myths growing up. Some come from our parents, some come from our teachers, and some come from English experts. One of those myths is the idea that you must never use “that” as a relative pronoun when referring to people. The so-called rule goes something like: use “who” for… Continue reading Who for persons and that for things. Wrong.
A clever trick to reduce naughty “not” phrases
About a year ago, I wrote a popular post about how to reduce your word count, which is a handy skill to have if you write a lot. Many of us tend to be wordy. The article was basically a list of 6 tips to easily fix the most common wordiness habits. The fourth tip… Continue reading A clever trick to reduce naughty “not” phrases
Difference between segway and segue
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