Irregardless… Is that even a word?!? When I was a senior in high school, I had Mrs. Krieser for my English teacher. She had been teaching for at least 30 years by the time I was in her class and was probably the most eccentric faculty member at my small town high school. I remember … [Read more…]
One of my grammar pet peeves? Song lyrics with bad grammar. Just this morning, I heard a John Cougar (Mellencamp) song* that irritated me so much that I had to loudly sing along, using the correct grammar. (Don’t worry, I was in my car, so I didn’t bother anyone else!) The song in question: I … [Read more…]
Me, myself and I. How hard can it be? While these tips on choosing between me, myself and I will be most helpful for anyone writing in first person, we could all use a little refresher. After all, even if we write our fiction in third person, we still write emails, letters, Facebook posts, etc. … [Read more…]
We all use compound words on a regular basis. Compound just means that each word is made up of two or more stand-alone words. Airport. Ballroom. Fingernail. Henchmen. Compound words are lovely things. They let you be clear and descriptive. But they can present a challenge. Should compound words be: Smushed together into one word? … [Read more…]
Since we’re probably all still recovering from the last few days of heavy eating and shopping, I thought I’d keep this month’s topic short and sweet: using commas before conjunctions when they are followed by a complete thought. Let’s break that down. First: conjunctions. You may remember conjunctions from School House Rock: “Conjunction junction, what’s … [Read more…]