To follow up last month’s column on cleaning up your writing below is a reference list of some common grammar mistakes. (Can you tell I’m in the middle of book edits?) Take care, especially when you are writing a blog or a post. Yep, I’m feeling a bit like the Grammar Police today, but seriously, … [Read more…]
Was or were… it’s all subjunctive. Let’s talk about moods. No, not my mood, or your mood, but a grammatical mood. Who knew grammar had moods, right? Well, it does. The mood we’re going to look at here affects verbs and is called the subjunctive mood. Subjunctive Mood One of the most common verbs that … [Read more…]
So you’ve finished a draft of your manuscript. Congratulations! That’s an accomplishment scores of people dream of and only a small percentage of determined writers achieve. The next step is, of course, revising your manuscript, maybe after getting a critique partner’s input or receiving feedback from a contest judge or an editor. You’re done with … [Read more…]
One of my biggest grammar pet peeves is the misuse of apostrophes. People seem to think that these little punctuation marks can be added wherever they like, or maybe that they make words look more impressive somehow. (How many times have you seen a sign like this: “Vegetable’s for sale.”) And this misuse is so … [Read more…]
What is a dangling participle anyway? You probably use participle phrases every day, but are you using them correctly, or are you leaving them dangling? Let’s see. Pop quiz: What’s wrong with the following sentences? – After picking up all the toys, the toy chest was overflowing. – Watching through the window, the car pulled … [Read more…]