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How To Write Shop

Articles on the craft and business of writing

grammar tips

Common Grammar Mistakes that Diminish Your Writing

March 14, 2014 by Kathy Steffen 6 Comments
grammar compound words

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…]

Posted in: Grammar, Writing Craft Tagged: grammar, grammar tips

Grammar: Was or Were? It’s all subjunctive

September 30, 2013 by Rachel Berens-VanHeest 2 Comments
grammar

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…]

Posted in: Grammar, Writing Craft Tagged: grammar tips, verbs, was vs. were

Powering Up Your Prose with Line Editing

June 5, 2013 by Amy Knupp 3 Comments

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…]

Posted in: Revision, Writing Craft, Writing Tips Tagged: copyeditor, grammar tips, line editing, revision

Grammar: Apostrophe Rules are Easy!

May 31, 2013 by Rachel Berens-VanHeest Leave a Comment
grammar

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…]

Posted in: Grammar, Writing Craft Tagged: apostrophes, grammar tips

Grammar and the Dangling Participle

November 26, 2012 by Rachel Berens-VanHeest 6 Comments
dangling participles

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…]

Posted in: Grammar, Writing Craft Tagged: dangling participle, grammar, grammar tips
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