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Spelling, punctuation, and other fun topics

Posted on January 23, 2013 by dmguion

People who like to read and write like words and like playing with words, sentences, punctuation, and anything else that comes along with reading and writing. Now that so many of us are BFF forever with our electronic gadgets, we have new tools for communicating—or failing to communicate, as the case may be. Word processing software now comes with spelling and grammar checkers. I expect most writers find them helpful, but they don’t make a very good crutch. For one thing, some of the grammar checkers contain hard-coded grammatical errors. And even if the suggested correction isn’t simply wrong, it … Continue reading →

Spelling, grammar, and why they still matter

Posted on November 28, 2012 by dmguion

When I was learning to read and write, I caught on pretty fast, but I can still remember the struggles of some of my classmates. Developing the fine motor skills necessary to form letters neatly is one problem. English spelling is another. We had long lists of words to memorize and be tested on. Drills on spelling, vocabulary, and basic computation skills seem to be disappearing from school curriculums. Perhaps the educational theorists who hobble our teachers’ ability to do their jobs effectively have forgotten how important basic skills are. Or perhaps they are so intent on raising test scores … Continue reading →

Going on a “which” hunt: choosing between “that” and “which”

Posted on March 21, 2012 by dmguion

Probably no one considers relative pronouns exciting. Maybe most people hardly consider them at all, but writers are not most people. Good writers must know the rules of good usage. Writers might on occasion have good reason to ignore the rules, but know them they must. So when should a writer use “that,” and when “which?” Although writers have been arguing for more than a century whether it matters, the most careful writers recognize that the rule is fairly simple. Use “that” to introduce a relative clause that defines or clarifies the meaning of the antecedent noun and “which” to … Continue reading →

Improve your writing by proofreading

Posted on December 7, 2011 by dmguion

Your first draft needs improvement. After all, it’s unreasonably difficult to decide what you want to say and find the clearest way to express it at the same time. Granted, sometimes it doesn’t matter. On the other hand, if you write to publish anywhere, turn it in for a school assignment, circulate it to colleagues at work, or otherwise send it to anyone who has a right to judge it, set aside your first draft for a day or two. Proofread it and revise it at least once. Professional publishers in the print world usually have copy editors to catch … Continue reading →

Writing with active voice

Posted on October 12, 2011 by dmguion

Active voice brings writing to life. In active voice, the subject of the sentence does something. Active sentences are more direct than passive sentences, and usually shorter. Want to improve your English writing skills? Write with active voice. According to William Safire’s fumblerules, “The passive voice should never be used.” That’s not strictly true, of course, but in passive voice, whoever actually does an action is essentially left out of the sentence or is tacked on somewhere introduced with the word “by.” Active voice consists of a subject followed by a finite verb and perhaps a direct object. Passive voice … Continue reading →

Affect and effect: two spellings, four words

Posted on August 30, 2011 by dmguion

Two spellings, four words? Unfortunately, yes. “Affect” is usually a verb, but it can be used as a noun. “Effect” is usually a noun, but it can be used as a verb. Although they come from the same Latin root and differ only by their first letter, their meanings are practically unrelated. The accent on “affect” as a noun is on the first syllable. Both meanings of “effect” and “affect” as a verb have their accents on the second syllable. In speech they sound exactly the same. Both spellings take suffixes, which in turn create new pairs of quite distinct … Continue reading →

Who? or whom?

Posted on July 27, 2011 by dmguion

Sometimes it's just impossible to find something that has anything to do with the topic!.

Do you ever wonder when to say or write “who” and when to say or write “whom”? Nowadays in informal speech or writing, most people just use “who.” Perhaps most people don’t care, but sometimes it matters. If you are writing a graduate thesis or dissertation (or even an undergraduate term paper), chances are the faculty will care. If you write for Internet content sites where a human editor chooses what to accept, chances are the editor will care. You can’t get away with not knowing the difference. There is a very easy way to know with certainty which is … Continue reading →

This is not a subject; neither is that

Posted on November 24, 2010 by dmguion

This is not a subject. What kind of sentence is that? A bad one. Why? Because the subject of a sentence and the object of a preposition or verb ought to be a noun. “This” and “that” are adjectives. Sending an adjective to attempt to do the work of a noun is a kind of bad writing. I had a professor in graduate school who used to bleed red on everyone’s papers, mostly crabbing about the writing. At least once on every paper I turned in, he wrote, “this what?” At first, I thought it was a pretty stupid question. … Continue reading →

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