Aug 7, 2017 | Punctuation and Grammar
Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style,” for 60 years a bible of good writing for many students and adults, is still valuable but has some “cockamamie advice,” says famed linguist Steven Pinker. In an essay titled Writing in the 21st...
Apr 5, 2017 | Punctuation and Grammar
We could live without some commas, but eliminating all of them would hinder clarity, and people would waste time rewriting the sentence just to avoid using them. A linguist at Columbia, John McWhorter, says that many text messages and email illustrate that most commas...
Aug 30, 2016 | Punctuation and Grammar
Dashes are not a one-size-fits-all answer each time you need to pause. People frequently use dashes interchangeably with the comma: Anytime they want to pause, they just toss in dashes without realizing that the nature of the information dictates whether a dash is...
Mar 29, 2016 | Punctuation and Grammar
Because the exclamation point is so overused, readers often don’t feel the excitement. Like most people, you have received email that says such things as, “We’re looking forward to it!!!!” but you’re not sharing quite the same level of...
Mar 16, 2016 | Communication, Editing, Effective Writing, Punctuation and Grammar
Dashes and hyphens look to be similar punctuation marks, but they play different roles. Knowing the difference can add clarity to your meaning. A dash sets off information that needs emphasis; a hyphen joins words that are used together to form an adjective. The dash...