Grammar articles
How do you choose a verb? For those of you who are scribblers, do you ever stop and consider what verbs you are using? Or do you think about what verbs you are using? It is easy to It is easy to surmise that verbs as grammatical, but I prefer to perceive them as vocabulary. I receive…
Line editing makes all the difference. No matter how great your new story may be, are you really sure that you have an error-free manuscript? Hitting the publish button because you are impatient to get your fantastic new book out to readers can be one of the most fatal mistakes a self-publishing author can make if…
I feel like a pun! This lovely list of puns arrived in my inbox recently. I tried to find the original version, but it seems it has been posted many, many times. If the original author finds this post, I would very much like to add the source. 1. A bicycle can’t stand alone. It…
What is a portmanteau in grammar? When I formed my publishing company (Portmanteau Press LLC), I was shocked and appalled that I received the following question from numerous people (my CPA, the lady at the bank, my mother!): what is a portmanteau? Now, I feel the need to educate people about this wonderful language device. Being…
So what’s really so new? As a kid, I was in awe of Dick Tracy’s watch phone. It was something so futuristic and wondrous, so, well, high-tech – even though the word didn’t exist back then. It was probably before the only high I can remember, which was high fidelity stereo. I loved reading comics…
Do you know the punctuation rules for commas? When teaching English writing, one of the most common mistakes I came across was the use of the comma. On asking my students why they had placed a comma in a certain position, they often justified it by saying that it was for a pause for breath.…
