We all have our bad moments. There are times when, even if I go over my work twice or thrice, typos still go unnoticed. You know what I am talking about, don’t you? However, there are mistakes that are just so common that you think people know better than to commit them. Committing these mistakes, in my eyes, can chip away at your credibility. (That’s a nice way of saying that making certain mistakes can make you look dumb.) What are these mistakes? Your /You’re “Your” is a possessive pronoun: You should proofread your blog posts in order to avoid [Read more…]
Prepositions It's Okay to End a Sentence With…
May 25, 2010. 5 Comments
My headline isn’t a shining example of good grammar. 1). I’m ending a sentence with a preposition 2). The sentence is in passive voice 3). I’m not sharing a benefit with you, my beloved readers. Let’s start with number three on the list … why is it okay to end a sentence with a preposition — sometimes? It’s all about read-ability. Sometimes, if we find ways in which to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition, we’ll wind up with awkward construction. (Like that sentence!) If we end a sentence with whatever word sounds most natural (even if it’s a [Read more…]
All About Adjectives
January 16, 2010. 1 Comment
I recently talked about adverbs as an important part of writing. If verbs are the action – the core of our stories and articles – and nouns are the characters, adjectives are the color and style. An adjective is, quite simply, a descriptive word. In some circles, adjectives are as badly maligned as adverbs. “Flowery” prose (never a compliment) uses too many adjectives. But a well-placed adjective paints a picture. It’s the difference between “a man,” and “old man,” and a “young man.” (That’s quite a difference there, right?) If not for adjectives, we’d never have “blue skies, fluffy white [Read more…]
In Defense of Adverbs
December 18, 2009. 3 Comments
Earlier this week, I discussed verbs in our “Parts of Speech” discussion. Verbs create the “meat” of our writing. In fiction, they move the plot forward. In articles and speechwriting, they tell the story. They’re the “do-ers.” If the adage “90 percent of the work is done by 10 percent of the people,” pertained to words, verbs would be that 10 % in the thick of things. Adverbs, on the other hand – they’re like the pretty yet vacuous receptionist or (so as not to pick on one gender exclusively) the boss’s son. They dress things up in the office, [Read more…]
Let's Get to the Action: Verbs
December 15, 2009. 3 Comments
This post is the second in my series on “parts of speech.” Workshop teachers often instruct aspiring fiction writers to begin their stories: “in media reas” (in the middle of the action). Without verbs, a story would have no action. How dull would that be? Verbs – Verbs are action words. Nouns can “do” verbs. Dogs bark. Writers have blogs. Friends are the friendliest. (Thanks to Moose A. Moose, Nick Jr.’s resident mascot and musician). Those are the basics. Now let’s explore types of verbs. Intransitive verbs: These powerful verbs work with a noun to express a complete thought: Dogs [Read more…]
The Noun's the Thing
December 10, 2009. 1 Comment
Did you ever play Mad Libs as a kid? If you did, you remember filling in nouns, verbs and adjectives to make up wacky stories. But you might not remember what those words mean. Based on readers’ questions over the past few weeks, I’m launching a new series defining grammatical terms. We’ll start with the basics and then move on to more obscure terms like predicates, conjunctions and gerunds. I hope I haven’t lost you with those. Bear with me and in a week or so, you, too, will be able to speak like Mrs. Johnson from eighth grade English [Read more…]
