I’m a grammar nerd. Sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes it’s a bad thing. One of my biggest pet peeves is improper pluralization of a noun. If you read my post about apostrophes, you know I strongly believe that an apostrophe is never (never, ever, ever) used to make a word plural. I hold […]
Read More »
If you’re an analytical nerd like me, you know every sentence can be dissected and labeled by its structure and included word types. For example, that first sentence’s structure was D,I: dependent clause, (comma) independent clause. The most basic sentence type is a simple sentence, or a single independent clause (I). For example: I am […]
Read More »
When communicating (be it writing, talking, or any other type of message sending), we have two “voices” we can use–active and passive. At the most basic level, the difference is in how the subject is acting. Consider the following two sentences: The dog chased the rabbit. The rabbit was chased by the dog. In the […]
Read More »
Apostrophes are possibly one of the most incorrectly used punctuation marks in the English language. They serve two purposes: creating contractions and showing possession. Yep, that’s it. Now, admittedly, if you ask someone else, you’ll likely get a different response, but to me (and to everything I learned back in 7th grade), apostrophes have just […]
Read More »
We all know what the word “that” means, right? It identifies a specific person or thing. It’s an essential word in the English language, but it’s also a word that gets grossly overused. In my college writing class, we were given 30 minutes to write on a defined topic. At the end of the […]
Read More »
As an avid writer and self-proclaimed grammar nerd, I’m admittedly critical of others’ writing. Even the smallest errors jump out at me and interrupt my reading, if only for a second. Writing is hard, and English (especially American English) is confusing at best. Add to that the reduction in reading as kids, and our writing […]
Read More »
The English language is confusing and contradictory. Pronouns are no exception. Pronouns are those words that take the place of a noun – I, he, it, they, etc. What gets confusing is when to use which one. Many of us have been so conditioned to hear (and thus, say) “Jacob and I,” that we now think […]
Read More »
