Hyphens
By Mignon Fogarty Today’s topic is hyphens. Recently a friend was watching the cable channel CNBC and called me over to the TV because the hosts…
By Mignon Fogarty Today’s topic is hyphens. Recently a friend was watching the cable channel CNBC and called me over to the TV because the hosts…
Which gender-specific nouns do you still use?
by Mignon Fogarty Some time ago, Grammar Girl distributed an editing checklist that turned out to be so popular we decided to make it widely available. Go…
by Mignon Fogarty We have a special top-10 post to celebrate the end of the year, and—before you argue—read the whole explanation about why each of…
Dialogue is hard to write and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Getting characters to have individual voices has caused more sleepless nights than too much coffee late in the day. Once the dialogue sounds right and reads right on the page, there is the problem of attributives.
By Mignon Fogarty Should you write your novel in present tense? I usually deal with topics that can be widely applied to fiction and non-fiction writing, but…
What’s your favourite book and why? Share in the comments!
Clichés can be a writer’s worst enemy, and the reader usually doesn’t like clichés much either. Writers from Jonathan Swift to George Orwell have ranted against the cliché like it was the Devil tempting an innocent seminary student.
It’s no wonder that people are confused about apostrophes, because new uses were introduced in the 1600s and again in the 1700s, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that people even tried to set down firm rules.
Today’s topic is active voice versus passive voice. Many people believe they should avoid the passive voice, but fewer people can define it or recognize it.