July 2021

One of the most memorable classes I took in college was on the history of the English language. The influence other languages had on the development of English explains the inconsistencies, the exceptions to the rules, and the varied vocabulary. For example, when do you use “more” or “most” to increase the intensity of a word, and when do you use the suffixes “-er” or “-est”? It depends on whether… Read More »Commonly Misused Words

Commas are the most used (and abused) punctuation mark. Instead of falling into the trap of thinking you should insert a comma at each natural pause in a sentence, use this as a quick reference guide. Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, or, nor, yet, so) that joins two independent clauses in a compound sentence. (An exception can be made if the clauses are very short.)… Read More »Commas