Indefinite Hiatus

Alas, I find myself in an unfortunate position yet again. After trading in one blog for another in the hopes of being able to better maintain a blog on a different topic, I’m now taking on a handful of large projects that are demanding more of my time than I’m accustomed to giving. Thus, to preserve my sanity and my sleep schedule, I am reluctantly giving up on any kind of formal blogging for the foreseeable future.

Wish me luck!

Dashes and Hyphens: What’s the Difference?

There are subtle but important differences between dashes and hyphens. I’d like to address this issue here.

Just an Aside

One thing I frequently see in all types of writing is the failure to fully set off an aside (usually by forgetting to end it).

Multiple Counts of Possession

Earlier, I touched upon possessive nouns and discussed possessive pronouns. But wait! There’s more! We still need to deal with plural possessive nouns.

Could, Would, Should

Complete these phrases: I could ___ done it, I would ___ done it, I should ___ done it.

Of “its,” “it’s,” and (ugh) “its’.”

In this installment, we take a look at it’s and its and attempt, once and for all, to kill its’ with fire.

On Being Selfish

Last week, I talked briefly on the topic of “I” vs. “me.” Now I’d like to turn slightly and discuss another topic of some importance: “myself.”

Aye, me. Is it “I” or “me”?

There is certainly quite a bit of confusion over the use of “I” and “me.” So many people have so frequently used one or the other and been corrected without explanation that they’ve started to believe that only one is ever right. That’s why I’m here to set the record straight: It’s a matter of context.

Spelling Saved my Computer

Don’t you hate it when you’re merrily working away on your PC, and suddenly something crashes? The reboot and the error report dialogue can be a real headache.

What’s a Grammatical Case and Why Should I Care?

Grammatical case describes the relationship of a noun or pronoun to other words in the sentence. I’ll be talking just a little bit about this now because we’ll need this vocabulary later on.