Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is misplaced modifiers. Of all the writing errors you can make, misplaced modifiers are among the most likely to confuse your readers, but they're also kind of fun because misplaced modifiers can give your sentences s...
Hi! This is Stever Robbins, host of the Get-it-Done Guys Quick and Dirty Tips to Work Less and Do More. Grammar Girl is working on her book this week and since I do a lot of public speaking, she asked me to talk about how to use similes and metaphors...
Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is subversive Christmas carols. And now, on to our question. There's a listener named Kat whose holiday joy is crushed every time she hears the Christmas carol Joy to the World. She asks: Why do we sing 'Joy to the wo...
Today, Bonnie Trenga will help us figure out whether a fast-food chain is on the cutting edge of grammar, or its just being creative with verb tenses. Its time to dissect the McDonalds advertising slogan Im loving it. An ESL teacher named Devaki wrot...
Grammar Girl here. We've received several requests to address Latin plurals, so today we're going to tackle a tricky one. A listener called with this request: Hi, Grammar Girl. This is Adam from Peoria. I was wondering if you could go over the usage...
Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is irregardless. Hi, Grammar Girl. I'm an English teacher in Boston, Massachusetts, and I am freaking out. One of my students tells me that irregardless is now a word, and apparently it's been added to some dictionari...
Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is whether--not rain or sunshine, but whether w-h-e-t-h-e-r, as in whether you like it or not, it's the topic. [Listener question about if versus whether and whether you need an or not after whether] Well, it's been a...
Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is hyphens. On Monday afternoon Pat was watching the cable channel CNBC and called me over to the TV because the hosts were talking about hyphens. Yup, in the middle of a segment on the economy, they started talking a...
Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is part II of the series on numbers: percentages and decimal points. Percent Versus Percentage First let's get our terminology right. In some cases percent and percentage can be interchangeable (1), but the easiest wa...
Steven from Katy, Texas, asked me how to write a good blog comment, and I thought it was a great topic I haven't seen covered anywhere. I don't know any bloggers who don't crave comments, but there are many more places than blogs that you can leave c...
Today we're going to focus on that better writing part with a show about how to write a better complaint letter. Negotiation If you usually start letters of complaint with Dear Stupid-head and end them with Threateningly yours, they may not be as eff...
Grammar Girl here. Today, Bonnie Trenga will help us choose better transition words. This article could make you a tad hungry, because today were comparing the art of writing to the art of making a sandwich. In fact, just for today, we might need to...
Grammar Girl here. This week we have a new guest writer, Rob Reinalda, who is going to help us look at something called a false series. You may ask, What the heck is that? Well find out in a moment. A Parallel Construction Problem: the False Series A...
Today were going to talk about italics, that slanted type that you sometimes see amidst regular roman type. Following the Rules Open up any style guide and it'll give you a list of items that need to be italicized. The important thing to remember is...
Legal Lad here, filling in again for Grammar Girl. The poor girl is still sick. She asked me to thank everyone who has sent get well messages. She appreciates them a lot. Today's topic is how to use the word myself. Grammar Girl says that how to use...
