Last week was full of comma splices. I saw them in much of the writing I edited. What’s a comma splice? It’s when two independent clauses are joined with a comma. (An independent clause is a clause that can stand alone as a sentence.) A comma is not the correct punctuation that should connect two […]

There’s an annoying construction in English usage that I often see: the use of based off  (or off of ) instead of based on. It’s one of those incorrect, conversational English phrases that are growing in popularity and carrying over into writing. (It’s similar to the troublesome grammatical errors discussed in this post and this […]

Headings are important in nonfiction writing. They create structure so information can be easily found. They help organize the ideas you’re presenting. If I’m looking through a book to find specific information, I’ll read the headings before reading the text. Just like the body of your text, headings should also be clear, concise, and consistent. […]

I majored in English in college. I taught English grammar to elementary and middle school students. I’m immersed in the rules of written English every day while editing. Grammar rules are important. Just like standards set the foundation for effective teaching, grammar rules set the foundation for effective communication. As a former teacher, I’ve heard […]

We all make grammatical mistakes sometimes. But there are certain errors that I find particularly troublesome: those that involve lazy grammar. Of course, language naturally changes over time, but it would be sad for English to decline because lazy grammar usage became accepted. The use of different than and different from is one of those […]