Thursday, September 11, 2003
Your Dad Went Into a Comma? That's a Great Trick!
Hey, folks, people cannot go into commas....they go into comas. A coma is a medical condition characterized by lack of responsiveness to external stimuli. People may be in comas for a few days or for years. Robin Cook has a book called Coma which is quite a good medical thriller. A comma has nothing... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 12:11 PM Comments (6) (link)
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
I Did Not Allot a Lot of Time for This Post
So let me get straight to the point. There seems to be a great deal of confusion over this little issue. Allot is a verb. It means to parcel out, to assign, to apportion. Example: That doctor allots only five minutes to each patient. A lot is two words. It is a noun phrase and means myriad, bunches,... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 8:47 AM Comments (1) (link)
Friday, August 29, 2003
Surprising Spelling Tip of the Week
Interesting word, "minuscule." Means "tee-ninesy, itty-bitty, microscopically small, insignificant." And it's spelled funny. You'd think it was supposed to be spelled "miniscule" with the "mini-" like the one in "miniature" or "Mini-Me." But it isn't! It's spelled "minuscule" with a "minus" as in... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 8:12 PM Comments (0) (link)
Monday, August 25, 2003
A Dilettante Has Nothing to Do With Pickles!
Well, nothing, that is, unless your "dilettante" is a pickle-lover. "Dillettante." A common misspelling, this, and sometimes humourous. But for those who have the affliction of needing to be right, there are certain words in the language that give us nightmares. "Chaffeur"..."amateur"...... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 12:27 PM Comments (0) (link)
Sunday, August 17, 2003
Chile Is Neither Chili nor Chilly, and It Has Nothing to Do With Peppers
Ah, the confusion of reading "We ate some chile last night." What, you like mud pies? Chile, pronounced /chee-LAY/ by those who know, is a subtropical country in South America. Interestingly enough, it's long and skinny, having the rough outline of a nice serrano pepper. Chili, pronounced /CHI-lee/,... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 3:15 PM Comments (6) (link)
Monday, August 11, 2003
Don't Snigger at Me, You Oaf!
Once again, a controversy over spellings darkens the skies. Is it "snicker" or "snigger"? Let the Grammar Guru help, won't you? Snicker means "to utter a half-stifled, possibly snide, laugh." Snigger means "a disrespectful laugh, usually partly-stifled." In essence, they are synonyms, although... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 8:07 AM Comments (0) (link)
Friday, August 8, 2003
Serial Killers Don't Murder Cereals
A cereal killer would be someone who takes the life out of your bowl of porridge. A serial killer, on the other hand, is someone who makes a habit of taking the lives of others according to a pattern. Cereal, you see, is a noun meaning a type of grain product. In Europe, it can mean any of a number... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 7:40 PM Comments (3) (link)
Thursday, August 7, 2003
When You Need Advice, Ask Someone to Advise You!
The Grammar Guru has been asked to explain the difference between advise and advice, two frequently misused words that should be easy to tell apart. Advise is a verb, meaning "to tell someone what they ought to do." It is pronounced /ad-VIZE/. Someone advised him not to invest in widgets. Advice is... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 3:36 PM Comments (1) (link)
Wednesday, August 6, 2003
O Tempora! O Mores!
This post was sparked by a comment that I made on one of DREAH 's posts, in which I mistakenly assumed that she had misquoted an old saying. I was wrong. She had intentionally changed it, for reasons that I understand and respect. But this tendency in modern writing and editing greatly concerns me,... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 1:49 PM Comments (3) (link)
Saturday, July 19, 2003
"That" or Not "That"...That Is the Question!
There is a movement afoot in publishing and academic circles to remove "unnecessary" instances of the word that from writing. The problem is that it is difficult to codify when that is unnecessary and when it isn't. For example, more than half of the "experts" would omit my use of that between... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 8:14 PM Comments (1) (link)
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About this Blog
A professional editor, writer, and English tutor answers your questions about the finer points of grammar, word usage, and other technical aspects of the writer's craft. E-mail questions to editormum@usa.com, or use the Comments section of a previous post. Happy Writing!
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