Words can be confusing. There are thousands of words in the English language, and changing one little letter can completely change the meaning. To make the meaning as clear as possible, know the words that will try to confuse you: Adverse vs. Averse Uninterested vs. Disinterested Suppose vs. Supposed Oriented vs. Orientated Democratic Party vs. [...]
Of the punctuation marks, colons are often considered the stepchild. Few people know how to use them properly, and even fewer people actually use them to make their writing more effective. Use a colon after a complete sentence to introduce a list of items when introductory words like namely, for example, or that is are [...]
In 2007, Chris Gill wrote an article about the trend of capitalizing words that do not need to be capitalized. Although written with a British slant, several points Gill makes are applicable to U.S. English, too. Gill argues against the overuse of capitals for the following major reasons: It makes the text harder to read. [...]
There are several times when the choice between italics or quotation marks can be tricky. When referencing books or articles within text, do you underline, italicize, or use quotation marks? Underlining was used when typewriters were the writing tool of choice, but is now outdated. Most style guides today say to italicize book, journal, play, [...]
Such a little mark holds such meaning. Properly placing hyphens can be confusing. Often people think that anything combined needs a hyphen or that a word looks better hyphenated. Actually, though, a hyphen typically isn’t needed. For example: He seems uninterested in the movie (not un-interested). However, sometimes hyphens are necessary. Use a hyphen if [...]
Knowing when to use quotation marks seems simple at first, but what about when it comes to combining double and single quotation marks? Where does other punctuation go? The following rules will help you answer just that. Use both quotation marks when you have a quotation within a quotation. Begin with double quotation marks, and [...]
According to the Chicago Manual of Style, commas should be used before the and in a series of three or more items. I need to buy milk, juice, and soda. However, journalists us the Associated Press Stylebook and often leave out the final comma because print space is valuable and the meaning of the sentence [...]
Most writers know that an apostrophe shows possession for a noun; the omission of some letters in a word or numbers in a year; and the plurality of single letters, numbers, and abbreviations. But the apostrophe has other uses as well that may not be in the forefront of our minds when we are writing. [...]
Determining when -ly is needed on the end of a word can be tricky. When choosing between adjectives and adverbs, remember what each is supposed to do. Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns and can come before or after the words they describe. Adverbs modify adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs. If an adverb answers “how” and [...]
English can be a tricky language. Take the words that and which, for example. They are both relative pronouns that restate the antecedent to make the sentence clearer, and they both function as either a noun or an adjective in the sentence. Some say that the word which is supposed to be used with parenthetical [...]
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