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  Startups, start-ups & other sticky situations

  2134 readersI love when a situation arises that forces me to question my own judgment and knowledge. Perhaps I’m still gun-shy from the other day’s ‘Til v. Till debacle but I love when a grammar rule or convention trips me up. This happened recently while I was copyediting for a technology client. The original copy had the

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  Less Than v. Fewer: What’s the Difference?

  941 readers// As the newest blogger on the FWJ block, it wouldn’t be right to leave my readers in suspense for too long. I must address the tweet written by JoannaOC: “I want the line to be for people with ‘fewer than 10 items’ instead of those with ‘less than ten items.’” So many people get this

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  Quotations and Punctuation: A Tale of Cultural Differences

  2327 readersGrammar is confusing enough for those of us in English-speaking countries, with multiple style guides, conventions that have fallen out of fashion, and rules people simply forget. If all that’s not enough, Americans also follow different rules than our English-speaking neighbors to the North. I’m not talking about the random letter U Canadians like to [...] Related

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  Till is Not Clipped from Until

  5063 readersclipping, n.2c. The shortening of a word, etc.; also, the resulting shortened form.Many people are of the belief that till is a shortened form of until (I admit, I was one of these people). However, a closer look at the word histories reveals that till was the first to enter the lexicon.Following are the words

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  The Ins and Outs of Lines

  1950 readers// “That girl looked like Kate from Lost,” I observed as we left the bank. “Who? The one on line?” my husband asked. I gave him a blank stare. “No, the girl in the bank…  She looked like Kate from Lost.” “Yes. The girl on line… in the bank,” he specified, sounding frustrated. “Oh! Yes! Didn’t she?” And that is

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  Obliterating “And,” “Also,” and “Additionally”

  3185 readersThe rule that you can’t begin a sentence with the word “And” was drummed into my head by elementary school teachers and my mother from the time I could write. “Everyone” knew that was wrong, wrong, wrong. For years, I wouldn’t begin a sentence with “And,” took the word out of every article I edited,

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  Grammar Checker: Friend or Foe?

  1281 readersWhen grammar checkers first came out – I think it was shortly after sliced bread and just before the Ford Pinto – people thought they were the greatest thing. A computer could tell you what was wrong with your writing. Just click “change” and your work would be perfectly publishable. It was the end of

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  Happy Spring!

  3672 readersA sentence in my previous post sent me rushing to several different grammar resources for the correct capitalization rules. It’s a small point, but I often wonder about it, so I thought you might, too. Do you capitalize the names of the seasons? It turns out, according to the Oxford Dictionary, the AP Style book and

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  Using Numbers in Writing

  2755 readersAs with so many other grammar and style rules and conventions, the way we write numbers has changed as blogging has grown. More and more writers now use numerals in all instances rather than spelling out numbers below 10. It makes sense; numbers are easy to read and catch your eye on the computer screen.

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  The Great Space Debate

  2606 readersVirtual Assistant Tracey Tarrant of TCT Business Solutions writes in with a punctuation/style question. She asks: What is proper when starting a new sentence… one space after the period (or question mark, etc.) or two? For example: I went to the store. I bought milk. or I went to the store.  I bought milk. That’s a good question! Tracey didn’t realize