Related Articles

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  Vote for Apostrophe Catastrophes!

  5378 readersGrammar.net is having a contest for the best grammar blog. Vote for Apostrophe Catastrophes using this link and I will be eternally grateful.In other news, Russ sent me this apostrophe catastrophe that he spotted on Animal Planet:If the apostrophe in Paw's just moved before the "n," everything would be fine.Thanks, Russ!

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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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  Grammar Book Review: Grammar Done Right

  2090 readersBased on the cover of Grammar Done Right, which shows the words Grammar Done “Good” and “Well,” with those adjectives crossed out, I expected a humorous, lighthearted look at grammar. Compared to other titles written in the same style, however, Grammar Done Right falls short in the humor department. If you’re expecting “wit and wisdom,”

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  World Series / AT&T Catastrophe

  2188 readersMany of us are suffering from a bit of winter malaise, so I thought it might be nice to post a baseball-related apostrophe catastrophe. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training just one month from today!In this context, its should not have an ap...

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  Mea Culpa

  2359 readersHave you ever been so absolutely sure of a grammar rule you haven’t looked it up in decades? Did you cringe whenever you heard or saw people break the rule? Did you correct people with a righteous tone in your voice? Only to find out, years later, that you were wrong? In writing this column,

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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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  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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  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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  Her website cited the Site as “The Best Sight in the City.”

  1257 readersSite. Cite. Sight. I caught myself confusing these words in a blog post the other day, and I figured if I do it, I’m sure others do, as well. If I’m not careful, I use “site” when I mean “cite.” Perhaps it’s because I get so accustomed to typing “site” when I’m referring to websites? Incidentally, “website” is

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  Catastrophe at Beer Island

  1199 readersAmy found a double apostrophe catastrophe at a Coney Island liquor store called Beer Island. What a cool name for a liquor store, right? Too bad about the punctuation errors. On the left, we have it's rather than its, and on the right, today's is missing an apostrophe. "Maybe the apostrophe jumped from one sign