You Might Also Like...

• 

  Quotations and Punctuation: A Tale of Cultural Differences

  854 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

• 

  Grammar Book Review: Grammar Done Right

  681 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,”

• 

  Catastrophe at Beer Island

  222 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

• 

  Mea Culpa

  854 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,

• 

  Grammar Checker: Friend or Foe?

  866 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

• 

  Grammar Guide – How to Use Apostrophes

  553 readersGuest post by Linda Aragoni For their size, apostrophes cause writers an extraordinary amount of grief. Fortunately, understanding the two primary functions of apostrophes will prevent most of that grief. The first main use of the apostrophe is to c...

• 

  Snappin’ Her Fingers

  480 readersI've noticed the missing apostrophe (and missing space) in the branding of Shake'N Bake [sic] before, but my local supermarket is normally too crowded to get a clear shot at the shelves.* But then on Wednesday, a miracle happened. We were supposed to get a foot of snow in Boston, so my company let everyone

• 

  The Ins and Outs of Lines

  453 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

• 

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

  772 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

• 

  Happy Spring!

  771 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