Unpopular opinion: There’s a time and place for passive voice
January 18, 2023I had a professor in college who was notorious for his list of 40-something rules for grammar. He would take…The worst jargon of 2022
December 9, 2022It’s that time of year when I like to pause and reflect on all the terrible jargon in thought leadership…The sturdy nail: In celebration of semicolons
October 7, 2022Preachy blog posts, smug tweets, and groaning students all share in their disdain for the semicolon. Why? Because it’s hard…Dangling modifiers and the comedy of grammatical errors
September 30, 2022Given the complexity of language, it’s impossible to score one hundred on the test. Wires are bound to get crossed,…Phrases and clauses: The keys to seamless writing
June 29, 2022Writers and readers alike have long fixated on word choice. To paraphrase Mark Twain, we recognize that the difference between…Hemingway, Faulkner, and the fear of looking silly
May 18, 2022People who edit for a living often end up down obscure grammatical rabbit holes, passionately arguing about the placement of…Of word-hoards and whale-roads: The power of a well-chosen phrase
April 28, 2022The English language is a millennium and a half in the making, with roots to be found as far back…