Better Punctuation—Getting the Versatile Em Dash Right

Writers, editors, and proofreaders need to know the ins and outs of this sometimes-forgotten dash, which adds variety to your punctuation—something that is always welcome. It can replace pairs of commas, parentheses, colons, and semicolons; but when is it correct to use? What is an em dash? In my post on en-dashes, I noted that …

Better Punctuation: What’s an En Dash?

Polish your writing with this often-missed punctuation mark. Here’s my first post on punctuation, and I’m starting with a mechanical, nuts-and-bolts topic that is useful to writers and proofreaders. It’s also a topic that was a revelation to me—I’d never run across explicit teaching about dashes in my education or teaching until I did a …

Grammar Myths To Disquiet a Writer’s Soul

Language constantly evolves and, as it does, it creates controversy. Likewise, in some cases, certain speakers create new restrictive rules or apply existing language rules in an overly broad or restrictive manner. These people are often referred to as “purists” or “grammar mavens”, in the negative, pernickety sense. Their beliefs about correct language usage are …

The Writer, the Editors, and the Proofreader

Whether it’s an annual business report, a novel, or an academic essay, the art of writing involves keeping purpose, tone, organization, and coherence in mind. There are also spelling errors to avoid, like there versus their, grammar issues like subject-verb agreement, and tricky punctuation questions. But once a writer is in their “flow,” they seldom …