Tag Archives: rules

Grammarland: Apostrophe

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Jodi

Contrary to most of English, the apostrophe is a fairly easy lesson.  It only has two uses – just two – and they are 99% consistent.  Because it’s so easy you’d think that you would rarely see errors.  WRONG. I … Continue reading →

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The 4 Rules of Writing on the Road

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Jodi

Ah, vacation.  That dreamy time when time slows to a crawl and you can leisurely sit back and create the world’s next great bestselling novel.  The muses love a brain at rest and the thoughts flow like water on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Organizational Skills, Writing Exercise | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Grammar is Back! The ‘That, Which, or Who’ Debate

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Jodi

We had a long discussion about the word ‘that’ a while back, talking about all of its various uses and also where it might not be needed.   If you missed it, click here for the post:   That Dratted “That” Today … Continue reading →

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That dratted “That”

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Jodi

Poor ‘that’ has fallen into the ‘unnecessary words targeted for removal’ category along with the words just, very, and a healthy selection of adverbs.  I have been slamming my brain against the desk to figure out why.  After digging deep … Continue reading →

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The Evil Adverb

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Jodi

Every writing book I’ve read offers this bit of advice to help strengthen writing – eliminate adverbs.  Today we will refresh our memories on what makes an adverb and explore why they should be avoided. Let’s start by reviewing our … Continue reading →

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“Dialogue punctuation?” he asked, “But why?”

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Jodi

It is Wednesday and we are returning to Grammarland: the magical place of punctuation rules, tips on language usage, and other useful tools for writers.  Today we are reviewing correct dialogue punctuation. First, the anatomy a dialogue sentence: “You are … Continue reading →

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Fear of the Semicolon!

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Jodi

I have a confession to make, I don’t understand how to use a semicolon properly. There, I said it. So let’s have a review lesson together. The Four Rules of Semicolon Usage Rule #1 -Use to connect two independent clauses … Continue reading →

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