Oxford Dictionaries: "Climate emergency" is the word of the year

Posted on 11/20/2019 at 04:02 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

The next word of the year from a dictionary is along the same theme as the previous one. Oxford Dictionaries...

Tagged As: Just for fun, Language

Collins Dictionary reveals its word of the year for 2019

Posted on 11/07/2019 at 10:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Collins Dictionary has chosen “climate strike” as its word of the year for 2019. You can probably either guess what...

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: Just for fun, Language

Eighteen writing rules that you can break

Posted on 11/06/2019 at 03:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Rules comfort some of us — and chafe many others. We have some good news for writers in the latter...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Editing, Language, Writing advice

Verb tenses: How to use them properly and effectively

Posted on 11/03/2019 at 04:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

You’re welcome to write in any verb tense you want, in one experienced editor’s opinion. But that being said —...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Language, Writing advice, Louise Harnby

Refresh your memory on forming possessives

Posted on 10/29/2019 at 12:14 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Bookworks' Karen Conlin says she decided to write about possession in honor of Halloween. But in scrolling through her refresher...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Editing, Language

Grammar Girl's advice on putting "on" before dates

Posted on 10/19/2019 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

In the grand scheme of grammar, whether to put “on” before a date isn’t the most important question to consider....

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Grammar Girl, Language

Grammar Girl's rules on proper compound possessives

Posted on 10/16/2019 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Compound subjects seem to compound the difficulty of using possessive pronouns, based on what Grammar Girl is seeing. Thankfully, Mignon...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Grammar Girl, Language

Hopefully, you’ll remember the way to spell “smoky”

Posted on 10/09/2019 at 05:28 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

As you guessed from the headline, one of Grammar Girl’s latest must-read tips focuses on the right way to spell...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Grammar Girl, Language

Imminent versus eminent versus immanent

Posted on 10/03/2019 at 04:49 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Writer’s Digest editor Robert Lee Brewer has a three-part grammar tip today. Imminent, eminent, and immanent may sound and look...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Language, Writer's Digest

How to use dashes in fiction

Posted on 10/01/2019 at 03:30 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Ready for more than you ever wanted to know about the types of dashes and how publishers typically use them...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Editing, Language