Is it canceled or cancelled? Depends on where you are!

Posted on 01/21/2020 at 01:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

The trick to remembering how many l's belong in the past tense and gerund form of cancel should be pretty...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Language, Writer's Digest

Writer’s Digest breaks down “awhile” versus “a while”

Posted on 01/14/2020 at 10:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Have you been wondering about “awhile” versus “a while” for a period of time? Well, good news: Writer’s Digest editor...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Language, Writer's Digest

Agree or disagree? Editor says to stick with "said" and "asked"

Posted on 01/06/2020 at 10:23 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

During the creative-writing portion of eighth-grade English class, the teacher gave us a handout of one hundred ways to say...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Jane Friedman, Language, Writing advice

What's the point? Author defends her pro-exclamation stance

Posted on 12/31/2019 at 03:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

What else is ubiquitous this time of year besides year-end lists and predictions for the future? The exclamation point! Think...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Jane Friedman, Just for fun, Language

When style guides agree

Posted on 12/20/2019 at 09:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Writer’s Digest has an update to a nearly ten-year-old grammar tip. Since both the Chicago and Associated Press style books...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Language, Writer's Digest

"They" is Merriam-Webster's 2019 word of the year

Posted on 12/10/2019 at 07:57 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is the shortest one so far this season: they. But its brevity belies its complexity....

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: Just for fun, Language

"Existential" is Dictionary.com's word of the year

Posted on 12/09/2019 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

At first blush, Dictionary.com’s 2019 word of the year seems to be following the doom-and-gloom theme set by other dictionaries’...

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: Just for fun, Language

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