Grammar Girl Quick And Dirty Tips For Better Writing

Capitalizing Theories. Splitting Infinitives. Samuel Johnson.

Follow along on the website: Capitalizing Time Periods http://j.mp/1z4W6bX Less Versus Fewer http://j.mp/1yP50d4 Bee's Knees http://j.mp/1DiC0dw ---- Try my iOS game, Grammar Pop http://j.mp/1H5YiSj

Follow along on the website: Compliment Versus Complement http://j.mp/184vjlA Saving Our Prepositions http://j.mp/1yOHBdJ How 8 Fonts Got Their Names http://j.mp/1xZXLdg Try my iOS game, Grammar Pop http://j.mp/1H5YiSj

Follow along on the website. Commas Before "Jr." http://j.mp/1BYaNOx Impossible Participles http://j.mp/1u2BXCZ Onomatopoeia http://j.mp/1AXQQZa Try my iOS game, Grammar Pop http://j.mp/1H5YiSj

Tons of fascinating tidbits about sign language from interpreter David Peach Follow along online: http://j.mp/1EQ3dsJ Find David online: http://twitter.com/dpeach http://learnsigns.com Sponsor: http://AudiblePodcast.com/GG Try my iOS game, Grammar Pop: http://j.mp/1H5YiSj

Follow along on the website: Transitive Versus Intransitive Verbs http://j.mp/1AUkNaZ Double Possessives http://j.mp/1x8OVy2 Try my iOS game, Grammar Pop http://j.mp/1H5YiSj

Follow along on the website: Champ Versus Chomp http://j.mp/1Cp9TsZ Hyperbole http://j.mp/1HkXt6c Adulting http://j.mp/1sNOALZ

Read along on the website: What Does "Xmas" Really Mean? http://bit.ly/1xkSUsL Why Don't People Say "Thou" Anymore? http://bit.ly/1sv4joy Who Says "Kitty-Corner" and Who Says "Catty-Corner" http://bit.ly/1yTXXkt Grammar Girl books make a great gift! http://bit.ly/1xkT3fC

Read along on the website" Is "Boughten" a Word? http://j.mp/1tUEecu Did Valley Girls Invent "Like"? http://j.mp/12CCHlG Is German Chocolate Cake from Germany? http://j.mp/1w4pyyW Learn More About my December 12 Writing Webcast http://bitly.com/ggwebcast

Read along on the website: Lightning versus Lightening http://bit.ly/121kVb0 Between You and Me http://bit.ly/1AnHpif How Teddy Bears Got Their Name http://bit.ly/1AnH8fc Sign up for my December 12 corporate webcast. http://bitly.com/ggwebcast

Based on Versus Based off. Make Me a Sandwich: A Joke About Verbs. How to Pronounce Zero

Mic or Mike? Simple or Simplistic? Uppercase and Lowercase. Visit the website: http://bit.ly/1qEiW2m

For NaNoWriMo: How to format a character's thoughts, how to plan a novel, and the surprising newness of the novel format. Visit the website: http://bit.ly/13DNlJ8

Today, with Halloween in mind, I have a Quick and Dirty tip about the difference between a casket and a coffin; and an excerpt from David Crystal’s new book, Words in Time and Place, that goes through the many words we have for death and dying. Finally, I saw something shocking in a formal document a few weeks ago, so I have a tidbit about text messaging and language. Read the transcript: http://bit.ly/1sXJDC5

"Vaccine" Versus "Vaccination." Syelle Graves explains why people say things such as "We never leave any soldier behind. Period," and more generally, the relationship between speech and writing. A doozy of an eighteenth-century grammar rule: Don't use "who" to refer to children. Read the transcript: http://bit.ly/1Fc7Lrk

I know all you European listeners think it’s ridiculous that Americans don’t know the difference between England and Britain, but a British friend told me that many of you don’t know the difference between Britain and the United Kingdom, and that this would be a good topic for a podcast even though people should already know. Read the transcript: http://bit.ly/1D7rupV

An interview with Ammon Shea about the confusing history of apostrophes. Hanged Versus Hung. The story of the Victorian Great Exhibition, where Adolphe Sax displayed his invention: the saxophone. Read the transcript: http://bit.ly/Zsa0po

Yes, you can start a sentence with "because." Here's how to do it. What are helping verbs (also called auxiliary verbs), and why do people in some regions say things such as "might could" and "might should"? English writers didn't always use a dot over the letter "i." We'll talk about when and why they started. Visit the website: http://bit.ly/1phbhWH

Insults, swear words, and world-building for young adults: In an interview with James Dashner, I got the inside scoop on the language of "The Maze Runner." Read the transcript: http://bit.ly/1poctaV

I can tell you which pronouns to use, but it takes a linguist to explain WHY people get confused. Here, Gretchen McCulloch reveals the fascinating reason that people struggle with sentences such as "Billy and me went to the store." Read the transcript: http://bit.ly/1vrTG2g