Also punctuation. The Little Red School House–the school I went to as a kid–was one of the earliest progressive schools–possibly the first in New York City, where I grew up. The emphasis was on learning by doing and experimentation, and … Continue reading
There are a number of grammar myths current in the genre writing community. A lot of people seem to believe, for example, that commas exists to mark pauses when, actually, they show logical relationships between parts of a sentence. Strunk … Continue reading
Caress the detail, the divine detail— Vladimir Nabokov Let it be unequivocally stated—I am NOT a detail person. When I read a Regency, I seldom notice by what title the characters address each other unless the author confuses me. When … Continue reading
Misusing the word “unique” bugs me. Something is either unique or it isn’t. So you can’t have “pretty unique” or “very unique” or “kinda unique.” No, unique means only one of it exists. But that pales next to cloying, annoying, … Continue reading
The Elements of Style – better known as Strunk and White for its authors, William Strunk and E.B. White – is fifty years old. The publisher has brought out a 50th Anniversary Edition. Newspapers and magazines have waxed elegiac on … Continue reading
