“It’s” versus “its” and “who’s” versus “whose”
These are some tricky ones, and even people who kinda-sorta know them will still call me up to ask which spelling to use in a particular sentence. (Which, in fact, someone did just the other day.) The...
View Article“Principle” versus “principal”
Because I’m teaching a technical communication course on writing and editing this quarter at MSOE, I’ve had issues of grammar, punctuation, and spelling on my mind more than usual lately. One common...
View ArticleWhat’s the difference between grammar, punctuation, and mechanics?
The title of today’s post is actually one of my blog’s categories, shown at the lower right-hand side of the screen. Someone was wondering about the difference, so I thought I’d explain. What follows...
View ArticleAffect versus effect: which is which?
In commenting on the dash–hyphen post a couple days ago (and that’s an en dash between the words “dash” and “hyphen” :) ), Kathleen suggested that I write a post about “affect” and “effect.” Great...
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