Good questions have been piling up in my inbox lately. Ed in Albany, N.Y., had a question about a recent column in which I mentioned people “who just won’t stop using the word ‘over’ wrong.” Here’s Ed ...

“John quickly pulled out his gun, shakily aimed it at Joe, and angrily shot him dead.” There’s one way you might write a line of fiction (or, if you’re a member of my immediate family, memoir). Here’s ...

Prepositions are short words and phrases that give information about place, time and manner, eg: 'on', 'under', 'near', 'below', 'by', 'at', 'in'. You can join sentences, clauses and phrases together ...

Our discussion of flat adverbs continues today as we, firstly, add more examples. I hope you remember what flat adverbs are: those that do not carry -ly. Rather, they have the same forms as adjectives ...

Adjectives should be rationed and adverbs questioned. When the Covid-19 was raging through the world, there was a poster: Is your journey really necessary? Let’s replace the word “journey” with ...

You can join sentences, clauses and phrases together using connectives, or joining words. Some common connectives include ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘so’ and ‘then’. Using these can make your writing flow. A ...