Grammar and Punctuation Recently, while sending out my current work-in–progress (WIP) to the round of agents, I came across an agent’s blog that was downright scary. The spelling and punctuation were atrocious. She even violated a basic rule of using a plural verb form with a singular noun. It was quite annoying; after all, are…
For the most part, I get the basics of grammar. I know the difference between commas, semi-colons and colons. I’ve sorted out “who” and “whom”. And from memory, I can chant “i before e except after c.” Every sentence needs a noun and a verb. I run from run on sentences and fragments can cause me…
If you play Trivial Pursuit, you know about the grammatical error featured in the opening credits of Star Trek. The famous line “to boldly go where no man has gone before” contains the split infinitive “to boldly go” (where the adverb “boldly” splits the infinitive “to go”). While the line remains mostly unaltered throughout Star…
Last summer, I participated in an impromptu editors’ discussion (via email) on the rules for capitalization of titles. We were trying to reach a consensus in terms of our in-house standard (we all work for a small publisher). Titles such as “president” and “secretary general” cause much confusion over whether or not to capitalize. However,…