Another lesson on the oxford comma

Another lesson on the oxford comma

Related articles A little fun related to the Oxford comma (proswrite.com) A light-hearted lesson on the Oxford comma (proswrite.com) The Oxford comma: Decried, defended, and debated [infographic] (holykaw.alltop.com) OnlineSchools.com Infographic Debates the Use of the Oxford Comma (prweb.com) The Best Shots Fired in the Oxford Comma Wars (mentalfloss.com)

What is the evidence of literacy decline caused by texting?
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What is the evidence of literacy decline caused by texting?

I’m working on a post about taboo words (that means swearing or profanity) that’s not ready for prime time — and recovering from the flu. In the meantime, I highly recommend  today’s post over at Motivated Grammar. Gabe’s point is that, when people don’t actually understand how language works, they see decline and deterioration in language different…

The video tutorial on subject-verb agreement

The video tutorial on subject-verb agreement

Last week, I wrote that subject-verb disagreement matters because it signals a serious breach in etiquette. And that distracts business readers. Relatively few of my former students (or writers for whom I served as editor) have committed the faux pas in the writing they have done for me. But, for those amateur writers who do struggle with subject-verb disagreement,…

Shibboleths and entering the professions
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Shibboleths and entering the professions

Yesterday’s post,  Language choices can be unsuccessful — but never wrong, raised a few eyebrows. For some of you, my belief that language can never be wrong contradicts with my belief that I can prepare students for writing successfully in the workplace. The apparent contradition deserves an explanation. So today’s post is about grammar rules. (I’ll get…

Language choices can be unsuccessful — but never wrong
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Language choices can be unsuccessful — but never wrong

I recently found a marvelous video of Stephen Fry talking about language. Here’s what the creater (Matthew Rogers) says about his video: Using the wonderful words of acclaimed writer, actor and allround know it all (I mean that in the best of ways) Stephen Fry, I have created this kinetic typography animation. . . I loved this particular essay on…

Amateurs need explicit knowledge — not platitudes
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Amateurs need explicit knowledge — not platitudes

I shared my position on the use of short lectures in a writing class a couple of days ago. But I told only part of the story from the video lecture-tutorial + teaching note that will be published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Education. The amateurs in my courses depend on me to make a professional’s tacit…

The video tutorial on punctuation

The video tutorial on punctuation

Research has clearly established that the vast majority of US business readers notice only two punctuation infelicities — even in formal documents. Today I am sharing a video tutorial to help those amateurs who struggle with the two issues that elicit the most negative attention: comma splices: using a comma to mark a sentence boundary sentence fragments:…