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Overused Prepositions and the Ubiquitous “On”
A linguistics professor I knew as an undergrad had a theory that in the future, all vowels would turn into the laziest possible sound–”uh.” His theory rested on the observation that language in...
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The Inner Stickler Hulk
Ever since the experiment, I’ve been on the run. On the run from those who would put me away from society, and on the run from the monster inside that makes society hate me so. A few years ago, I...
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On the Joy of Sentence Diagramming
I recently finished Tim Russert’s memoir, Big Russ & Me. It was moving and thought provoking, as it involved so many important events of recent history, and vividly captured the mundane but...
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The Kind Of Day This Teacher Lives For
Friday was productive. I didn’t plan anything special, but by about the middle of the day, I realized that it was a really good one. After a simple error identification and correction exercise on the...
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G-H-O-T-I Spells “Fish”
It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to an entire series of recorded lectures, but last week I picked up Michael Drout’s A Way With Words III: Understanding Grammar at the library, and I was...
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“Email English” Example
Perhaps I don’t do Facebook or Twitter because I’d obsessively demand proper grammar and punctuation at all times. Shorthand conventions be darned; all written communication should conform to...
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Required Reading For Pedantic Sticklers
You must, must, must immediately check out this scorching bit of grammatical derring do by humorist Eric D. Snider. Not only that, but you must then read all of the comments under it. Next year, this...
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Recommended Reading: The Deluxe Transitive Vampire
When I teach grammar, I try to come up with attention-grabbing example sentences. The ones that come in textbooks are notoriously dull (“The person went to the place to get the thing.”), so I want to...
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Sentence Diagramming: Huston For The Defense
Yesterday, a reader named Vicki posted the following comment under an old post of mine called, “On The Joy Of Sentence Diagramming:” “I’m still not convinced that sentence diagramming is profitable. If...
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G-H-O-T-I Spells Fish
It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to an entire series of recorded lectures, but last week I picked up Michael Drout’s A Way With Words III: Understanding Grammar at the library, and I was...
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Great Grammar Goof GIF
Actually, it’s a JPEG, but still…I could teach a whole year just on this: Filed under: Education, Language and Literature
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