How to use the ellipsis
In a world of texting and snapchatting, everyone is trying to say more with less. We abbreviate, we truncate, we punctuate—all to communicate using the fewest characters. In my own texting, I use ellipses excessively: “While I’m thinking about it … can you please check that link.” “Doctor’s appointment …10 a.m. … Wednesday.” I’ve even caught myself misusing the ellipsis at work. Wait a minute, did I just write: “I can’t make today’s meeting …too many other meetings …can we reschedule?” in an email to my boss? My overuse...
The 8 parts of speech: A refresher
Can you name the eight parts of speech? I remember that there are nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions, but what’s the eighth? Interjections. Oh, yes! It’s been way too long since I’ve watched “Schoolhouse Rock” As professional writers and editors, we sometimes focus so much on word choice, sentence structure and clear writing that we may forget the basics. Here’s a review of the eight parts of speech: 1. Nouns Common nouns refer to a person, place or thing. Proper nouns refer to a specific person, place or thing. Proper...
9 stellar quotes from “A Christmas...
One of the holiday traditions in my house is to read “A Christmas Carol” to my kids. We read it because no matter how many movie versions you see of this classic, nothing compares to Charles Dickens’ style and storytelling. Now that my kids are older, this will likely be the last year we read it together. In honor of the master and this yuletide staple, here are nine powerful quotations from “A Christmas Carol” (minus Tiny Tim’s wisdom): “Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.” “But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the...
