Blog

All dates are transcribed in figures. When the ordinal is added to a date when said -- ...on May 5th... -- it is not good grammar. It is not correct to say the month and date and add the ordinal t...

Just the basic rules for the dash. It is the third one that many people don't always remember. There are three basic reasons to use a dash:1. broken sentence structure (This is where the interrupt...

There is a grammar principle here: Use each other with two; use one another with three or more. Remember that, when making a word possessive, everything in front of the apostrophe has to be a wor...

This particular phrase, turn into, is an idiom which means "to become." ...When he drinks, he turns into a monster. So with the word turn, unless the meaning is "to become," in to has to be two w...

The English rule is that the year is surrounded by commas when it follows the date and that the state is surrounded by commas when it follows the city. ...happened on May 4, 2013, near Tulsa. ...l...

When the question is "Was that A.M. or P.M.?" the problem with the way the answer looks is solved if you cap both letters. The dictionary gives you an option for caps or lowercase. Choosing caps al...

The term "lead-in words" is used to describe the words that introduce quotes. Traditionally they are ...I said... ...did he ask... ...she replied... ...did you state... Some of the "modern" innov...

A rule of thumb, perhaps: When trying to discern whether something is a "title" in front of a name, think of whether it sounds "normal and usual" to walk into a room and say, "Good morning, -----....

I have just begun a Twitter account. Follow me @MargieWW. I must confess that I am not totally sure what I am doing, but I have jumped in. Happy punctuating! Margie