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Have you noticed that we don't seem to get conventions here in Los Angeles? Why doesn't NCRA come here? Well, we won't go into the possible answers for that question. Instead, here you go! August ...

When a compound noun that is two words has a prefix or suffix, hyphenate the prefix to the first word or the suffix to the last word and leave the compound noun as separate words. ...pre-high scho...

The word please takes punctuation according to where it is in relation to what it modifies. At the beginning of what it modifies, it takes no punctuation after it. ...Please put that notice into ...

When someone is "thinking" and saying aloud what that thought might be, if he is using the exact wording he would use when saying it, yes, it should be quoted. ...I said to myself, "Wow. I am in t...

Here is a punctuation question from FB that inspired today's blog: "On examination her lower extremities had normal capillary refill -- that is, normal circulation -- and no trophic changes, in ot...

The ZIP code does not take any punctuation in front of it. It goes with the element it follows. ...Los Angeles, California 90045, is the... ...live in Culver City 90230 with... The comma after th...

As with all standard suffixes, -ish should be added to the word and made a solid word when possible. ...sluggish ...selfish As with many suffixes, -ish is added to words for which is was never in...

What do I do when it is clear that the witness has left out a word, probably the f-word, in what he said? ...so he took it upon himself to say (here's where he left out the word) "these guys"... ...

Someone on FB asked about these. This is from my new book that is coming out this fall: Word Pares, Pears, Pairs. It will be some 3,000 pairs defined with examples. passed Past tense and past par...