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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...

There is often a question asked about I/me or he/him in the construction "He is taller than I/me" or "I will arrive earlier than he/him." The word than begins a dependent clause and is always invo...

This was in an article I was reading: "Police say the father turned himself into police." I think not. He did not become a policeman. It has to be "...turned himself in to the police." Happy pun...

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...

Just a quick note: My book is available NEW only through margieholdcourt.com. It is not available on Amazon. If you see it there or on eBay, just know that it is used. I don't want anyone else disa...

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...