Save the Semicolon

Putting too much information in a sentence gets across less information. Sentence with A and B gets across A and B. Sentence with A, B, C, D, and F gets across NOTHING. Why, because no one will be able to read it. (Or they won’t want to bother trying.)

  I recently read an online argument about one of the most commonly used, and commonly fought, expressions around: It’s the answer to “how are you?” “I’m doing good” vs. “I’m doing well.” [NOTE: I'd also like to defend "I'm good," but others have done it well, so I've pasted a link below.] But first, [...]

Not a real post here, but just something I thought was funny. I’m reading about “Siri,” Apple’s new electronic assistant. You ask it to do things, and it does them. But I think the marketing writers should have reworked the paragraph shown in the image below:

A question I usually ask myself when first editing a document is, “how can I reduce this by a third?” Usually, people add more words because they think that those words help make the point accurately and completely. And it’s my job to find a way to say the same thing with fewer words. But [...]

Due to some very silly conversations I’ve had recently, I looked up this post that I had written for another blog a few years ago. Since it relates tangentially to writing, I thought I’d post it here. If you’ve already read it, well, read it again! Chaucer with an American accent Some people seem to [...]

Language is funny. This post doesn’t give any helpful tips about using language, or about writing. But I recently thought of one of many examples of how native speakers use language in a way that might seem inscrutable to new speakers. Think of the difference between asking: Are you cold? And Aren’t you cold? Strangely, [...]

Have you ever worked on a product that has poor UI copy or design? Of course. What about poor UI copy or design that’s been around a long time and is now the standard way of doing things for that product? When do we force the issue and change it? For professional reasons, I can’t [...]

Every once in a while, I’ll hear someone use a word or phrase in a nonstandard way, and think, “but that’s just illogical.” “Irregardless” is a good example. I’ll think: …but regardless means regardless, so irregardless would mean something like, “regardful.” Right? When I start to think like that, a trip to my nearest dictionary [...]

The words “which” and “that” have a long and tangled history together. I’d guess that most native English-speakers don’t recognize a difference between the words in most sentences. For example: The spaceship that looked like a tulip crashed into my swimming pool. The spaceship which looked like a tulip crashed into my swimming pool. Most [...]

I’ve discovered a trend in my pet peeves. They’re generally not about “misuse” of English, but about a writer suffering from “look-at-me.” Today’s edition: “Cost prohibitive.” …