Save the Semicolon

From all the language pet peeves that I hear about, the phrase “I could care less” seems to peeve people the most. Well, let’s say it’s tied with “irregardless”….

I usually say to choose the combination of clarity, brevity, and audience comfort over grammatical purity. But there’s a time to ignore that advice….

… the writer had a checklist of items that needed to be said, then said them all, checking them off one by one. Hey, if it’s on the page, then we communicated it, right? Well, legal text has worked off that theory….

Do you “sign into” the web site, or “sign in to” the web site? It’s used both ways all over the place, but in my opinion, only one way makes sense….

Imagine getting to the FIRST step in a series, and reading the steps listed below. There are a couple of small issues, and one big one. Let’s skip the small ones….

Words have meanings. I know, that’s even more obvious than most of the stuff you read here. But today, as a special gift to you, there’s a twist. I don’t mean that words have definitions. They do, of course, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about meaning beyond definition. Stop being coy, you say?

Terribly sorry for my monomania, but these things stick in my head.

This time, I’m not telling you what I know, really. I’m admitting to a problem. I don’t know how to show possession in certain circumstances.

But first, let’s talk about the word “who.” Come on, you know you want to.

I just listened to a talk by her, and then happened to run into her afterwards. The talk was great, and funny.

Why did people start calling the bicycle a bike? Why not a bice? A facsimile became a fax, but it would have easy to call is a fak, right? I don’t get it.

I’m suddenly responsible for a bi-monthly newsletter that shall go nameless in these pages (at least until I’m no longer responsible for it). I wasn’t responsible for it when it mentioned that 2010 was the beginning of a new decade, but I do have to suffer the slings and arrows of outraged pedants. They want [...]