Category: Grammar/Punctuation

I had to weight in here because this literally drives me nuts: said is used for a statement while asked is used when posing a question. Pease stop using said with a question mark as it is NOT proper no matter what the new trends are. Question marks are punctuation used to indicated interrogative clauses … Continue reading Said Versus Asked

There are a few trends I notice both as a reader and editor. One is the misuse of that in place of who in narrative text or formal scripts. Before you argue - note what I actually said: in narrative text or formal scripts. This means areas of your book that is not dialogue (internal … Continue reading Who Versus That

It is easy to misuse words, and slang doesn't help. Colloquialisms aside, when you are writing or editing, it is important to understand the rules, even when you intend to break them. So, what's the proper way to use ASSUME versus PRESUME? Let's find out... The simplest answer is this: ASSUME (a verb meaning "to … Continue reading Assume Versus Presume

Often, people confuse either and neither. Since these are connected to or and nor, I decided to include these with this post, as well. My husband and I had a recent conversation where this came up. The simplest way to put this is that either is always used with or and neither with nor. Either … Continue reading Either / Or versus Neither / Nor

Essentially, it all comes down to this: ALL RIGHT is the formal version and ALRIGHT is the informal version of the same word. As an editor and writer, I would both advise and use ALL RIGHT in omnipresence narration (when the character isn't narrating the story) and ALRIGHT in dialogue or instances of colloquialism. With … Continue reading All Right vs Alright