Rachel E.

Abbreviations vs. Acronyms, and Why You Should Stop Calling It an Acronyms List

As with most fields, my primary field, international development, uses many standards and jargon that do not follow traditional rules of grammar, language, and spelling (and I’m a traditionalist). Some are harmless, such as capitalizing the “g” in “Government” when referring to a specific country (e.g., Government of South Sudan, Government of Nigeria); others are lessContinueContinue reading “Abbreviations vs. Acronyms, and Why You Should Stop Calling It an Acronyms List”

To Split or Not to Split… That is the Question about Infinitives

As an editor, this is the #1 question I get. Is it OK to use split infinitives? Lots of sources provide conflicting opinions. Many, like Oxford English Dictionary’s Language Matters, say “yes.” But, I say “no.” Sure, split infinitives have become a part of American English convention. But, that does not mean using them is correct or theContinueContinue reading “To Split or Not to Split… That is the Question about Infinitives”

Word Crimes

I’m not sure about all of you, but I’ve been a huge “Weird Al” Yankovic fan for years. His newest singles have been released in the past few days, and they’re better than some of the parodies he’s written in years. One new single deserved its own blog post: Word Crimes. It is a bitContinueContinue reading “Word Crimes”

Who is “she”?

Elizabeth told Amanda that she had a problem. Who had a problem?

One of my past editing instructors loved giving us grammar lessons about pronoun usage and why placement matters, so this issue has been drilled into my brain! I saw this on Facebook today and thought it was a great example. Technically, Amanda has the problem because pronouns refer to the closest preceding noun, no matterContinueContinue reading “Who is “she”?”

Proper Punctuation Matters

"Let's eat Grandma!" or "Let's eat -- comma -- Grandma!" Punctuation saves lives.

I’ve seen quite a few memes over the last year or so that highlight the importance of properly placed punctuation (say that three times fast 😉 ). Here are a couple of my favorites… (from the blog Bilinguish) (from Adult ESL Jobs) P.S., Grammerly is one of my favorite go-to sites for all things grammar.ContinueContinue reading “Proper Punctuation Matters”