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the writing life

Like, Wow.

Over at City Journal, Clark Whelton, a former speechwriter for Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani, tracks the decline and fall + more

A Vigorous Defense of Prescriptivism

One of my favorite magazines talks about one of my favorite reference books. Here’s the money quote: You don’t open + more

A Word on Punctuation

The aim of proper punctuation is not just to blindly hew to a set of inflexible rules; it’s to clarify. + more

There Once Was a Man from Nantucket…

Behold! The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form—quite possibly the greatest achievement in publishing since Euclid’s Elements was first set + more

Nabokov Knows Butterflies

Turns out Vladimir Nabokov—author of Bend Sinister, Lolita, and Pale Fire, among others—was right all along when he hypothesized that + more

Our First Politics Post!

Like supreme court justice Antonin “The Hammer” Scalia, I skipped last night’s State of the Union speech. It’s not a + more

The Language Police Strike Again

The decline and fall of Western Civilization continues apace, courtesy of some weenies busybodies up north: The Dire Straits song + more

Waste of Space

In my capacity as a professional writer and editor, I’ve learned that, for the most part, the rest of the + more

Welcome to Oregun

The Oregon Department of Education is allowing the use of spell check on the state’s required writing exam. Even more + more

Talk about Your Dangling Participles…

For years I’ve labored under the misconception that “hung” really ought not to be used unless you’re speaking of a + more

Pick Up a Book Once in a While

Ben Yagoda has a revealing article over at the Chronicle of Higher Education website, in which he correctly identifies the + more

May I Tactfully Suggest…

The phrase “take a different tact” seems to be rearing its ugly head more often these days. Perhaps I’m more + more

All Hail the Octothorpe!

The National Post’s Robert Fulford has the goods on “one of the great comeback stories in the history of competitive + more

More Grammar! Yay!

Following up on Wednesday’s post about the many-splendored semicolon, I want to shed a little light on the frequently cited + more

Half a Colon’s Better than No Colon at All

One of the more egregious writing errors I come across—from adults who ought to know better, no less—is the joining + more

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