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Category Archives: writing
Trite Trophy Winner 2010: At The End of The Day
Gene Collier, a sports columnist for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, has awarded the “Trite Trophy” to a deserving sports cliche for the past 27 years. In the column, he mocks commonly used sports phrases and mixed cliches in what has … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, humor, language, sports, writing
Tagged cliches, Gene Collier, grammar, humor, language, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, sports, writing
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Over-Inflated Language
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever The tendency to say simple things in complicated ways is so common that over-inflated language could be a blog on its own. You might say: There is a tendency … Continue reading
Posted in language, writing
Tagged language, over-inflated language, writing
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Talk About a Holiday Special: Everything Is Free at Target!
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever I know that retailers always try to top each other during the Christmas shopping season, but Target has seemingly gotten carried away: Everything in the store is free, at … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, humor, language, writing
Tagged christmas shopping, grammar, guest, guest/host, host, language, target department store, writing
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Tone Check
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever Did you run a grammar check, spell check, and tone check before sending that important e-mail to your boss? If you were like me (until fairly recently), I didn’t … Continue reading
Come On, Dictionary
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever When you heard that refudiate, Sarah Palin’s mistaken combination of refute and repudiate, was made one of the New Oxford American Dictionary’s words of the year, I’m sure that … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, humor, language, politics, writing
Tagged politics, refudiate, refudiate word of the year, Sarah Palin, seth meyers
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Language And Grammar Resources (and More)
In case you hadn’t noticed, we changed the look of the blog recently. The most recent template didn’t highlight the pages on the site as well as this one does, so let me introduce (or re-introduce) some of the pages … Continue reading
I Wish I Was Wrong, But I’m Not: More on Subjunctive
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever Sherry previous wrote about the subjunctive mood (Subjunctive Uses Were Not Was) a while ago, but I recently wrote about it on my writing tips for my job at … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged grammar, I wish I was, I wish I were, language, subjunctive, subjunctive error, was versus were, writing
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If/Then Construction
When I put my meteorology hat aside and focus on editing, one of the most persistent errors I see is with the if/then construction when using a conditional sentence. When one clause of sentence is only true if a condition … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged conditional sentences, grammar, if/then construction, language, writing
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The Point is Mute
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever This is another example of what I like to call “Close but no cigarette.” I don’t remember where I heard it, as a good blogger should, but I recently … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged grammar, language, mute versus moot, paul yeager, the point is moot, the point is mute, writing
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Myself Cannot Be the Subject of a Sentence
Do not use myself as the subject of a sentence. Myself and the other -self words—himself, herself, ourselves, etc.—are reflexives, and reflexives cannot be used as subjects. Nominatives should be used as subjects. The nominatives are I, we, he, she, … Continue reading
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