Subject/Verb Agreement Issues with Examples

1 year ago with no comments in Word Usage
As a writer, it’s essential to ensure that your sentences have proper subject-verb agreement. Subject-verb agreement is the rule that states that the subject and verb in a sentence must agree in number. In other words, a singular subject requires a singular verb, and a plural subject ...

Using Quotation Marks Properly in Academic Writing

1 year ago with no comments in Punctuation
Quotation marks are an essential tool for indicating when someone is speaking or when you are quoting a written text. Proper quotation mark placement is key to making your writing clear and easy to read. To help you better understand this form of punctuation, we will explore the rules of ...

Reverse Outlines and Their Benefits

As a writer, have you ever found yourself in a situation where you feel like you’re writing in circles, unable to organize your thoughts into a clear and concise structure? This is where a reverse outline can be a valuable tool to help you gain clarity and make your writing more ...

Proper Period Placement in Writing

1 year ago with no comments in Punctuation
Periods are one of the most important punctuation marks in the English language, and they play a crucial role in clarifying the meaning of sentences and making them easier to read. However, many people struggle with proper period placement, leading to confusion and ambiguity in their writing. ...

Proper Comma Placement in writing

1 year ago with no comments in Punctuation
Commas are one of the most frequently used punctuation marks in English, and they play a crucial role in clarifying the meaning of sentences and making them easier to read. However, many people struggle with proper comma placement, leading to confusion and ambiguity in their writing. Here, we ...

The Importance of Academic Tone and Style in Colle

1 year ago with no comments in Writing Style
College essays are an important aspect of a student’s academic journey. They provide an opportunity to showcase one’s writing skills, thought processes, and knowledge on a particular subject. But, simply having good content is not enough. To make a strong impression on the reader, ...

Ethos, Pathos, & Logos – Persuasion

As my students work on developing their writing skills, one important concept that we get into is rhetoric and rhetorical argument devices. When we are exposed to argument in some form or other, there are three key parts to the argument that are used to try to persuade us. These are ethos, ...

Weird Al Yankovic’s “Word Crimes”

2 years ago with no comments in Motivational
As a professor of college students, I see many students who struggle with grammar, punctuation, spelling, and other issues related to essential writing skills. Often, these issues come from common misunderstandings of language that we see in the media and in informal writing that is all around ...