Idiom. We all use it but do we know where it comes from? It means: something that becomes boring after nine days. Or ceases to be a wonder, due to other events that take precedence. Some believe it was William Kemp, a Tudor actor who morris-danced his way from London to Norwich, supposedly in nine … Continue reading Nine Days’ Wonder
A word spelt right is a beautiful thing. A word spelled right will often go unnoticed. The flow of the piece just...well, flowing. A word spelt wrong is like fingers down a blackboard. It interrupts that flow, it jars, it grates. It makes you go back and read the sentence again. And sometimes it can … Continue reading Spelling. You don’t notice it – until it’s wrong
Having discussed and debated the merits of the spell check, I thought I'd take some time to talk about proofreading your own work. If, like me, you feel you're pretty good at picking up on mistakes, that your typing isn't too bad, and you have a fairly good grasp of English and the grammar that … Continue reading Editor in Person – Why You Shouldn’t Proofread Your Own Writing
An excellent question! I'm talking grammatically rather than judicially. In fact, 'an excellent question' isn't really a sentence, if you follow the basic rules. The Simple Rules for Sentences: Every sentence must have a subject. Every sentence must have an object. Every sentence must have a verb. (There are more rules, by the way. Such … Continue reading What Makes a Sentence?