Do I hyphenate twentieth-century or not? And what about one-and-a-half? It can be confusing. First of all, Grammar Book cautions us that when hyphens are used to indicate a range, as in 30-40 yards away, a space is never used around…
Blog Archives
Ten Ways to Use Hyphens with Numbers
Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, compound numbers, fractions, hyphenate, hyphenating, hyphens, numbers
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Play Fortunately, Unfortunately–And Liven Up Your Plot
Today’s post is an absolutely brilliant one by Emma Darwin on adding conflict. I tend to go too easy on my characters at times. I love them too much, and when I have to make their lives a living hell,…
34 Writing Terms For Serious Writers
Part of being a writer is expanding your knowledge of our craft. A better vocabulary about the technical aspects of writing can help you to become a more proficient wordsmith. It’s very difficult to speak intelligently about something if you…
Writing Contests
Contests are a terrific way to spur your productivity. I’ve been putting some thought into these lately, and I thought I’d share some of my favorites with you. All of these have NO entry fee. Blog Battle–happens weekly at http://rachaelritchey.com/category/weekly-entries-to-blogbattle/. Follow…
Tagged with: Baen, Blog Battle, Cathleen Townsend, On the Premises, The Cult of Me, Thinkerbeat, Writers of the Future
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Split Infinitives
Originally posted on Hannah McCall:
An infinitive is the form of a verb made by adding to to its stem (e.g. to go or to do). It is often argued that there should never be anything between the to and…
Comma Abuse
Gasp! The horror! It’s just a poor, innocent little comma, and so many people abuse it. But I know that none of you want to be part of this terrible trend, so I thought I’d run through some of the…
Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, comma splice, dependent clause, FANBOYS, independent clause, predicate, subject
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Help! I’ve Lost My (Writer’s) Voice! A Remedy For Allegedly Lost Writers
This is yet another excellent post by the inimitable Dan Alatorre. He has some suggestions which are not only excellent for writers seeking to revitalize their voice, but also for those who are stalled in their writing. And face it,…
Using a Comma for Contrast or Effect
Purdue says, “Use a comma near the end of a sentence to separate contrasted coordinate elements…” https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/607/. Like so many definitions, this one needs some explanation for it to actually make sense. As covered in More than One Adjective–Comma or…
Commas and Parenthetical Statements
* It’s time for another fascinating episode concerning the slippery little comma. There’s a good reason it’s the most misused punctuation in the English language. The rules are many and varied. Purdue says: “Use a pair of commas in the…
Tagged with: absolute phrases, appositive phrases, Cathleen Townsend, clauses, Comma, essential phrases, infinitive phrases, parenthetical, participial phrases, prepositional phrases
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Cathleen Townsend 