Meg tore a strip from her shift and bound it against her bleeding arm. It would likely scar, but that was the least of her worries. The bog had seemed like the safest place to run, in case they had…
Blog Archives
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,…
Solitude–A Poem for Writers
Today is National Poetry Day. Hurray! It’s the sort of thing that gives me hope for humanity. Only problem is, I don’t have a favorite poem. I have something like forty. All I can say is go read Shakespeare, Kipling,…
Petition to Change the Amazon Review Policy
I’m making another of my forays into activism. But this should be one that any author or reader can understand.Amazon has recently begun discounting reviews on its site. I like Amazon generally for what it’s done to even the playing…
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…
62 Million Girls
I’m going to make one of my rare forays into something political. I’ll preface this by saying I rarely admire any politician. The very nature of their work requires too many compromises. But I believe this campaign can do only…
Twitter: Getting Over the Two Thousand Follower Roadblock
You may or may not know this, but being able to follow over two thousand people on Twitter can be a pain. According to Twitter Support “… every user can follow 2000 people total. Once you’ve followed 2,000 users, there…
Tagged with: 2000 following limit, Cathleen Townsend, ManageFlitter, unfollow
Posted in Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Social Media, Twitter
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 