Bailouts, mavericks, irony deficiency, Dr. Seuss, chiasmus, annoying words, Golden Bulls, eponyms, George Carlin, apostroflies, Stephen King, family slang, and more: a roundup of blogs from Grammar & Composition in 2008. To keep up with our discussions, sign up for the free weekly Grammar & Composition Newsletter.
December
- Banished Words for 2009
- Online Resources for Writers
- Language Lines
- A Christmas Carol in Bureaucratese
- In Praise of Short Words
- Golden Bull Awards for 2008
- Pop Quiz for Language Lovers
- Mark Twain's Latest Essay: "The Privilege of the Grave"
- Ghost Poop, Woozies, and Foochacha: Family Slang
- Similes That Make Us Smile
- Writing Changes Everything
- Toni Morrison on Writing Without Whining
- Grammar Gurus in Glass Houses
- Campaign to Cut the Clutter: The Fowlers' Five Practical Rules
November
- Season's Gratings: Composing A Holiday Newsletter
- Bailout: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year
- A Plethora of Pinatas: More Words That May Not Mean What You Think They Mean
- What Works in Teaching Grammar
- The Most Powerful, Most Irritating, and Most Nonsensical Words in English
- Maugham on Writing: Know Your Limitations
- A Few Rhetorical Questions--and Answers
- Hype and Hypermiling: Oxford's 2008 Word of the Year
- Language Facts and Figures: Begging Some Questions in the Forum
- Campaign to Cut the Clutter: Vexing and Irritating Redundancies
- Barack Obama's Secret for Stirring a Crowd
- Councils in Britain Ban Latin
- Breaking the Block
October
- Words That May Not Mean What You Think They Mean
- The Long Campaign to Abolish the Apostrophe
- Buncombe Adjourned: H.L. Mencken on the U.S. Election
- Campaign to Cut the Clutter: Please Don't Say That Again
- World Series Special: The Language of Baseball
- Block Those Metaphors!
- Words and Expressions That Ticked Off William Cullen Bryant
- Ten Things Worth Knowing About Noah Webster on His 250th Birthday
- Monty Python's "Announcement for People Who Like Figures of Speech"
- Campaign to Cut the Clutter: Ten Good Little Words
- Singular Plurals--or How Two Rats Became a Rose
- Fleeting Touches of Description
- Ten (or Twenty) Mistakes That Your Spell Checker Will Never Catch
- The Myles na Gopaleen Catechism of Cliché
September
- Eliza Doolittle's Grammar--and Ours
- Fall Campaign to Cut the Clutter: Reducing Redundancies
- Ten Ways to Celebrate National Punctuation Day
- Bazooka Hank and the Metaphors of Financial Crisis
- Overcoming Writer's Block With Freewriting
- Hemingway's Iceberg Theory of Prose
- A Pointless Mark of Punctuation!
- Politics and Pig Metaphors
- Language Facts & Figures: A Few From the Forum
- Mark Twain on Writing
- Remembering Laurence Urdang
August
- 200 Expressions That Really Tick You Off
- Talking About English on the BBC
- Six Ways to Create New Words
- What's the Secret of Style?
- Composing an Essay for the SAT or ACT
- The Difference Between Grammar and Usage
- Why Freshman Composition Is Not a Waste of Time
- Why Irony and Metaphor Are Good for You
- Olympics Special: Let the Word Games Begin!
- Join Us in the Grammar & Composition Forum
- The Case of the Missing Italics
- "But"--It's a Wonderful Word
- Latin Abbreviations and the Mob
July
- Bennett's Rules of Newspaper English
- Delightfully Irregular Verbs
- Annie Dillard's Advice on Getting Started
- Back to Homophone Corner
- The Role-Shifting Parts of Speech
- Blow Up Your TV, and Other Writing Advice From Stephen King
- Composing Descriptive Lists
- Mark Twain on Proofreading
- Merriam-Webster Welcomes the Mondegreen
- Work, Not Magic: 20 Writers on Writing
- Pros on Prose: C.S. Lewis
- How to Cut the Fat Out of Online Writing
June
- There's a Word for It
- Learning to Read the 100 Most Important Words
- Wisdom Speaking Eloquently
- George Carlin's Essential Drivel
- What Is a Good Writer?
- A Revival of the Teaching of English Grammar
- Ten Pros on Prose
- Time Out for Present Participles
- How to Become a Good Re-writer
- Top 10 Websites for Logophiles
- Language Facts & Figures: Prepositions
- What's Wrong With the Five-Paragraph Essay
- Advice on Getting the Words Right
May
- Why the Spelling Society Won't Be at the National Spelling Bee
- Are Americans Irony Deficient?
- I'm Firm, You're Obstinate . . .
- Why Do You Write?
- Another Quick Quiz From the AP Stylebook
- 360,000,000 Words and Counting
- "Brevity First, Then Clarity": Lucas on Style
- Listing
- Visit an Online Writing Lab
- What's the Difference?
- Growing Up With an Editor
- Exercising at Grammar & Composition
- Why Should We Study English Grammar?
April
- First Aid for Writers: Jargon Busting
- Language Facts & Figures: Writing, Technology, & Teens
- Horrible Words (British Edition)
- Thingamabobs and Whatchamacallits
- Bow Wow, Ding Dong, & Yabba Dabba Do: The Origins of Language
- 50 Classic Essays
- A Time for Metaphors
- Spring Cleaning Special: Cut the Clutter
- Rules for Capitalizing Words in a Title
- Swatting Apostroflies
- Compose a Profile
- What's an Appositive?
- Dr. Seuss on Writing
March
- Reference Works for Writers
- At the End of the Day: 170 Expressions That Tick You Off
- Prepositions--Ending Sentences With
- "Candidate for a Pullet Surprise": The Spell Checker Poem
- Spring Edition of Language Facts & Figures
- Chiasmus on the Campaign Trail
- Thurber Says, "If You Are a Writer, You Write"
- Clearing Up Commonly Confused Words
- Best Blogs for Writers & Editors
- Dr. Gregory House, Metaphorically Speaking
- Three More Myths About Language
- Steinbeck's Advice: Draft Long, Revise Short
- National Grammar Day
February
- Out of Town Words: The William F. Buckley Vocabulary Quiz
- The Oops Factor: Corrections and Clarifications
- Writers on Not Writing: Robert Benchley
- A Very Overworked Modifier
- Borrowed Rhetoric on the Campaign Trail
- From Accismus to Zeugma: 20 Rhetorical Terms You Never Learned in School
- Building and Combining Sentences
- Dueling Maxims
- Who Cares About the Oxford Comma?
- Editing at "The New Yorker"
- A Pro's Prose: The Rhetoric of Rick Reilly
- The Golden Age of the English Language
January
- Web Resources for Writers
- Trust the Voice
- What Expressions Tick You Off?
- Infomania Alert: Vote for Australia's Word of the Year
- Questions of Style
- Advice to Writers for the Daily Press
- The Tools of Punctuation
- Dr. King Wasn't Just Dreaming
- National Grammar Day
- Are You a SNOOT?
- Advice from the World's Worst Writer
- Favorite Grammar & Composition Blog Posts from 2007
- Banished Words for 2008
