Essay exams, participial phrases, Mr. Whipple, Bushisms, quote abuse, Mark Twain, spell checkers, Pink Floyd, wild apostrophes, Monty Python, sprezzatura, Homer Simpson, and more: a roundup of blogs from Grammar & Composition in 2007. To keep up with our discussions, sign up for the free weekly Grammar & Composition Newsletter.
December 2007
- Resolutions for Writers Who Want to Be Read
- If You're Really Serious About Writing
- The Freight-Train Style
- Hoo-hoos, Ghost Poop, and Pummies: Family Slang
- Golden Bull Awards for 2007
- Keep Cutting the Clutter
- More Tips to Improve Your Writing
- Swift on Style: "Proper Words in Proper Places"
- Language Facts & Figures: Family Resemblances & False Relations
- Top 11 Online Reference Resources for Writers
- Hopefully Indeed: Sentence Adverbs
- The Great Nitpicker: Harold Ross
November 2007
- Keep It Brief
- More Nincompoopery: Words of the Year for 2007
- How to Compose a Successful Essay for the SAT or ACT
- A Holiday Newsletter from David Sedaris
- Sinks & Specs, Dingbats & Daggers: A Glossary of Copyediting Terms
- Oxford's 2007 Word Of The Year: "Locavore"?
- Three Myths About Language
- What Is an Essay?
- Writers on Writing: Norman Mailer
- Beating Writer's Block
- Look-Alike/Sound-Alike Errors (and How to Fix Them)
- Mark Twain on the Rotten English Alphabet
- The Ten Worst Student Essay Topics of 2007
October 2007
- Writing Professional E-mails
- Language Facts & Figures: All About Verbs
- World Series Special: Baseball Lingo
- Read and Enjoy the Best
- (Subject-Verb) Disagreements in the White House
- Secrets of Writing with Style
- More Euphemisms: 50 Ways to Say "You're Fired!"
- Tables Alphabetical: The First English Dictionaries
- Writers on Writing: Doris Lessing
- An Introduction to Freelance Writing
- Say Good-bye to the Hyphen
- On Being a Great Small Writer
- Odd Words About Words
- Online Journals for Composition Instructors
September 2007
- N.B. Latin Abbreviations in English
- Crazy About Words
- A Guide to Effective Style
- Writers on Writing: Joyce Carol Oates
- National Punctuation Day Special: Language Facts & Figures
- Quick Tips to Improve Your Writing
- Golden Bull Awards
- A Scrapbook of Styles
- On a Résumé, Sweat the Small Stuff
- The Role-Shifting Parts of Speech
- Lillian Ross on the Qualities of a Good Editor
- More Commonly Confused Words
August 2007
- Let the Clichés Begin
- Blogs for Grammar Geeks
- George Carlin on Redundancies
- Writers on Writing: Grace Paley
- Figuring Out the Figures of Speech
- A 12-Pack of Imported Words & Perceptions
- Visit the Grammar & Composition Forum
- Words of the Day
- Drafting and Revising "Once More to the Lake"
- More Than One "Ignoramus"?
- Sweet Words on Atrocious Styles
- Punked by the Pomma Point--and Other Odd Marks of Punctuation
- Phony Rules of Writing
- Composing Descriptions with John Updike
July 2007
- Clichés, Stereotypes, and John Gay's "New Similes"
- Advertising Slogans: Squeezing the Figures of Speech
- Euphemisms, Dysphemisms, and Distinctio: Soggy Sweat's Whiskey Speech
- Figaro Explains How to Write a Successful Essay
- William Hazlitt, the Word Juggler
- In Defense of Fragments
- Grammatical Terms That We Should Have Learned in School
- Tricolons: Lift, Stir, & Inspire with the Magic Number 3
- Not-So-New Words from Merriam-Webster
- E. B. White's Advice to a Young Writer
- Anthony Burgess on the Glory of Language
- On Reading Aloud
- Poker Metaphors and the Showdown at Kennebunkport
June 2007
- Time for More Language Facts & Figures?
- Don't Shoot Your Eye Out: Compose a List
- Quick Quiz from the 2007 AP Stylebook
- Orwell's Rules on Writing
- Trampling Through the Garden of Eloquence
- Why Does Grammar Matter?
- Websites for Logophiles
- Mother o' Mercy, Is This the End of the Apostrophe?
- Ridicule and Contempt (continued)
- Communication That Commands Ridicule and Contempt
- Proverbs and Parables from "The Sopranos"
- Which Webster's Dictionary?
- The Best Online Writing Labs
May 2007
- The Campaign to Abolish the Apostrophe
- Stirring the Alphabet Soup: Language Facts & Figures
- Who Put the Spell on English?
- Google Bans Ads for Paper Mills
- Should Teachers Edit Students' College-Application Essays?
- A Walk on the Lighter Side of Language
- Overcoming Writer's Block: “Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun.”
- Why the Principal Is Not Our Pal
- The Gift of Editing
- Exercising at Grammar & Composition
- Let It All Out--with Bdelygmia
- The Missing Part of Speech at Schoolhouse Rock!
- Metaphors of War
April 2007
- Shooting Baskets with Virginia Woolf: Keeping a Journal
- Euphemistically Speaking, Never Say "Die"
- Welcome to the Language Family: More Facts & Figures
- An Introduction to Etymology
- DON'T PANIC: Three Good Reasons Not to Buy a Term Paper
- Grammar Lessons from President George W. Bush
- A Trick to Cut the Clutter: Keep It Short
- Kurt Vonnegut on Style
- Classic Essays for Readers and Writers
- Reading About Writing at About.com
- Copia: Queneau's "Exercises in Style"
- Vexing and Irritating Redundancies: Let's Cut the Clutter
- The Rhetoric of Homer Simpson
March 2007
- Reconstructing San Francisco: An Exercise in Style
- Tips for Poor Spellers (aka Cacographers)
- New Sentence Structures Discovered!
- Writers on Rewriting
- "OK" Is OK: Language Facts & Figures
- A Rhetorical Lemon Squeezer
- Facts Behind the Spell Checker Poem
- "Comma Comma Comedian": A Mondegreen
- The Secret of Style
- Dear Compulsive Rewriter: Try Our Revising & Editing Checklists
- Composing an Essay for the SAT and the ACT
- Donut Loose You're Mind over Commonly Confused Words
- "In America They Haven't Used It for Years": What Is Grammar?
February 2007
- Let Me Repeat Myself: "This Is an Ex-Parrot!"
- Composing a Profile
- E.B. White: "Not Bad"
- Truthiness Revisited
- The Word of the Day is Sprezzatura
- End Punctuation!
- Keeping Count at Grammar & Composition
- Favorite Blogs for Writers
- Sentence Combining
- Metaphors Be with You
January 2007
- Compose Yourself in a Personal Essay
- A Surge in New Cliches
- Writers on Writing: H. L. Mencken
- "Web site," "Website," or "website"?
- Stock Up Now: Periods in Short Supply
- Sixty Great Reads for Writers
- Let's Not Reduce Dr. King's Dream to a Sound Bite
- Overcoming Writer's Block Through Freewriting
- N.B. Latin Abbreviations Are Tricky
- Pelosi Is a Coordinator
- Banished Words for 2007
