Maxims, fish stories, barbarisms, monosyllables, capital letters, bureaucratese, loanwords, grammatical zeros, Safire's Fumblerules, Sorensen's speech writing, questions in Casablanca, and much more: a roundup of blog posts from Grammar & Composition in 2010. To keep up with our discussions, sign up for the free weekly Grammar & Composition Newsletter.
December 2010
- Language in the News: The Top Ten Stories of 2010
- Popular Grammar & Composition Posts in 2010
- Look-Alike/Sound-Alike Errors (and How to Avoid Them)
- More Than Enough Words of the Year
- O Come All Ye Adherents to Fundamental Tenets of Belief: A Christmas Carol in Bureaucratese
- Language on Vacation: Words at Play
- A TV Guide to Grammar and Usage
- The Best Online Writing Centers
- Golden Bull Awards for 2010
- Twelve Principles for Teaching Grammar
- Christmas Isn't Christmas Without the Clichés
- The Ways We Talk
- Words and Phrases That Ticked You Off in 2010
- Dark Thoughts on Holiday Newsletters
November 2010
- Robots, But-Heads, and Plagiarism: Language in the News
- Mark Twain on the True Meaning of Thanksgiving
- Grammar Q & A
- Go Figure: Teen Reading, Writing, and Texting in 2010
- Oxford USA's Word of the Year for 2010
- The Words at Gettysburg
- The Not-So-Great Apostrophe Debate
- How Do You Get Into a Writing Frame of Mind?
- Quiz on Commonly Confused Words (Autumn 2010)
- How to Compose a Profile
- Writers on the Writing Process: The Paris Review Interviews
- Campaign to Cut the Clutter: Zinsser Your Prose
- Ted Sorensen on the Kennedy Style of Speech-Writing
- Highly Irregular
October 2010
- Slang, Semantics, and Swearing: Language in the News
- A Matching Quiz on Toponyms
- On the Lighter Side of Grammar & Composition
- Swift on Style: "Proper Words in Proper Places"
- Reducing Redundancies (Part Three)
- The List Trick
- What's the Usage?
- Reducing Redundancies (Part Two)
- Heads or Tails: There's a Name for It (Part 10)
- How Robert Benchley Broke the Block
- Campaign to Cut the Clutter: Reducing Redundancies
- Figuratively Speaking, What Is Writing Like for You?
- More Language Lessons From The Simpsons
September 2010
- Eggcorns, Chunking, and the Present Tense: Language in the News
- Another Grammar Revival
- Ten Ways to Mark National Punctuation Day
- Ten Keepsakes From Roy Peter Clark
- A Dozen Similes to Make You Smile
- Free Online Style Guides
- A Sampler of Sentence Styles
- Say It!
- Chiasmus: The Power of X
- International Literacy Day: Literacy and Women's Empowerment
- Mark Twain on Grammar
- Something in Common: A Pop Quiz for Word Lovers
- Why Freshman Composition Isn't a Waste of Time
August 2010
- Ebonics, Americanese, and Starbucks-Speak: Language in the News
- Style Secrets Revealed
- Pardon the (Whoops!) Interruption
- Fall 2010 Writing Contests for Students
- Back to Schule Special: The Art of Persuasion
- Scary, Lazy, and Short: There's a Name for It (Part 9)
- Steinbeck's Rudimentary Suggestions
- Safire's 17 Fumblerules: Annotated Edition
- On Walking and Writing
- Are You a SNOOT?
- Max's Advice to Young Writers
- Confusables: 20 (or 40) Mistakes That Your Spell Checker Can't Catch
- More Readings for Writers
July 2010
- Strikethroughs, Plagiarism, Cockney, and the Y: Language in the News
- Silly Season Special: Top Typos
- Horrible Words
- Questions in Casablanca: You Must Remember This?
- A Quick Quiz on Tricky Plurals
- The Word Juggler
- Ambrose Bierce on Lexicographers
- Twelve Reasons to Keep a Writer's Diary
- Bad Spells: The Lighter Side of English Spelling
- Summer Quiz on Commonly Confused Words
- Actually . . . Really?
- The Parts of Speech at Schoolhouse Rock!
- Cut It Out!
June 2010
- Fopdoodle, Spanglish, and Title-Fluffing: Language in the News
- Pros on Prose: Ten Quick Tips for Overcoming Writer's Block
- Mind the Gap: There's a Name for It (Part 8)
- Does Anyone Remember Miss Groby?
- A Quick Quiz From the 2010 AP Stylebook
- How to Write a Winning Essay
- Cap That! Guidelines for Using Capital Letters
- Ten Classic Essays on English Prose Style
- Annie Dillard Says, "Tear Up the Runway"
- English Language Trivia Quiz
- Other Online Dictionaries
- Excising Abstract Appendages: Cut the Clutter
- What Does "BP" Stand For?
May 2010
- Language in the News: Text Expansion, Twitter Scolds, Strange Signs, and Goddess English
- Latin Abbreviations and the Mob
- Summer Reading: A Little Book of Language
- What's Your Favorite Writing Maxim?
- Take Those Underpants off Your Head!
- The Final Figures of Lost
- The Windowpane of Prose
- A Fish Story
- Time Out for the Present Participle
- Spring Quiz on Commonly Confused Words
- What Is a Good Editor?
- Fresh Figures of Speech From the Garden of Eloquence
- Top 10 Exercises and Quizzes at Grammar & Composition
April 2010
- Language in the News: Globish, Texting, Teabonics, and Mind Reading
- Only One Is a Word: Quiz on 20 Commonly Misspelled Words
- Whack Open an Essay . . . and Snap It Shut
- What Verbs Can Do
- C.S. Lewis on Style
- A Matching Quiz on Loanwords
- Visualizing Metaphors
- Readings for Writers: Classic Essays on Enduring Themes
- Setting an Assignment: Read the Dictionary
- Grammatical Zeros and Bare Relatives
- On Becoming a Great Small Writer
- Whaddyanuts? There's a Name for It (Part 7)
- The Endless Decline of the English Language
March 2010
- Language in the News: Accents, Hollywords, Book Titles, and Exit Signs
- Twenty Editing Tips From the Old Copy Desk
- Resources for Teaching Writing
- E.B. White's Advice to a Young Writer
- "Absolutely, You Guys!": 100 More Words and Expressions That Tick You Off
- One More Reason Not to Buy an Online Essay
- Talking Irish-English
- Just Jesting
- Squeezing the Figures of Speech
- Dylan Thomas's Love Affair With Words
- Pros on Prose
- Compulsive Rewriting
- It's National Grammar Day, Right?
- Henry David Thoreau on the Art of Writing
February 2010
- Language in the News: Aussie Grammar, Chinese English, and Beautiful Words
- Triumph of the Barbarisms
- How to Cut the Fat Out of Online Writing
- Advice to Writers: Read!
- Winter Quiz on Commonly Confused Words
- Writing on the Wall
- Do You Have Any Rhetorical Questions?
- Creative Editing
- 50 Quick Writing Prompts
- How to Pass the SAT or ACT Writing Test
- By Gosh, There's a Name for It (Part 6)
- Lunching on Language: Neil Postman's Exercise in Etymology
January 2010
- Refiguring Obama's Rhetoric: The Balancing Act
- Overworked Words
- Top Blogs for Writers and Editors
- Good Grammar for a Good Cause
- Unusual Words About Words
- Enough Dreaming
- Monosyllables: A Few Good Short Words
- Can Writing Be Taught?
- Last Words
- Proofreading Practice: Commonly Confused Words
- Popular Grammar & Composition Posts in 2009
- Be Brief--But Not Too Brief
- Linguistic Leftovers for 2010
