Blogging Basics
How To Polish Your Blog With A Little Help
When meeting first time bloggers, I am often asked about hosting, web pages, and behind the scenes technical issues.…
January 24, 2019-
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The Picky PenPunctuation Series: Four Ways to Edit Commas
Presentation is everything, especially when it comes to the publishing world. And your presentation of punctuation is crucial to…
January 22, 2019 -
Grammar and GraceProbably, Not Prolly!
Do you cringe when someone scratches her fingernails down a blackboard or clicks her teeth against a metal utensil?…
January 18, 2019 -
Grammar and Grace
Three Simple Rules for Pluralizing Names
The holiday season is approaching, and it’s time for a post about the correct way to make proper names…
November 18, 2018 -
Grammar and Grace
How to Write Big Money
I was recently polishing my latest manuscript. One of the subplots involves a grant payout with large sums of…
October 18, 2018 -
Grammar and Grace
What’s an Interjection
Last year, we explored seven of the eight parts of speech. Then I took a break to address compound…
September 18, 2018 -
Grammar and Grace
Compound Words (Part 3)
This post includes the remainder of compound words from U through Z. The list is intended to help during…
June 18, 2018 -
Grammar and Grace
Compound Words? (Part 2)
Last time, I offered a list of compound words from A to H. This post continues with the remainder…
May 18, 2018 -
Grammar and Grace
How Do You Write Compound Words? (Part 1)
A friend of mine edited my latest manuscript for me. She mentioned that I have a tendency toward not…
March 23, 2018 -
Grammar and Grace
Choose the Correct Pronoun by Hope Toler Dougherty
Please stop using pronouns wrong! Between you and I, I’m sick of people using the wrong pronoun. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong!…
February 19, 2018 -
Grammar and Grace
How to Address Christmas Cards the Right Way
Today, people love to communicate with texts and private Facebook messages and emails and tweets, but around Christmas people…
December 18, 2017 -
Grammar and GraceReady for Another Serving of Prepositions?
Have you memorized the list of prepositions yet? Trust me, quickly recognizing prepositions will help you in the long…
October 18, 2017 -
Grammar and GraceAdverbs–How Do We Know?
Adverbs are words commonly used to describe or modify a verb, and adjective, or another adverb. To test…
August 19, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
Adjectives are Cool!
This month at Grammar and Grace we’re studying adjectives. Adjectives are words that tell something about a noun or…
July 18, 2017 -
Write JustifiedThe Times They Are A-Changin’
As languages go, English is fairly young. It’s been about 1400 years since the Anglo-Saxons imported English into Great…
June 27, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
What are Pronouns?
A pronoun is a word that can take the place of a noun in a sentence which means…
June 17, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
What are Nouns?
This time we’ll discuss nouns. Nouns can be common or proper. A common noun is a person, place, or…
May 18, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
Let’s Talk About Verbs
Last time, I introduced the eight parts of speech. This time, we’ll focus on verbs. I’m beginning with the…
March 17, 2017 -
The Writer's PenCase, UncategorizedSeamless Self–Editing––Part VIII
As this series draws to a close, here are a couple practical exercises you can do at home to…
February 21, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
Introducing the Eight Parts of Speech
For 2017, let’s understand the basics of English grammar by learning the eight parts of speech. They are the…
February 17, 2017 -
Write JustifiedThe Common Comma – Part II
The comma is one of those punctuation marks that has an outsized impact in relationship to its size.…
January 27, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
Compliment or Complement?
Earlier this week I wrote a post for my own blog and was reminded about two things: the difference…
October 18, 2016 -
The Writer's PenCaseSeamless Self-Editing—Part II
Last month, we talked about what “publish-ready” means. This time, we’ll look at basic proofreading. Spell check in Microsoft Word or whatever…
August 26, 2016 -
Grammar and GraceIrregardless, Not a Word?
A few weeks ago I enjoyed a lovely dinner with friends at a cool restaurant in Raleigh. The first…
July 22, 2016 -
Grammar and Grace, UncategorizedDangling Modifiers
Last month, I overheard a conversation about dangling modifiers. Lots of laughter. Lots of confusion. Lots of questions. “What’s…
May 9, 2016
