Karen Reddick, The Editor's Blog

Many people think these two words are interchangeable, but they are not. i.e. means that is, in other words, or more commonly, namely. The Latin term is id est. e.g. means for example. The Latin term is exempli gratia. The easiest way to remember this is to use the rule of association: i.e. means in [...]

My editing colleague, Linda Lane of Pen & Sword Publishers, reminded me of a rule I had forgotten. I thought you might need a reminder too. Quotation marks are omitted when they precede a drop cap at the beginning of an article, story, or chapter. (Drop caps are a typographic decoration placed at the top [...]

Is your writing voice active or passive? If the performer of the action is the subject of the sentence, the verb is in active voice. If the performer of the action is not named or is not the subject of the sentence, the verb is in passive voice. Because verbs move our sentences and put [...]

My friend and colleague, Andrea Kalli (the incredible social marketing strategist) emailed me the other day and ask: “Is it–use to or used to?” I used to get this confused myself. The correct way is to add the “d” on the end–used to. Like most past tense verbs, you add -d or -ed, so by [...]

One of my faithful readers, Mariam Williams from Kentucky, wrote in: For years, I only heard it, but now I’m seeing “try and” instead of “try to” in many articles in print. For example, I saw the following sentence from a recent article: “Try and make the career change transition a smooth one.” Mariam wanted [...]

Let’s play a word choice game! We all know how important choosing the correct word is when writing. See if you can choose the correct word for the following four sentences. 1. Ask a friend to [loan or lend] you . . . This is common error. Loan is a noun, lend is a verb. [...]

There are two rules for using an apostrophe s ['s] with words that end in s. And, believe it or not, it’s correct to use either rule. But once you choose sides, you should stick with it throughout your writing. Different style guides show different rules. Some will suggest that you should add the apostrophe [...]

One of my favorite pastimes is to find mistakes in written ads, signs, and other marketing materials. Take, for example, this sign on a Middle School marquee: “Have an excellant summer!” [Somebody better go to summer school] Or this sign: “Welcome Back Stundents” [Yes. Please hurry back!] Some other favorites include this cake welcoming a [...]

I had a blank moment this week when I needed to determine if my sentence called for the word then or than. This word confusion normally doesn’t trip me up, but this time it did, so I wanted to share with you how I finally decided on the correct word. Then and than are commonly [...]

Jan Clark, a grammar tips reader from Colorado, wrote to me and asked me to revisit an earlier tip about the difference between insure, ensure, and assure. Ensure and insure are words that sound the same but are spelled differently; and, assure sounds so similar to these two words, that many people confuse the three [...]