How to improve writing (no. 115)
One of Joe and my favorite parts about being on the campaign trail is meeting supporters just like you.
Dreyer’s English
An Utterly Correct Guide: it’s as if matters of writing are turning into matters of etiquette: which fork — or word — to use.
Grammar in the writing center
To dismiss or defer a student’s questions about grammar is to do that student a disservice.
W(h)ither grammar
How many problems in reading stem from an ignorance of basic grammar? And how many problems in writing stem from an ignorance of basic grammar?
Bryan Garner on “The fallacy of intelligibility”
A short piece about the idea that it doesn’t matter how you write it as long as they understand what you mean.
Recently updated
WhiteSmoke now has a demo, and the results do not inspire confidence.
A Bryan Garner story
“Jim, good usage isn’t nearly as fluid as you’re suggesting.” Good advice for writing for any audience.
Recently updated
An open-source alternative to Grammarly and WhiteSmoke.
Subject-verb disagreement in the New York Times
In Garrison Keillor’s review of Deborah Solomon’s Norman Rockwell biography.
Grammarly, WhiteSmoke
“Any service that gives its own writing a 61 and William Zinsser a 54 is a service I wouldn’t trust. I’ll add that any service that gives my writing a higher score than Zinsser’s is a service I wouldn’t trust.”
Sherwin Cody wants to know
Do You Make Mistakes in English?
Grammar and writing resources
From the University of Chicago Writing Program, “an annotated collection of grammar and writing resources from around the web.”
Pullum on Strunk and White
"Pullum's take on Strunk and White involves a significant degree of distortion and plain misreading."