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Getting Specific—Addressing Readers’ Examples (Part 1)

October 21, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

Three very specific questions about punctuation and grammar—are band names singular or plural, is a band’s name a possessive noun or an attributive noun, how do you treat two verbs in the predicate when one’s a linking verb?

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Answering Your Questions About Specifics

October 14, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

A list of resources for grammar and punctuation as well as style and usage. Introduction to a series on very specific questions regarding usage.

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Capitalizing on the Holidays—A Reader’s Question

September 30, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

Confused about how to capitalize holidays and religious holy days? Don’t know if holiday greetings should be capitalized in a story? Read on for tips for capitalizing holiday terms.

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Write Like a Native

September 21, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

A reader’s question got me thinking about the details of a story’s setting, about choosing details that fit the actual location as well as the story. I also wanted to share a reminder to check details for real locations—make sure your details are correct.

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Drive, Passion, and Creativity

September 16, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

The last couple of articles I’ve written have focused on grammar and punctuation. On rules. And while learning rules is important, sometimes we need to focus on other writing concerns. Sometimes we need to immerse ourselves in the power of our passions. Just recently I was dramatically reminded of this need once again. PBS stations in the […]

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Either, Neither, and Subject-Verb Agreement

September 12, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

Is either singular or plural? What about neither? Does it get a singular verb or a plural one? Learn when the words either and neither are singular and when they’re plural.

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Change It This Way or That Way?

September 8, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

There are multiple ways to make changes to your story text. Make sure that you’re not using the same kinds of changes again and again.

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Dealing With Interruptions

September 2, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

Interrupters, digressions, asides, and comments can be set apart by commas, parentheses, and dashes. Explore the options for punctuating interrupters.

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Introduce Me with a Comma

August 27, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

Many introductory sentence elements are followed by a comma. Yet not all are. A discussion of comma use with elements at the beginning of a sentence.

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Compound Words—Using This Cheat Sheet is Not Cheating

August 15, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

Tips for spelling compound words—open, closed, and hyphenated compounds. The Chicago Manual of Style has a great section on spelling compound words.

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