Parallel sentence elements in grammar are just like parallel lines in geometry: they face the same direction and never meet. More precisely, in grammar, it’s

Is “they” singular or plural? The answer is both. As of 2019, most big style guides—including the Associated Press, the Chicago Manual of Style, the MLA style manual,

The passive voice is often maligned by teachers and professors as a bad writing habit. Or, to put it in the active voice, teachers and

A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true but helps explain an idea

Let’s use this example to understand what a simile is: A simile is a phrase that uses a comparison to describe. For example, “life” can be described as similar

What’s an Idiom? Broadly speaking, an idiom is a widely used phrase that, when taken as a whole, has a particular meaning that you would

Boom! Crunch! Pop! Onomato . . . what? Hard to spell but easy to use, an onomatopoeia (ahn-uh-mat-uh-PEE-uh) is a word that sounds like what it means.

Hyperbole (hi-PER-buh-lee) is a language that is obviously exaggerated and not meant to be taken literally. Writers often use hyperbole for emphasis or to be

When two words are used together to yield a new meaning, a compound is formed. Compound words can be written in three ways: as open

At first glance, the rules of English capitalization seem simple. You probably know you should capitalize proper nouns and the first word of every sentence.

Anyone who has ever had to memorize a tough-to-spell English word (It’s fuchsia, right? Or is it fuschia? Fushia?) has noticed that the spelling of some words is

An abbreviation, simply put, is a shortened form of a word. In writing, abbreviations are useful when you need to squeeze a lot of writing

There are two types of slashes: a backslash (\) and a forward slash (/). The backslash is used only for computer coding. The forward slash, often simply

Semicolons (;) are as basic as a period stacked on top of a comma. Does that mean you can use it like either one? Don’t

Quotation marks are used to identify words that someone has said. You’ll often find them in fiction, where they signify dialogue, the words spoken by the

Without question marks, we’d miss out on all kinds of things: invitations, jokes, the Riddler . . . No doubt, the question mark is a

What is a Period? A period, also known as a “full stop” in British English, is a punctuation mark that looks like a tiny circle or dot.

Parentheses are punctuation marks that are used to set off information within a text or paragraph. Outside the realm of emoticons, parentheses always come in pairs.

A hyphen (-) is a punctuation mark that’s used to join words or parts of words. It’s not interchangeable with other types of dashes. Use

The exclamation point also called an exclamation mark, is a punctuation mark that goes at the end of certain sentences. It’s less common than the period or question mark,

Those three little dots are called ellipsis (plural: ellipses). The term ellipsis comes from the Greek word meaning “omission,” and that’s just what an ellipsis

A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of text (not at the bottom: that’s an underscore). It’s

Ah, the comma. Of all the punctuation marks in English, this one is perhaps the most abused and misused. And it’s no wonder. There are lots

A colon introduces an element or series of elements that illustrates or amplifies the information that preceded the colon. While a semicolon normally joins two

Apostrophes can be tricky. Sometimes they form possessives. Sometimes they form contractions. Can they ever make something plural? Apostrophe Use: Contractions and Omissions A contraction

There are up to five forms for each verb: root, third-person singular, present participle, past, and past participle. Root Form of the Verb The root

Pronouns are the words you substitute for other nouns when your reader or listener already knows which nouns you’re referring to. For example, you might

Prepositions indicate relationships between other words in a sentence. Many prepositions tell you where something is or when something happened. Most prepositions have several definitions,

Nouns are everywhere in our writing. But what are all the types of nouns you come across, and how do you use them? What is

What are They? Ouch! Oh my! Wow! Yikes! If you’ve ever uttered any of the words above, you’ve used an interjection, whether you knew it

Without conjunctions, you’d be forced to express every complex idea in a series of short, simplistic sentences: I like cooking. I like eating. I don’t

Articles are words that define a noun as specific or unspecific. Consider the following examples: After the long day, the cup of tea tasted particularly good. By using the

An adverb is a word that modifies (describes) a verb (he sings loudly), an adjective (very tall), another adverb (ended too quickly), or even a

What is an adjective? Adjectives are words that describe the qualities or states of being of nouns: enormous, doglike, silly, yellow, fun, fast. They can also describe

The basic writing portfolio Let’s say you’re a college student hungry for an internship in a scrappy local newsroom, and a professor who’s friendly with an editor

A sentence diagram is a visual organization system that you can use to see how the parts of speech like nouns, verbs, prepositions, and articles

What do “all right” and “alright” mean? There are currently two forms of this word because the English language is continuously changing, and historically, words

What is a straw man argument? A straw man argument, sometimes called a straw person argument or spelled strawman argument, is the logical fallacy of distorting an

What is the purpose of an essay title? An essay title tells readers what your essay is about. This gives them a heads up on

Certain words in English lend themselves to misspellings. They may cause confusion about whether to use a single letter or double letters—like “cc,” “ss,” or

What is symbolism in writing, and how does it work? Symbolism is the use of words or images to symbolize specific concepts, people, objects, or

When to use euphemisms Euphemisms are not to be interpreted literally. Think about the euphemism that kicked the bucket that we mentioned. It’s unlikely that you

What is present perfect tense? The present perfect tense is one of the common verb tenses in English, used to show an action that happened in the

What is a cause and effect essay? A cause and effect essay is a type of expository essay that explores its topic by discussing the issue’s causes

What is a transitive verb? You can categorize all verbs into two types: transitive and intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs use a direct object, which is a noun that receives the action of

What is a memo? A memo, short for a memorandum, is a way to inform a group of people about a specific problem, solution, or

What are contractions in writing? Contractions are a kind of abbreviation that combines two or more words by removing certain letters and usually adding an apostrophe. Only certain

What is point of view? Point of view is the writer’s way of deciding who is telling the story to whom. Establishing a clear point of view is important

What is composition writing? The composition can mean two things. It can mean a piece of writing, or it can mean the art and process

What is a linking verb? Unlike other verbs, linking verbs do not show an action—or more accurately, the only action they show is merely existing. Linking