“10 Easy Secrets of Good Grammar” by Martha Brockenbrough gives useful advice.
Many will be surprised by number 2: ” ‘I’ isn’t always the more educated choice.” But she’s got it right.
I don’t agree that “semicolons are easy to use,” even though I’m getting better at them.
But don’t rely on my comments. Read Brockenbrough’s article now!
If you’re reading this, you probably care about grammar.
So test your grammar knowledge with the quiz in “Are You a Grammar Geek?“ It’s tough.
Habit tells me “cannot,” but I can’t find this peculiar spelling in the index of any of my style guides.
However, Wikipedia gives me this quote, in which I’ve added the bolding to “cannot”:
In this regard, the following quotation from The Chicago Manual of Style deserves notice:
I haven’t thought about this issue in years. I usually work around it by using “can’t.”
What’s your practice?
This is a reposting of one of the most popular posts on one of my predecessor blogs. I originally posted it in April 2006.