Grammar Hammer: Is It “It’s” or “Its”?
It’s just three letters (with or without an apostrophe). It’s one way of saying “it is.” “Its” is a simple possessive of a pronoun. It’s also one of the biggest grammar errors according to...
Author: Catherine Spicer
Grammar Hammer: Apostrophes After “-S”
My boss and I recently debated the proper use of the apostrophe when the word you’re adding it to ends in “-s” or “-es” (for the record, his last name ends in -es). To...
Grammar Hammer: Incent, Incentive, Incentivize?
A classic sales tactic is to create a promotion that gives potential customers an incentive to buy. Almost every advertisement for a new car includes incentives for trading in your old one, or having the...
7 Tips for Embracing Creativity’s Ugly Side
The first stage of any concept is rarely pretty. Staring at a blank canvas at the start of a writing or creative project is daunting, and the first attempts at clarifying the scope of what...
Grammar Hammer: A Lesson in Writing from David Ogilvy
“Don’t use 10 words if you can say it in five.” This is one of the most common writing tips I come across while I’m researching grammar rules. Oddly enough, we were all taught...
Grammar Hammer: What is the Etiquette for Correcting Another Author’s Mistake?
A few weeks ago, my hometown high school football team faced a minor controversy that was featured in the news. During an away game, they had allegedly trashed the locker room at the opposing...
Grammar Hammer: Each and Every One
Which is correct? To say that I write a blog post for Grammar Hammer each week or to say that I write a post for Grammar Hammer every week? “Every” is used to talk...
Grammar Hammer: Shinny vs. Shimmy
Months ago, I received a Grammar Hammer suggestion to look at the difference between the words “shinny” and “shimmy.” The person who suggested this topic to me said she’d never heard the word “shinny.”...
Grammar Hammer: So, Do Writing Disfluencies Exist?
In public speaking, you are taught to watch your use of “disfluencies” – as in the crutch words where you um, like, and you know your way through the silence as your brain scrambles to...
Grammar Hammer: Is That Adverb Necessary?
If you were a child of the 70s and 80s, ABC’s animated series Schoolhouse Rock left an indelible mark. Many of us can trace a love for history, mathematics, science and – of course – grammar to the...
Grammar Hammer: Two Spaces or Not Two Spaces?
I’m of the age that one of the classes I took in high school was typing. Putting two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence was drilled into our heads as...
Grammar Hammer: All Day Every Day or Everyday?
A suggestion from a loyal reader inspired this week’s Grammar Hammer. Is everyday one word or two words (every day)? Both variations refer to an activity that occurs on a daily basis. As usual,...
Grammar Hammer: Elicit vs. Illicit
Elicit and illicit might sound similar, but technically they are not homophones and their meanings are vastly different. The words are occasionally confused due to their similar pronunciation and spelling, which is why they are the focus...
Grammar Hammer: Whiling Away the Hours
I often see “wile away the hours” used interchangeably with “while away the hours,” so which is correct? Technically, they both are, but there are some subtle differences one should consider. “To while away the hours”...
Grammar Hammer: Then vs. Than
I have a tendency to overthink certain grammar rules. Then vs. than is one of those grammar rules that I think I’ve nailed down, but always end up double checking after overthinking it for 10...
Grammar Hammer: Punctuation Saves Lives, Part II
Part one of our “Punctuation Saves Lives” series covered the heavy hitters of periods, commas, question marks, exclamation points, colons, semicolons, dashes, and hyphens. Part two wraps up with brackets, parentheses, braces, ellipses, quotation marks,...
Grammar Hammer: Punctuation Saves Lives, Part I
In English grammar, there are 14 different punctuation marks that I think of as the “primary” punctuation marks – the period, comma, question mark, exclamation point, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, parentheses, brackets, braces, ellipses,...
Grammar Hammer: It’s the Principle of the Thing
“The principal is your PAL!” With apologies to Ferris Bueller, that’s how I learned the difference between “principle” and “principal.” Here again, we have two words that sound the same, but have two completely...
Grammar Hammer: A Flair for Flare?
Flair/Flare is one of my favorite homophones. Even though these words sound the same, their meanings are very different and these words are not interchangeable. FLAIR: A natural talent or aptitude; distinctive elegance or style Example:...
Grammar Hammer: I Assure You, It’s Easy to Ensure and Important to Insure
Have you been so confused with when to use “assure,” “ensure,” and “insure” that you actually go back and rewrite your sentence to avoid using that word? I confess, I do that often. “Ensure” and...
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