by Daniel Howard | Jun 7, 2016 | Grammar Gripes
It’s been a while since I wrote a Grammar Gripe. For those readers who enjoy them, I’m sorry it’s take so long. Though there are a few others in the queue that I’ve been slowly considering, this s one of has bothered me for for years. (Yes, I...
by Daniel Howard | Jan 5, 2015 | Grammar Gripes
This one has been bothering me for months. (Yes, I’m the kind of person who can be bothered by punctuation for months. What of it?) I had been trying to figure out how to format dashes in both of my anthologies, and I finally gave up and made a few stylistic...
by Daniel Howard | Aug 6, 2014 | Grammar Gripes
Grammar Gripes: Using “They” Instead of “He or She” This isn’t a gripe about “Why on Earth do people do this nonsense?” It’s more of a gripe about “Why on Earth doesn’t everyone do this? It’s nonsense!” I consider myself a feminist, being fully supportive of equal...
by Daniel Howard | Jun 5, 2014 | Grammar Gripes
The Oxford comma is the proper name for that comma added at the end of a list of items. It’s a common question among new writers and experienced writers alike: Does the last item before “and” need a comma? The Oxford comma says yes. So do I. Compare the following. I...
by Daniel Howard | Apr 27, 2014 | Grammar Gripes
I’ll throw this one right out there: I hate semicolons. In all the proofreading I’ve done in my life – a significant amount – ninety percent of the semicolons I’ve encountered have been used incorrectly. An additional nine percent of those semicolons were...
by Daniel Howard | Apr 8, 2014 | Grammar Gripes
Here’s one that is still pretty tricky. It still gets me Googling the answer, and I mess it up from time to time as well. When do we add a hyphen to an adverb-adjective pair? Here’s the general rule. Hyphenate an adverb-adjective pair when the adverb does not end with...
I'm a writer, editor, nerd, and foul-mouthed cheerleader of creative people everywhere. When not trying to force words to do my bidding, I'm a husband and father. 
