by Cole Salao
A portmanteau (pronounced: port-mahn-tow) is the combination of multiple words to create a new word. The concept was first introduced by author Lewis Carroll in his novel Through the Looking Glass, in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice how words can be combined:...
by Cole Salao
Interjections are words or phrases that are expressed as utterances, such as “aha,” “wow,” “yikes,” or “drat.” They’re grammatically independent of other sentences and can convey different levels of emotion. Though...
by Cole Salao |
A parenthesis (plural form: parentheses) is one of the most common characters you’ll use in writing. Parentheses can be used to enclose information within a text or paragraph. In this case, they’re used as “parenthetical punctuation marks.” The...
by Cole Salao
A mixed construction is an element of a sentence that doesn’t make sense, creating an illogical statement with incompatible elements (for example, when there’s a sudden shift in grammatical structure). You’ll probably catch most of these errors as...
by Kaelyn Barron
Do you ever find yourself reaching for a word that you’re not really sure how to use, but it sounds more intellectual so you go for it? Many of us have made such hypercorrections before, when we incorrectly used a term or phrase that we thought sounded right,...
by Cole Salao
Abbreviations are shortened forms of words and phrases. We often use them to streamline our writing, and they’re particularly useful when replacing long or cumbersome words and phrases that make sentences harder to read. Always keep in mind that there’s a...
