English grammar explained in plain language simple enough to be understood.
On and around are prepositions. A bird can sit on the ground.A bird can fly around the yard. But which preposition should you use with the verb center? Do you center on something? Or do you center around? There is… Read more104. Highlight on Writing: Center On or Center Around?
This week we talked about the various forms of stop punctuation – punctuation designed to end one thought before another thought begins. A period, a question mark, an exclamation point, and a semicolon are all stop punctuation. A comma with… Read more159. Highlight on Writing – Using Stop Punctuation
This week’s topic is italics – a request from one of our regular readers. You can type in italics by clicking on the slanted I at the top of your word processing page. Here are three of the many uses… Read more186. Italics: Book Titles, Newspapers, Magazines
Today we’ll talk about four other types of titles that must be italicized. 1- Movie titles are always italicized. Michael J. Fox stars in the 1985 movie Back to the Future.Ten years earlier, Richard Dreyfuss starred in Jaws. 2- Use… Read more187. Italicize Titles: Movies, Plays, Operas, Musical Works and Albums
Today we will talk about using italics for the names of certain means of transportation. 1- We always italicize the name of ships. The Titanic sank on its tragic maiden voyage from Europe to the United States. The USS Arizona… Read more188. Italicize the Names of Certain Vehicles
Italics are most often used for titles and names. However, we sometimes use italics when we want to emphasize certain words in our writing. Italicizing the words makes them stand out to the reader. Here is an example of using… Read more189. Use Italics to Emphasize Words
Today is Veterans Day, a day of remembrance. We pause today to honor, acknowledge, and thank all the people in the armed forces of the United States – those presently serving our country, and those who have served in the… Read more214. Highlight on Writing – Veterans Day
In America, today is Thanksgiving Day – sometimes shortened to just Thanksgiving. It’s a day set aside to remember our blessings, a day to think about all the good people and the good things in our life. Our grammar lesson… Read more224. Capitalize Holidays – Thanksgiving Day
We’ve been practicing writing complex sentences, and we’ve talked about beginning complex sentences two different ways: with a subordinate clause or with an independent clause. It’s helpful to learn how to write sentences in different ways so that our writing… Read more229. Highlight on Writing: Using Varied Sentence Structure
A complex sentence is made up of two clauses: an independent clause and a subordinate clause. An independent clause is the main idea of the sentence and is strong enough to stand alone. The dog can stay in the yard.This… Read more236. Highlight on Writing: Rearranging the Clauses in a Complex Sentence