Many writers and editors distinguish between disinterested and uninterested. To be disinterested means to be impartial, the Associated Press Stylebook… Read more »
Posts By: Pam Nelson
Tricky issues of agreement
Subject-verb agreement has some tricky rules. Here is one: The indefinite pronouns each, every, either, neither, one, another and much… Read more »
Riding off on a tangent
Stumbling over one word in today’s paper sent me off on a strange short trip on the Internet. The word… Read more »
Heads up
Headlines need to be accurate, attract attention and give readers a preview of the story. Good headlines also draw on… Read more »
Profanity vs. vulgarity
A letter writer took the newspaper to task recently for publishing a comic strip that used a coarse term for… Read more »
Doing our homework
Today’s story about teachers reassessing the value of homework made me think again of my school days. I have thought… Read more »
National Punctuation Day
Oops, I forgot National Punctuation Day. Celebrate with great apostrophes every day! This article was originally posted by the Raleigh… Read more »
The whole comprises the parts
Some usage guides use this way of steering writers away from “is comprised of”: “Comprise is best used in the… Read more »
Kudos is all Greek to me
I noticed “kudos” in The News & Observer today, so I can write about the plural/singular dispute. You might not… Read more »
Hopefully, I can explain this
An editor told me that he noticed “hopefully” in a G.D. Gearino column, which I happened to have copy-edited. Here… Read more »