I searched for some examples of the confusion of “affect” and “effect” and was glad that stories recently published in… Read more »
Posts By: Pam Nelson
Our modifiers are compounded daily
Researching this topic, compound modifiers, I ran across the truest sentence I have read about style, grammar and usage. It’s… Read more »
Of prepositions and pronouns
I encountered this sentence in a piece of copy I was editing Friday (July 8): It later sparked an argument… Read more »
Who needs whom?
Some people think we should give up on “whom.” This pronoun gives English speakers and writers absolute fits. Still, I… Read more »
What is an icon anyway?
Writers use the words “icon” and “iconic” much more often today than when I entered the newspaper business almost 30… Read more »
It’s epidemic
My husband spotted this graphic on the NBC Nightly News on Friday night (July 1) during a report by Tom… Read more »
Let me assure you
A reader suggested that the words “assure,” “ensure” and “insure” are often confused, with “assure” often serving all purposes. In… Read more »
Be careful out there
I ran across the same homonym problem twice today (June 28) in two pieces of copy — there (the adverb),… Read more »
It’s bad all over
My family and I took a vacation trip to Pennsylvania last week. (It’s a beautiful state, by the way.) Just… Read more »
Feeling all right
This headline gave me pause this morning (June 18): He’s got them feeling alright. I spent quite a bit of… Read more »