Notice that this student used not one, not two, but eight perfectly grammatical sentences to say that their grammar is bad — so bad that it’s standing in the way of pursuing dreams in a scientific ...

Writing with proper grammar is one of the easiest ways to establish credibility. For example, when was the last time you trusted the guy who opened his email with “Hello please sirs and madam” and ...

WHY DO PEOPLE buy books on English usage? The obvious answer, “for authoritative advice”, doesn’t square with what people actually buy. For decades the best-selling grammar book in the ...

When Lynne Truss wrote, in her best-selling 2003 grammar screed Eats, Shoots & Leaves, of “a world of plummeting punctuation standards,” she was (perhaps unwittingly) joining an ancient tradition. How ...

In the late 1990s, a friend told me she had used the word “exponentially” in a debate with her brother-in-law. “That’s not a word!” her brother-in-law insisted. “Of course it is,” my friend replied.

I have nothing against rules. They’re indispensable when playing Monopoly or gin rummy, and their observance can go a long way toward improving a ride on the subway. The rule of law? Big fan. The ...