24 12 2018
A Christmas Twist: The 12 Days of Content
Greetings from Words by a Pro! We hope everyone’s enjoying the holiday season so far.
But if you’re like most folks, you’ve already had your fill of holiday cheer thanks to the nonstop barrage of Christmas music that comes post-Thanksgiving. We’ve all heard these holiday tunes in stores—in coffee shops—running through our heads nonstop—for nearly a month now.
Enough!
07 11 2017
Is It Okay to Use the Word Hopefully?
There remains debate about whether this adverb is appropriate or not. According to an NPR article, thirty years ago a few famous grammarians decided to “vilify” the word. Prior to this, so they say, the word was used without complaint. After three decades of debate, most of us are now confused.
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20 06 2017
Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
“Huh?” you may ask yourself. “I kinda remember hearing those words in high school English class, but I have no idea what they mean,” you may answer.
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29 03 2017
Style Guides & Manuals: What Are They?
Perhaps your high school English teacher told you about style guides, but maybe you didn’t even come across them until college when your English Composition instructor informed you, “You must use MLA style or fail this course.”
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24 05 2016
Angels and Brats: Which One Are You?
To put broad strokes on the canvas of writing and editing merely for over-simplification, there are two overarching types of writers and editors: the brats and the angels. How they behave is distinctly different due to their different roles. The good news is, once a writer or an editor recognizes he or she behaves in one of these ways, it’s easy to change—though one way is obviously (at least to us) a better way to go about things.
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If I were
OR
If I was?
Which is correct?
Most of us might vaguely recall a high school English teacher discussing mood, but few of us remember what it means.
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Do you ever wonder whether you should use “which” instead of “that” or vice versa? In the United States we use “which” differently than those living in the United Kingdom. I have no idea when or how the usage diverged, but according to our Modern Language Association, there is a correct way to use each.
