The Serial Comma is OK with Me
After a lifetime of being wishy-washy about the serial comma, I’ve reached a decision: I’m going to use it all the time. Such a momentous decision is, of course, a deeply personal matter. The pros and cons are widely, frequently, and hotly debated. Here is some information that may enable you to make the decision for yourself, if you haven’t already done so. serial comma: (also Oxford comma) n. a comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’ (e.g. an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect). –Penguin Writer’s Manual. Oxford comma:

Scotch
The word Scotch has several meanings, but it should never be used as an adjective to refer to a person or object from Scotland. The only exception is that the word is acceptable as part of certain compound names, such as Scotch whisky, Scotch mist or Scotch broth. Words such as Scotchman or Scotchwoman are obsolete and frowned upon by people from Scotland. The correct words to use are Scottish or Scots. It would be wrong, for example, to say “The Scotch weather is frequently atrocious” but it would be quite correct to say “The Scottish weather is frequently atrocious”. Similarly, the Sc

Word of the Day: Hustle
Hustle means to work energetically, to push, or to be aggressive in certain endeavors (e.g., playing a sport or conducting business). When used with a subject it means to urge, coerce, push or force to move (e.g., hustle something out of the way). They had a second, stand-by offense ready to rush to the line after each practice play, forcing the regular Dallas defense to hustle and make snappy personnel replacements. (NY Times) He embraces the persona of the guy from the streets who had to hustle his way to the top, the little guy — 5-foot-6 at most — who couldn’t rely on innate genius to get his famous shots. (LA Time

“Owing to” vs “Due to”
Steve Campbell asks for a post on “the choice between due to and owing to. There was a time that I felt very strongly about the difference between due to and owing to, zealously correcting misuse in student papers. After all, one of my most esteemed authorities, H.W. Fowler, has this to say in Modern English Usage: Under the influence of ANALOGY, due to is often used by the illiterate as though it had passed, like owing to, into a mere compound preposition. He gives such examples as these of due to being used incorrectly: The old trade un

Writing with Computers Too Easy
Last week we looked at antiques: quill pens, fountain pens, and typewriters. And so we come to word processors and computers. The word processor brings obvious advantages to writers. The ease with which you can write and revise, having typing and spelling mistakes corrected as you go, leads to…carelessness. I’m not simply referring to over-reliance on spell-checkers – that’s been covered adequately in other articles* on this site – but to sloppy style and composition. It’s all too easy, as I have found in my nearly 30 years of using word processing software (I started with W