Tabs on Writing

Tweet The late Robert Ludlum would be turning over in his grave if someone were to misspell his hero’s name: Jason Bourne. That being said, some editor of a Journal published in the financial district of New York, should at least be pulling his or her hair for mistakenly using the incorrect homophone of Mr. […]

Tweet In case you missed it, FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) has been hosting an international sporting tournament in South Africa. Even though the overwhelming majority of 45 member nations express the sport in their respective languages, only The United States and Canada call it “soccer.” One theory has it that the word soccer was […]

Tweet “Wheel of Fortune” has been on television now (including syndicated reruns)  since 1975 when Merv Griffin became the original host. What is amazing is how the sound of a vowel, or group of vowels, can change the meanings of words, giving us homonyms, homophones and homographs. Try listening to the similar and dissimilar sounds that […]

Tweet I was too busy enjoying my Father’s Day (and Father’s Day Weekend, as I call it) to post any words about this 100th occurrence of this holiday. By the way, the man for whom Sonora Smart Dodd memorialized this holiday – her dad – was a widower who raised his six children after his wife […]

Tweet Pity the people who have to learn the English language due to the number of homonyms, homophones and homographs. Hardly a day passes when you don’t hear about these types of words that appear here in this blog for writers. Today’s tricky spelling has to do with the enumeration of the population which goes […]

Tweet No, not that kind of colonoscopy. We’re talking about the scope of grammar, punctuation and spelling differences between a colon  (( : )) and a semicolon (( ; )). A semicolon  is used to separate two independent clauses or sentences that are closely related and are connected by conjunctive adverbs (however, therefore, thus, otherwise). If […]

Tweet The Bard placed the following words in Falstaff’s mouth in Henry IV: “The better part of valor is discretion.” As we write in our businesses’ communications today, we should take heed of Falstaff’s advice when it comes to using  proper spellings and definitions of two closely-related homophones. In other words, don’t jump into battle […]

Tweet This past week we had a new fiberglass entry door installed, replacing the leaded glass one of many years. The technology is such that you would be hard-pressed to tell it is not wood. I stained it to give it even more credence as a close second to the natural beauty of wood. When staining […]

Tweet While visiting my granddaughters recently, my older one, Ali, who is five, gave me a sort of lesson in homophones. We happened to come across a street fair being set up on a Saturday morning.  In particular, a temporary climbing wall was resting prone on a trailer lift. Ali at first noticed the opening at […]