TENSE EXAMPLE Simple present I walk Simple past I walked Future I will walk (or I am going to walk) Present progressive I am walking Past progressive I was walking Future progressive I will be walking Present perfect I have walked Past perfect I had walked Future perfect I will have walked Present perfect progressive I have been walking Past perfec

that’s when passives are best: anytime you want to downplay the doer of an action.

Relative clauses seem to work best when they cast a little extra light on a thing or an idea. But they can quickly become a problem when they’re used to insert history or backstory. They’re at their worst when they contain an unstated “Oh, by the way” or “I never took the time to mention this before, so let me squeeze something in now.”

The relative pronouns, according to The Oxford English Grammar, are which, that, and who or whom. Some people include certain uses of where and when, but most authorities don’t. Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses:

Adverbs are a very broad group that includes those -ly words we all learned, but also many other types of words. To identify adverbs, think of them as words that answer the questions when, where, how, to what degree, and in what manner. When in doubt, check a dictionary. Better yet, check two or three.

When people say that adverbs hurt writing, they’re talking about a specific kind of adverb, called a manner adverb—even though they may not realize it. Manner adverbs are the ones that describe the manner in which an action occurred: walk quickly, eat slowly, dance enthusiastically.

as a rule, if a turn of phrase, a parallel, a comparison, or a metaphor doesn’t enhance your Reader’s experience, cash it in for straightforward language.

But there is one thing all Readers want: clear, concise, comprehensible sentences that mean something to them.

Your writing is not about you. It’s about the Reader. Even when it’s quite literally about you—in memoirs, personal essays, first-person accounts—it’s not really about you.