grammar
On using ellipsis (“…”) in quotes: If your’e omitting a few words within the sentence, you can use … to omit. But if you’re omitting a sentence or more, you put brackets around your ellipsis […]. Seems like a subtle thing, but modifying quotes can be pretty important. So often, I see people dropping 200-300 words quotes, when really, they should be
... See moreIt’s odd to me how the en-dash is left out in some text editors. One dash (-) is a hyphen, two dashes (–) is an en-dash, and three dashes (—) is an em-dash. You would think that by hitting the - symbol multiple times, you can get the dash you’re looking for. Substack (and other editors) give you an em-dash with only 2 clicks, and 3 clicks gives you
... See moreFucking gerunds! “A gerund is a verb in its present participle form (root verb + “ing”) that acts as a noun in a sentence.
How would you use commas here?
a) long, fucking cold winters …
b) long, fucking-cold winters …
c) long, fucking, cold winters …
d) long, cold fucking winters …
e) long, cold-fucking winters …
f) long, cold, fucking winters.
When you re-name something in a new way after a comma, it’s called an “appositive” (Bryan Garner). This can be done with nouns, verbs, or even full phrases. “The cold, lonely winter.” “My friend, John, told me…” “…the thing I wanted, the thing I needed.”
Punctuation vs. grammar:
Punctuation is about mechanics and syntax. It’s about the visual elements to help you interpret meaning. It involves everything from spacing, to symbols, to capitalization).
Grammar is more about the logical modulation of words to be “correct.” It’s involved with parts of speech, clauses, subjects, nouns and verbs.
As a
... See moreOn the naming of things:
Places = capitalized, no italics (New York, Italy, Mary’s Theatre);
Book, blog names, container of works = italics (Wait But Why, Dean’s List);
Essay titles, individual works = quotes (“Go touch paper")
