12 practical tips and tools that will help you write faster in the time you already have. Also, we explore why we call a letter that looks like two V's a "double U."
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We use a children's book and a Shakespeare play to talk about "borrow" and "lend," and then we help with the complexities of using "neither" and "nor."
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To hog, to ram, to bird dog. We run through a fun list of animal-inspired verbs. Plus, amazingly, it wasn't that long ago that usage experts recommended "persons" instead of "people." And what's...

A vast number of words have surprising origins. We talked about some today with author Ralph Keyes, including "scientist," "impressionist," "beatnik," and "paradigm."
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Did you know that in the book "Gone with the Wind," Rhett Butler said "My dear..." instead of "Frankly, my dear..."? Also, are we getting back to normalcy or normality? One of these words came from...

Instead of bewaring the ides of March, I'm going to beware engaging with the Roman calendar. What a fascinating mess! In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we also look at some fun Irish phrases. On the...

Have you ever wondered WHY we celebrate National Grammar Day? Who started this thing anyway? And if you want to do your own grammar research, I'll help you get started.
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The origin of "kibosh" is a long-standing mystery in the English language. Yiddish? A whip? Clog-makers tools? We investigate. Also, sidekicks play interesting and important roles in fiction. Does...

Coin a phrase? It does not mean what you think it means. And get your dose (or dosage?) right.
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Would words and phrases like "operative" and "pump him for information" be out of place in a novel set in the 1800s? We investigate! And we also look at the two spellings of "OK/okay," and I...

Should you call someone a diabetic or a person with diabetes? Also, are you confused about when to use italics? We have the basics (and something that might be changing)!
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6 Latin Abbreviations You Should Know. 'Imply' or 'Infer'?
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If you're enjoying sea shanties these days, have you wondered why they're called "shanties"? Plus, I always have a hard time remembering how to spell "conscience." Here's my trick for getting it...

Why writing fanfiction can make you a better overall writer. Plus, my tricks for figuring out tricky pronunciations.
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"Acedia": the lost name for the emotion we're all feeling right now. Plus, when does "thank you" need a hyphen?
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Are Americans ruining the put-down "You've got another think coming," or was it the British band Judas Priest? Also, everyone loves Janus words like "sanction," "cleave," and "dust." We talk about...

It's the Oscars of the language world: word-of-the-year data analysis and voting! A spirited conversation with Merriam-Webster's Emily Brewster about the 2020 words of the year.
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Brandon shares funny stories about character and place names gone wrong, his writing struggles, and what the future holds for his work.
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More people get the phrase "just deserts" wrong than get it right, but we're here to help! Also, why do some people put a comma after "but"? They shouldn't, but we have some theories about why they...

Here's why you can ignore zombie rules and why it's actually better to write "What did you step on?" than "On what did you step?" (But also when you can't ignore those rules!) Then, I have two...