When I was a kid, the “Do as I say, not as I do” school of parenting reigned supreme. Those adults lecturing children on the dangers of smoking? Smokers, one and all. Kids would get in big trouble for ...

Clear sentence structure depends on establishing where a sentence ends and the next one begins. Every sentence must have an independent clause. The clause is called independent when it includes a ...

Hyphens are only used to combine certain words together. They are not strong enough to set off phrases or words from a sentence. Use hyphens in the following situations: Use in compound numbers and ...

I wanted to start this article about the importance of saying no by using a real-life example. I sat, hands poised to type, and immediately realized a sad-but-true reality: I have too many examples.

Our language needs quotation marks. Without them, we couldn't know who said what to whom or even what they meant. Unfortunately, using them can prove tricky. Quotations marks appear in both double and ...

A colon is used to give emphasis, present dialogue, introduce lists or text, and clarify composition titles. Emphasis—Capitalize the first word after the colon only if it is a proper noun or the start ...

You've probably seen the three-dot ellipsis in everything from thesis papers to text messages. It indicates the omission of one or more words or a trailing off of speech. I'm using it in this sentence ...