I’ve devoted quite a bit of thinking time over the past several weeks on the question of whether white as a racial designation should be...

An earlier version of this column was published on the blog of ACES: The Society for Editing. This was last updated on August 24, 2021....

Respected reference sources have signaled a modicum of acceptance of the pronoun they in a singular sense. The Associated Press Stylebook...

The ending lines of The Great Gatsby make any good list of the best closings in literature. The last line is perfect while the...

English has a lot of conventions—best not to call them rules—that sometimes fall apart when we try to apply them in all possible...

The end of daylight saving time offers an opportunity for people prone to correcting to remind us the middle word is singular—”daylight...

It’s Shakespeare’s 450th birthday, more or less, and all of Twitter is a stage for stories about the immortal one. There is no time for...

Here are the entries in the National Grammar Day Tweeted Haiku contest. If you don’t see your entry here, be assured it was considered if...

The following column originally appeared on Copyediting.com in two parts. As I have no space limitations, here it is in its entirety for...

I wrote a blog entry for Copyediting about the failure of a reporter and editors at the Guardian to check the sources on a story about a...

My plan was to drive back to Grand Rapids, Mich., today and spend Saturday pounding nails and raising walls on a Habitat for Humanity...

More from me at the Copyediting newsletter blog I’ve joined the blog team at Copyediting newsletter, so I’ll be posting there regularly...

Columnist and language expert Ben Yagoda resorted to all caps in a brief Twitter exchange on the difference (if any) between “since” and...

Arika Okrent’s 17 syllables captured the hearts of the judges, but there were scores of worthy entries in the National Grammar Day...

Arika Okrent tapped into a universal feeling of realization and dread when she wrote her winning entry for the 2013 National Grammar Day...

Smug peevery is not the way to mark National Grammar Day, lexicographer Kory Stamper reminds us: A Plea for Sanity this National (US)...

March 4 approaches, and with it comes National Grammar Day, a day we celebrate with the annual Tweeted Haiku Contest. Last year, we had...

This has nothing to do with words and everything to do with politics. For that, I apologize, but I hope you read it anyway. Gov. Romney...

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (small) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) I’ve been tweeting in lieu of blogging lately, but sometimes a matter...

Judging for the 2012 National Grammar Day Tweeted Haiku Contest was as difficult as any in the history of the event. Nearly 200 entries...

Without grammar, your haiku would fall to pieces. I think I’ll tweet that. The National Grammar Day Tweeted Haiku Contest is back. Nearly...

Newspapers have been quick to tell us about the latest trends and help us prepare for a changing world. But they’ve been amazingly slow...

I’d like to say goodbye to “good-bye.” The unhyphenated “goodbye” gets nearly five times as many Google hits. “Goodbye” is the preferred...

Grammar was not my subject. In high school English class, we did a unit on grammar every semester. It always seemed to be the same thing...