In her acclaimed novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery captivates with a stop-you-in-your-tracks answer to the question of why grammar matters. To usher in this eloquent grammatical tirade, twelve-year old character, Paloma Jesse, writes Profound Thought No. 10 in her journal. In this entry, the youngster tells of a schoolmate who puts voice [...]

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If only SpellingCity.com had been around during my children’s elementary school years. Today’s students can type in their spelling words, click a “test me” button, and have the computer take over quizzing responsibilities previously held by parents, in my case usually while attempting to prepare dinner. The free tool’s friendly interface is easy to use [...]

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The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, outscored Earnest Hemingway (& others) on the writing portion of the SAT, as reported by the Atlantic Monthly in 2004. Now, hundreds of universities, including several top schools, ignore students’ scores on the writing section of the SAT in admissions decisions, according to a story in the Boston Globe. The College [...]

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The apostrophe. I’ve seen this simple punctuation mark misused in newspapers, magazines, and in material sent home by teachers. The UK’s Sunday Telegraph article about teachers’ grasp of grammar was headlined by apostrophe abuse. Apostrophe use can be arcane. But for most of our needs, it’s easy! Apostrophes are used to denote missing letters in [...]

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Jack Lynch’s fabulously readable Guide to Grammar and Style will be useful in making your writing clearer and more effective. Mr. Lynch, an Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University, himself writes in an approachable and entertaining style. Organized by topic, the Guide is fun to peruse. Here are a few samples: Ain’t. There’s a [...]

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One of TeamUP! Tutors’ new writing tutors is also a professional copy editor. I spent some time going over a couple documents with her. What incredible attention to detail! More than that, she has a superb knowledge of grammar and usage. Several times she referred to her bible, The Chicago Manual of Style (at Amazon). [...]

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