& The Magic Number of Threes Now you’ll be learning how to use commas in a list. You can choose to use commas in the American style or in the British style. Americans usually use this format: Apples, pears, and cherries. British format omits (deletes) the last comma before the “and:’ Apples, pears and cherries.… Continue reading Use of Commas in a List
I’ve recently had a hilarious chat with the helpdesk at WordPress. (My blog is made with WordPress.) Why was it hilarious? Not because I had to laugh about the helpdesk person’s English. In fact, he or she (?) has good English. That had I had to laugh had more to do with the absurdity of the… Continue reading Do You Make These Mistakes?
In the previous newsletter I showed a picture of a meeting or conference with a bunch of people seated on a stage. The caption of the picture reads like this: From left: U.S. Corps of Engineers Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Joan Darcy, Disabled Sports USA, Wounded Warrior Program representative Kirk Bauer, Tribal Chairwoman from… Continue reading Commas and Semi-Colons in Writing a List of Names and Jobs
In this article, you will be practising your punctuation skills a little bit. What is punctuation? This is adding full stops (.) in the right places and other reading marks. It also means proper capitalization (at the beginning of sentences and starting names). And lastly you’ll need to know where to put quotation marks (”’) and… Continue reading Essential Rules of Punctuation – Your Ten-Minute Guide
‘Nothing is lost until we choose to give up’: Captain Richard Phillips reunited with his family in Vermont, April 2009 Photo: Getty Here is a long and interesting story from the Daily Telegraph to practise your skills in unctuation and such. Now please be a good sport and don’t look up the article in the newspaper,… Continue reading Punctuation, Quotation Marks and Capitals – Lots and lots of practice!!
Rasmos Olsen Two related problems that are often seen, and not only in texts written by learners of English. Here’s how to correct them. What do you think of this sentence: 1 He’s a doctor he loves his job. Does it look perfectly okay to you? If yes, you may be writing many more… Continue reading A Bad Case of the Runs – Run-on Sentences and Comma Splice
English with a Smile 