However Do You Punctuate “However”!?
The word however is a funny, tricksy word. It serves many purposes and is punctuated differently for each. Let’s examine it closely. When it’s used as an intensive form of how, the word however does not have any special puncutation associated with it. Example: Miss Mary jumped up, startled. “However did you get into the […]
And I Wondered: Is It All Right to Start My Sentence That Way?
An erudite reader has asked my opinion on the permissibility of beginning a sentence with a conjunction. This is an interesting case, as it’s one of the few times when I will tell you that your high school grammar teacher was wrong: It is not always wrong to start a sentence with and, but, or […]
“That” or Not “That”…That Is the Question!
There is a movement afoot in publishing and academic circles to remove “unnecessary” instances of the word that from writing. The problem is that it is difficult to codify when that is unnecessary and when it isn’t. For example, more than half of the “experts” would omit my use of that between “problem is” and […]