Grammar and Style Topics

MartyG Reports publishes a continuing column on grammar and style topics. Here is the syllabus.

Lesson One

• “How Are You?” calls for an adverb, not a adjective like “Good.”

• “Me, too” versus “I, too,” and nominative versus objective pronouns

• Who versus whom, another issue of nominative versus objective pronouns

• May versus can, the difference between two modal verbs

• Singular-plural agreement

• One versus 1, when to write the word and when to write the numeral

• Spell out quotations, especially dialogue

• Secondly, thirdly, etc.—do not use these “words.”

• Avoid contractions in formal writing, except…

• Hyphen versus en dash (versus em dash)

Lesson Two

• Improper Use of the Colon (:)

• Unhyphenated Compound Adjectives

• “Than Me” Versus “Than I”

Lesson Three

• People Versus Persons

• Fewer Versus Less

• Unnecessary Participles

• While and Although Versus Though

• Acronyms Versus Initialisms

Lesson Four

• “Never End a Sentence With a Preposition.”

• Use Affirmative and Direct Language

• “Whether or not”—just use “whether.”

• Proper Capitalization

Lesson Five is coming soon.