“Had had”? Flashbacks and the Past Perfect
What exactly is the past perfect? And what’s wrong with using it?
What exactly is the past perfect? And what’s wrong with using it?
This month’s Chicago style workout, “Grammar, Part 4,” focuses on paragraphs 5.39–51 of CMOS 17, which cover personal pronouns, including their possessive and reflexive forms.
The other day, I ran across this line in a recent novel by a best-selling American writer (key words are disguised): “His disposition warmed faster than did the gradually dawning day.”
This month’s workout, “Word Usage, Part 9,” finishes our run through the “Glossary of Problematic Words and Phrases” in section 5.250 of CMOS 17. For our usage finale, we’re focusing on words beginning with the letters t as in “that” through w as in “whomever.”
This month’s workout, “Word Usage, Part 8,” returns to our “Glossary of Problematic Words and Phrases” in section 5.250 of CMOS 17. This time we’re focusing on words beginning with the letters r as in “rack” through s as in “straight.”
In novels and stories and other creative works, words spoken by a character are normally set off from the narrative with quotation marks, and the speaker is identified in the run of text by tags like “she said.”
In editing formal prose, we fix nonstandard English without hesitation. But in editing creative works, we often need to throw out the stylebook so a narrator or character in a novel or play can abuse grammar to good effect. . . .
This month’s workout, “Word Usage, Part 7,” once again centers on section 5.250 of CMOS 17. This time we’re focusing on words beginning with the letters n as in “nauseous” through p as in “proven.”
This month’s workout, “Word Usage, Part 6,” centers on section 5.250 of CMOS 17. This time we’re focusing on words beginning with the letters l as in “literally” and m as in “might.”
Sharpen Your Pencils! To start off 2019, let’s take an editing and proofreading quiz. This is the first of a series of workouts that will test your editing knowledge and proofreading skills.