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For some, it might seem a bit early to talk about the start of the school year. But 85% of the country’s K-12 students will be back in the classroom by September 1, according to Pew Research. And while back-to-school dates may vary widely, rules for writing the term "back to school" don’t: Only use hyphens when using it as a compound modifier. So when you get ready to go back to school, you go back-to-school shopping. And once you’re back in school, do you want to get A’s or As? And should you care about the GPA’s or GPAs of your friends? Stylebot has a wealth of other school-related entries to ensure you’re classroom ready. You can get started now for free. And if you already know the answers to our questions above, hit reply and let us know. ❤ Team Stylebot
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Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
We did two newsletters last year on was vs. were to cover a couple of different grammatical rules: collective nouns and the subjunctive mood. And while you didn't struggle on the subjunctive mood quiz, "couple" proved trickier: "Was" won out on the newsletter quiz, but when we posted the same question on LinkedIn, we got the opposite response. There are more than a couple of ways to use "couple." One is that it's essentially a collective noun meaning a set of romantic partners, but even then,...
Quick, without looking anything up, can you tell if the following sentences are correct? ❓A monarch takes the reins at the start of her reign. ❓He had free reign to develop new strategies. ❓After more than a decade on the job, she knew how to hold the reins during times of chaos. One of those sentences contains a phrase that was the subject of one of the closest quizzes we did in 2025. And if you spotted the incorrect sentence, you know which phrase it is. We had covered reign and rein in...
All right, now that you've *just* gotten used to writing "2026" instead of "2025," quick question: Is it EST or EDT when you're writing a time zone? Luckily, this time of year doesn't add more confusion to writing the time and date. When we asked you about time zones in the spring, you were split on whether to use "EST" or "EDT": At the time, the correct answer was "EDT." Here's more from our newsletter revealing the answer: In time zone abbreviations, the "S" stands for "standard," and the...