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.
Racking up grammar points
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Here at Stylebot, we've been racking our brains to figure out how to help more people with their writing and editing needs. And a few weeks ago, we asked you what topic you'd like to learn more about. Most people who responded said they'd like advice on how to avoid common writing mistakes. So today, we're excited to share our first e-book on that very topic. It walks you through four common writing mistakes and the grammar rules you need to know to fix them. Think of it as a condensed version of this newsletter, with printable tip sheets you can use for easy reference. And it's free! Check it out and let us know what you think.
We've also shared with you our commonly confused words quiz, and if you've taken it, chances are you missed the question about racked vs. wracked. Fewer than half the people who have taken quiz have gotten that question right, so as a bonus, today we're reminding you to drop the "w" in phrases such as nerve-racking and rack my brain. You can learn more about rack and wrack in our earlier deep dive here. Thank you to everyone who voted in our previous poll about the writing topics you're most interested in. If you missed it, now is your chance to share your opinion with us.
❤ Team Stylebot
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Stylebot
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 had a tie in last week's quiz about how to punctuate the term commonly used for carved pumpkins, with 35% of you choosing "jack o'lanterns" and another 35% choosing "jack-o'-lanterns." So who's right? Let's ask Stylebot 😉 It's tedious, but we put the hyphens and an apostrophe in jack-o'-lantern. Another common format is "jack-o-lantern." "Jack o'lantern" is much less common. So who is Jack? And what's he doing with a lantern? Here's where we tell you what carved pumpkins and marsh gas have...
If you chose "pouring over" in last week's quiz, did you associate the act of studying intently with poor posture? Perhaps pore and pour's fellow homophone can help you remember the correct phrase. Almost everyone who took last week's quiz correctly identified "pour" as the verb to use for serving drinks. But nearly a third of you chose "pouring over" for the act of studying the audit logs, when the correct phrase is poring over. When you hear the phrase "poring over," you might picture...
It's officially falltime, and yes, you read that right. The answer to last week's quiz ("Which of these is NOT a word?") was autumntime. But most of you <ahem> fell for "falltime," which gets a listing in Merriam-Webster (our default dictionary), while "autumntime" does not. Neither "falltime" nor "autumntime" is in wide use compared to the other seasonal terms. Why? It might have to do with the age of the words "fall" and "autumn." English speakers started describing seasons at their...