This grammatical bugaboo has been plaguing writers for hundreds of years. In spite of rules to the contrary, there are times when a writer can “get away with it”. But how are you to know? The following guidelines will, hopefully, provide some answers. Share This:
The apostrophe mark (‘) has two major uses in English. Usage 1: the apostrophe signifies that one or more letters in a word have been left out. So, for example, in poetry we have o’er for over; in contractions we have can’t for cannot and she’s for she is; and in abbreviations we have dep’t.
This may be the most misunderstood and misused grammar and punctuation rule in the English language. The focus of this post is on using commas to set off sentence “chunks”, as opposed to other uses like lists and dates and titles. Share This:
Rules for using commas and semicolons have been debated for years, and there are a number of sources that offer an opinion on how to use them. Here are a few simple or basic guidelines that work most of the time. Share This: