Not sure when to use “affect” and when to use “effect” in a sentence?
Example: The boy’s allergies were affected by the wind.
Example: The noise from the neighbor’s stereo had a big effect on Billy’s mood.
Here’s a good blog post about this topic.
There seems to be great confusion about how to show possessive nouns that end with the letter “s.” The confusion is only increased when you find different grammar guides taking differing stances.
Which is correct?
Charles’s book…
Charles’ book…
In reality, both are. Consistency is the name of the game though. Make sure you stick with the same pattern throughout your writing.
You can find more excruciating details about this rule on this blog.
Many of us are frequent offenders of this crime. We fill sentences with long and redundant words. We do this to make it sound like we know what we’re talking about (when we really don’t) or to fill the page with words. Or, we somehow feel that using long wordy sentences will make us sound more professional.
Stop writing long sentences just for the sake of being long! The best writers will agree that the shorter and more direct the sentence is, the better. The purpose of sentences is to get a thought across to the reader. If you have more than one thought in a sentence, chances are that you need two sentences (or a comma if the two thoughts are related).
Here’s a good blog post about this topic.
