The Internet. The end of English as we know it? (2)
Did you watch the “English 3.0” video examining the question: is the Internet having a detrimental effect on English and on “standards”? Here are my thoughts on the question.
Tag: punctuation
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Apostrophes: everything you ever wanted to know, just about.
Yesterday, 16 August, was International Apostrophe Day, and the cue for lots of apostrophe articles and Twitter posts. The following quick guide to when and
How good is your grammar?
Primary-school pupils in England have been sitting a new grammar, spelling and punctuation test (check out the specimen questions) as part of their final year
Punctuation botheration (2)
It seems Birmingham isn’t the only city having bother with place name apostrophes, as shown by the Londonist website’s post on Should King’s Cross Have
Ge tem, mona mour…(?) Punctuation (and spelling) botheration, Italian style
It seems that Italy too has got problems with spelling and punctuation, though in this case at graffiti rather than local authority level. The text
Punctuation botheration (as resolved by Victor Borge)
UK local authorities seem to have a fraught relationship with punctuation and spelling. Birmingham City Council decided in January 2009 to remove the possessive apostrophe
Smart quote-marks for smart translating
I wrote on 21 July about quote-marks — how to decide whether you should be using curly (smart) or straight quotes and, once you’ve decided,
Smart quote-marks for smart writing
Keyboard shortcuts are a great timesaver when you’re spending hours typing away on your computer. I’ve just learned a couple of new ones, for inserting smart
Dot-dot-dot (2): when to type an ellipsis
My post on Tuesday (26 October) was about how to type an ellipsis; this one goes into a wee bit more detail about when you
Dot-dot-dot (1): how to type an ellipsis
Here’s a quick tip that comes in handy for computer-typing in general and Twitter in particular (it saves you two characters). When you’re typing an