Welcome to the no-cheat-device-installed world of Reg Gothard’s writing. As of Fall 2017, I have decided to put this website into hibernation. Too many other opportunities demand my time, and so I’m taking a calculated risk by halting my activity on this website. I continue to monitor it, and will respond to all genuine commentary […]
Comma or Space?
This article is part of a series about the humble comma, and looks at current practice regarding the comma and such things as addresses, dates and numbers. Addresses In days of old, commas were splashed on to envelopes as though they were fairy dust, presumably to get the letter to its proper destination on time […]
Commas, Commas Everywhere
This is part of a series about the humble comma, and summarizes some of the thirty-something uses for it that I haven’t covered in previous articles. The comma is used to indicate a structural break in a sentence. It can indicate connection with or separation of elements one from another. When reading out loud, it […]
Commas and Relative Clauses
This is part of a series about the humble comma, and discusses its role (or lack thereof) in relative clauses. What Is a Relative Clause? First, let’s get the gag out of the way. Relative clauses are not parts of a will that define what you’re leaving to your nephews and nieces. There. Now we […]
Commas in Lists
This article is part of a series about the humble comma, and discusses its role in making sense of lists. It is unusual to see a (bulleted) vertical list in forms of writing such as novels, newspaper articles, poetry, editorials and op-eds, and dictionary entries; comma-separated lists are used instead. Such lists are referred to […]
Commas and Introductory Clauses
This article is part of a series about the humble comma, and discusses its role as a separator of introductory clauses. When deciding where to use commas, look carefully at your sentence to see where a pause or logical separation is required. The above was an example of an introductory clause. “When deciding where to […]
The Comma Splice
This article is the first in a series about the humble comma, and deals with a situation in which a comma should not be used. The unwary among us might be tempted to write something like the following. I know all about punctuation, I use it every time I write something. He was miles away, […]
Office Renovation
Like many people, I try not to buy into the latest versions of software. For a kick-off, my bank account won’t support it. It’s rarely just a single product you have to buy—there are usually system pre-requisites at both the software and hardware level. Then there‘s the suspicion that product release dates are dictated by […]
Displaying Formatting Marks
One of the things that most users of MS Office don’t do is to have the various formatting marks visible. I like to have them all showing. Having never worked with other writers, I don’t know if I’m different from or the same as them. What Are the Formatting Marks? Formatting marks are glyphs that […]
Em Dashes
This is part four of a four- or five-part series on dashes and hyphens that is intended to replace an earlier article. Part one deals purely with the mechanics of producing a given dash/rule/sign/glyph in a document using four MS Office products; Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Publisher. Part two deals with hyphenation, the different kinds […]
En Dashes
This is part three of a four- or five-part series on dashes and hyphens that is intended to replace an earlier article. Part one deals purely with the mechanics of producing a given dash/rule/sign/glyph in a document using four MS Office products; Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Publisher. Part two deals with hyphenation, the different kinds […]
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