Today we're going to talk about dashes — but not that kind. The em dash has gotten a lot of attention in recent years because of its tendency to show up in AI-generated writing. Some of us who are longtime lovers of the em dash (including the humans behind this newsletter 🙋♀️) might pause before using it now, for fear of giving the wrong impression about how our writing was generated. (For the record, we still lean into the em dash, but you do you.) The en dash is a close relative of the em...
9 days ago • 2 min read
What a week! People celebrated Presidents' Day, Mardi Gras and Lunar New Year this week, all while the Olympics were happening and Ramadan began. To top it off, there was a solar eclipse on Tuesday. To mark this week, we have some event- and holiday-themed writing tips that you can use through the rest of the week and month: The Olympics closing ceremony is on Sunday. Just like "opening ceremony," "closing ceremony" is not capitalized. Remember, Team USA is an exception to the rule about...
16 days ago • 1 min read
We're going further than we've ever gone before into the difference between farther and further. Many of you have requested that we cover this commonly confused pair of words, and with good reason: "Further" is used a lot when language sticklers would use "farther." OK, so what's the difference? "Farther" is for references to physical distance, while "further" is for figurative descriptions. So to further your fitness goals, you might run farther than you did yesterday. Here are a couple of...
23 days ago • 1 min read
An historical event is taking place today: For the first time, Olympic Torches will light two cauldrons during the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 games. How many errors do you spot in that sentence? The 2026 Olympics kick off today in Italy today, and yes, in a first, two Olympic cauldrons will be lit in the two host cities: Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. That much we know. What's less clear is exactly how to write about it. We count five errors in the opening sentence of this newsletter. We'll...
30 days ago • 1 min read
We did two newsletters last year on was vs. were to cover a couple of different grammatical rules: collective nouns and the subjunctive mood. And while you didn't struggle on the subjunctive mood quiz, "couple" proved trickier: "Was" won out on the newsletter quiz, but when we posted the same question on LinkedIn, we got the opposite response. There are more than a couple of ways to use "couple." One is that it's essentially a collective noun meaning a set of romantic partners, but even then,...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Quick, without looking anything up, can you tell if the following sentences are correct? ❓A monarch takes the reins at the start of her reign. ❓He had free reign to develop new strategies. ❓After more than a decade on the job, she knew how to hold the reins during times of chaos. One of those sentences contains a phrase that was the subject of one of the closest quizzes we did in 2025. And if you spotted the incorrect sentence, you know which phrase it is. We had covered reign and rein in...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
All right, now that you've *just* gotten used to writing "2026" instead of "2025," quick question: Is it EST or EDT when you're writing a time zone? Luckily, this time of year doesn't add more confusion to writing the time and date. When we asked you about time zones in the spring, you were split on whether to use "EST" or "EDT": At the time, the correct answer was "EDT." Here's more from our newsletter revealing the answer: In time zone abbreviations, the "S" stands for "standard," and the...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Happy 2026! Even though it's a new year, we're continuing the wrap-up of our quiz series with the answers to our trickiest questions. Before the holiday break, we reviewed the phrase nerve-racking. Now, we're onto whoever vs. whomever. Well, that was the fill-in-the-blank in the quiz question. But the lesson is really about subjects and objects and noun clauses. Here's the question that tripped up most of you: So "whomever" is the correct answer there, but it's not as simple as just using...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
The end of the year is approaching, which means it's wrap season. Gift wrapping, sure, but also the time of year when we get wrap-ups of our habits and behaviors. If you answered our quiz questions this year, you can pat yourself on the back: There were only a few questions that a majority of quiz respondents got wrong. Great work 👏 We're wrapping up our quiz series with a look back at those trickier questions and reviewing the lessons, starting with the one that tripped up the most people:...
3 months ago • 2 min read