Why are misplaced modifiers such a common grammatical error? Plus, what's the difference between a misplaced modifier and a dangling modifier? “A popular destination for cruise ships, tourists flock ...

According to language legend, a classified ad once made this intriguing offer: Antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers. And if you believe that one, I have another: Mixing ...

In a previous discussion, we attempted to understand MORPHEMES and their relevance to sentence construction. Today we examine PHRASES and CLAUSES as salient elements of a SENTENCE. STRUCTURAL and ...

MODIFIERS give us information about a noun or pronoun in a sentence. They are important because they help to paint the true picture of the information we seek to convey to our reader or listener. The ...

Now that I have your attention, I’d like to talk about dangling participles. This most famous of danglers is must-know stuff for any self-respecting smarty-pants. Not because the concept will help ...

One of the regular features we do on Twitter is "Why we need hyphens": phrases that have different meanings depending on whether there's a hyphen. These usually occur when a noun has a compound ...

So how do we produce readable and clean scientific writing? One of the good elements of style is to avoid adverbs and adjectives (Zinsser 2006). Adjectives and adverbs sprinkle paper with unnecessary ...