Beyond the Rhetoric

Technology is supposed to save us time. It’s supposed to make life easier and more convenient, but we inevitably try to cram even more into even less time. For better or for worse, this has given rise to an increasingly daunting number of acronyms and shorthand. Shorthand isn’t anything new and it’s not unique to [...]

Standard English on its own can be very difficult to master, even for native speakers. There are so many rules and then there are even more exceptions to those rules. English idioms can be more confusing, especially when they get significantly detached from their respective origins. One phrase that I see misused not uncommonly is [...]

Most people know about the most popular movie genres. You might say it’s an action movie, a drama, or a documentary. If you want to be more specific, you might say it’s a buddy comedy or a nature documentary. But then again, you can be even more descriptive and sometimes this requires coming up with [...]

In the last week or so, I’ve encountered more than one instance where these word pairs were misused. More specifically, I read sentences where the author paired “either” with “nor,” which really isn’t the way you should go about using these words. If you are making a comparison and you start with using “either,” then [...]

A lot of confusion can arise when certain words aren’t used very often, but are still within the common vernacular. People mistakenly say “exercise regime“, for instance, when they really mean to say “exercise regimen.” Similarly, “predecessor” and “successor” are two words that are oftentimes confused for one another. Ironically enough, “predecessor” and “successor” have [...]