We thought we'd do something a bit different today. We often receive questions directed to our Grammar Experts and reply to them privately. I'm going to share some of these questions today and give you an opportunity to test yourself against our experts. Names have been changed to protect the innocent!
After you've completed your answers, please click the link at the bottom of the post to see our Grammar Expert's Answers.
Topics: hyphenation, writing, commas
Here at ProofreadNOW we strive for perfection. See if you can achieve a perfect 10 with these absolutely impeccable words:
1. spot-on: (a) slightly imperfect, with only one blemish; (b) one who insists on exactness or completeness in the observance of something; (c) exactly correct; accurate; perfect; (d) a common dry-cleaning term identifying attention required for a silk necktie.
Topics: vocabulary test
And. Retain and before the last item in a series, even though that last item consists of two words joined by and.
Guideline. Unless you have a good reason for doing otherwise, express verbs in the active rather than the passive voice.
Topics: verbs
While many people may not know what an appositive is, clients use them often in the documents we see on our server. This week's post is on the appositive and how to use it. We use as our guide the venerable Chicago Manual of Style.
Topics: punctuation, appositives
A venerable client wrote recently and asked, "Should 'that' be added before 'innovation' in the following sentence?"
Topics: when to omit that, when to use that, that
It's amazing how loosely the terms in today's quiz are used (and misused) in everyday writing and conversation. Choose the right meaning. Compare your choices with the correct answers at the bottom of this column.
Topics: possessives, punctuation, grammar
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