If you can make a grocery list, you can master parallelism.
Tag Archives: Grammar
Talk Up Writing with Me on Blog-Talk Radio
When’s the last time you kvetched about commas, reread a rhapsodic passage, or admired a masterful bdelygmia rant? If it was just the other day, you’re my kind of word nerd, and you’re the kind of listener Jackie Dotson had in mind when … Continue reading
Word Up! Now On Kindle
Thanks to all who are making the debut of Word Up! so exciting for me. I appreciate every congratulation sent, every purchase made, every recommendation shared, every review posted.
Some of you have asked how the book is doing. Since its launch almost a month ago, it has regularly popped into Amazon’s Top 100 bestselling grammar books and several times made the Top 20. Today, the Grammar Girl blog…
“Language Matters” Recorded Webinar
This morning, The Content Wrangler Scott Abel chatted with me in a recorded webinar.  See it here: “Language Matters: How to Write Powerful Sentences & Paragraphs.”
New Trailer for Word Up!
Thanks to the skills and dedication of videographer Asia Brown and to the generosity of all who participated, Word Up! now has a trailer.
Video Interview: Marcia and Darin Hammond
Today, writer, teacher, and blogger Darin Hammond, owner of the website Zipminis.com, interviewed Marcia about the power and pleasure of words.
A Book Birthday
Today—my “book birthday” (as publicist extraordinaire Jessica Glenn calls it)—is almost over. April 27, National Tell a Story Day, is the official release day for Word Up! How has it gone?
“That” Doesn’t Go without Saying
I’ve been thinking about that. T-h-a-t. A handier word you’ll never find. Yet English speakers often omit it. That is left out. Suppressed, grammarians say. Implied.
Suppressing that doesn’t necessarily get you in trouble. Sometimes you can safely omit that when it follows a noun. Take shoes. Few misunderstand when you say the shoes you’re wearing instead of the shoes that you’re wearing.
Still, even following nouns, consider keeping your thats out in the open, especially if you write for those wonder workers we call translators or for people who struggle with English. Our language poses enough challenges when all the words are visible.
When it comes to verbs, though, don’t let that go without saying.
Marcia Talks Up Writing on AM Northwest
When did you last hear people talking on TV about the importance of writing skills? If it’s been too long, today is your lucky day. AM Northwest hosts Helen Raptis and Dave Anderson interviewed Marcia Riefer Johnston about Word Up! this morning.
Video Testimonials for Word Up!
Thanks to the passion, persistence, and expertise of Portland videographer Asia Brown and to the generosity of Word Up! readers Adrienne Hartz, John Morrison, and Garret Romaine, you can now see some 30-second video snippets that will soon find their way into the book trailer.