Tag Archives: grammar

The Other Big Three

January 21, 2010 – 4:42 pm

When professional writers are asked “what are the books you keep within arm’s reach of your desk or computer?”, many of the lists have for years included Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. Fowler’s Modern English Usage is also popular, as is The Chicago Manual of Style and Karen Elizabeth Gordon’s delightful The Deluxe [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in General, Writing | Also tagged | Comments (20)

Looking Backward II, or Some Tenses and How to Use Them

November 24, 2009 – 11:26 am

The second most common way of leading into and out of a flashback sequence is by shifting tenses. Most novels are told in what’s called the “historic present,” meaning that the “now” of the story is told in simple past tense (He slept in the library all afternoon rather than He sleeps in the library all afternoon).
This confuses a lot of [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Writing | Also tagged , , | Comments (5)

A Rant on Passive voice

June 14, 2009 – 8:10 pm

 I have just finished arguing with a would-be writer who a) is convinced that passive voice is evil and must be avoided at all times, and b) has, it turns out, no idea at all what passive voice actually is.
I am therefore going to rant.
Passive voice is not when something has been allowed to happen, [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Writing | Also tagged , | Comments (17)