( Read more... )

mha_chan wants to know: What are dangling participles, modifiers, etc.?

In short, dangling modifiers (sometimes called misplaced modifiers) are a type of grammatical error that can make your sentences unclear, misleading, or downright silly to the reader. Dangling participles are a subset of dangling modifiers.

( Let's find out more about what they are and how to avoid them, with some help from the students and staff at Hogwarts. )

( Read more... )

china-shop asked us "Does the word order in speech tags change based on whether a pronoun or proper noun is used?"

Or in other words, are there actual rules about whether you should be saying "Sebastian said" or "said Sebastian" - or, for that matter, "He said" or "Said he"?
( With help from the cast of Kuroshitsuji (or in English, Black Butler) )

whymzycal has done a fabulous job explaining run-on sentences and how to fix them here, but let’s have a quick review.

( We'll be assisted by Castle and Beckett from Castle. )

Question: mirror_mirrin asks, What style options are there for sentences which repeat the same word (e.g., "the," "a," "that")? (ex. John leaned over the table at the mess hall to give Rodney a kiss goodbye before leaving for the war games planned on the Athosian mainland.)

There's not really anything wrong with repeating little words in a sentence, but there' ( Read more... )

alethiaxx asks: Can you put speech tags in the middle of a sentence?

Starring Bertie Wooster and a certain gentleman's gentleman, one Reginald Jeeves.

( Yes and no )

Grammar 101: Basic Sentence Structure with examples from Supernatural

We've been talking about individual words for the last few weeks, but now it's time to put them together: into sentences.

( What is a sentence? )

rykaine asked, "What is an elliptical adverb clause?"

With examples from NCIS.

( When you follow the LJ-cut, you'll find the answer. )

What’s So Bad About the Passive Voice, Anyway?

The quick answer: lots.

This feature will explain what passive voice is and give tips and tricks for how to recognize (and change) the passive voice in writing. We’ll also discuss the times when passive voice might actually be a desirable technique to use.

( Read more... )