Language and Grammar

If you really want to improve the quality of your writing…the principles you should worry about the most are… the ones that govern critical thinking and factual diligence.

Steven Pinker

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Do not write so that you can be understood, but so that you cannot be misunderstood.

Quintilian

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Here’s something I used to think about, back in the before-times: A clause set off by em dashes is like dropping underwater while swimming breaststroke—just a quick dip before popping back to the sentence’s surface. A parenthetical clause is more like diving down to the pool bottom to pick up a coin. And a footnote is a full-blown scuba dive—you have strapped on equipment and left the surface behind and you had better, after going to all that trouble, see something interesting down there.

Ben Dolnick

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Is “adult-film star” another good example of a phrase that shows why it can be extremely important to use hyphens correctly? Yes it is.

Kevin Underhill

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It's not what you say, it's what people hear.

Frank Lantz

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Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness.

Margaret Millar

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Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.

Dumbledore

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Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion- size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely litle old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And as size comes before colour, green great dragons can’t exist.

Some grammarian

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