Yearly Archives: 2013

In the picky picky dept., more grammar, and another comma

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Ellen Akins

1.  (dis)agreement From an article in the NYT: “About one in 10 doctors trained in India have left that country” “have” left?  “has” left?  “One in ten” might mean one, or it might mean thousands, so which is right? 2. … Continue reading →

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And finally, commas

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Ellen Akins

Commas and compound sentences I would not even go into this, but one of my thesis students told me that he didn’t know it (after I’d spent 2 years assuming he was making a stylistic choice).  Compound sentences are linked … Continue reading →

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Punctuating. “Dialogue.” Also, Adverbs

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Ellen Akins

Further guidance for my students, who are struggling with the technical aspects of dialogue, though they might not know it. Where to put those tags Dialogue is often better broken up with dialogue tags than ended with them.  That is, … Continue reading →

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“Stop using those strange dialogue tags,” she chided (exclaimed, exhorted, quipped, chirped, opined).

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Ellen Akins

(Also, could you punctuate them properly?) This is something that exercises any number of people.  Here, for instance, is number 3 in Elmore Leonard‘s “ten tips for writers“:  Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. The line … Continue reading →

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Point of View (seemingly endless) notes for my students

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Ellen Akins

This is a very long email I sent to my students last semester, when a few had questions about point-of-view.  There are occasional references to particular students and particular stories, but I thought the specific advice might mean something even … Continue reading →

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