The language is changing all the time, and while that’s annoying to purists and traditionalists (me, sometimes), it’s also tremendously entertaining and delightful to fans (me, the rest of the time). New coinages perfectly suited to a moment, situation, or social group may or may not stand the test of time (gag me with a …
Category Archive: News
Mar 18
“An exercise in high-stakes grammar pedantry that could cost … $10 million”
It’s all very well saying we live in a post-punctuation era, and archaic little speckles have no business cluttering up our brilliant prose when emoji can do that much more artfully, but unlike many writing jobs, punctuation can move real sums of money. Proof? You want proof? How about this gripping yarn in The New York …
Feb 13
What’s the story?
Storytelling is a basic human need and pleasure, and it’s available now in so many forms, from movies and video games to the more timeless venue of a person alone in a spotlight sharing a tale with an audience. I am delighted to announce that a story about my late mother that I penned and submitted …
Jul 04
A new revolution: The singular they
One of the active fronts in grammar currently is the growing acceptance–or even requirement, in some cases–of the word “they” to refer to a person of unknown or possibly nonbinary gender. Newspapers and other publishers are struggling to come up with a policy or style about this, while strict-constructionist grammarians shriek with horror and fumble …
Jun 12
Online daters: Grammar is even sexier than your smile!
It’s official, according to a survey by Match.com: Online daters judge potential partners most by their hygiene (and, let’s face it, rightly so) and second by their grammar. …good grammar rated more important than a partner’s confidence or their teeth. This is huge. Whitening costs money; diagramming sentences is a free and delightful hobby. OK, …
May 18
The kicking and screaming will subside soon. Yeah, I’m on Twitter.
If you follow me, I promise I won’t barrage your feed with a lot of nonsense. Just a little bit of nonsense. Seriously, I have one follower and bless her, I don’t know who she is. (I am creeped out by having to say I have followers. Follower. I am not running a cult.) @4sambennett
Jan 26
A new place to find everything Sam
Hi, I’m humorist and former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Samantha Bennett, and this is my website. While it’s still got that new-website smell, I may be a bit cautious and irregular about posting to it. I beg your patience. I am an advocate for good grammar, punctuation and usage — as long as none of that gets …
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