We agree, I hope, that writers work in words. Words are the writer’s raw material, and like the sculptor’s clay, words have to be shaped into meaning. Choosing words and arranging them is the sum and substance of the practice of writing. This is why some of the fine old grammars of English said that …
Author Archives: rultimo
Every Day or Everyday?
It’s a curious thing: we’re a culture that prizes science highly, yet when it comes to language, the very instrument of our scientific culture, we are often reluctant to learn something of its own science, grammar. The result? We take the long way home. Consider, for example, the common problem writers seem to have in …
Accruing a Vocabulary
A writer’s bricks and mortar are words and grammar. This is why it is important to set aside time every day to read, the regularity being more important than the amount. Just as there is no musician who does not listen to music nor any painter who does not study the work of other painters, …
Revising By Clauses
Grammar books often define a sentence as a complete thought, but that maxim, true as it oftentimes is, might not be good enough if we want to revise our work more carefully. Let’s say, for example, we wrote these two sentences in our first draft: One friend of mine builds log cabins for a living, …
Backstitching
Most of us most of the time write what is called expository prose, an expensive name for something quite common. Exposition is the presentation of facts, and expository writing, as opposed to description or argumentation, is nothing more (or less) than explaining something clearly and methodically to someone else. One principle of expository prose is …