How to Use the Past Perfect and Future Perfect Tenses Tuesday, February 16 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. CT Which of these two sentences is correct: I spoke with the surgeon a number of times before I scheduled the procedure or I had spoken with the surgeon a number of times before I scheduled the procedure? …
Author Archives: rultimo
The Essential Minimum
What would be the very first things to know if we wanted to begin a practical review of English grammar? Learning a skill involves both theory and practice, but too often we’re ready to get practicing without an understanding of what we’re doing and why. Here are five points that can give direction to our …
Straight Lines of Thought
In the 1980s, an architectural style called deconstructivism appeared, a movement that questioned the necessity of long-standing assumptions of what a building should look like—assumptions as fundamental as vertical lines and right angles—and produced structures that catch one’s attention and dizzy one’s vision. The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, …
Say It Isn’t So: The Subjunctive
It’s usually a safe bet if you want to send people running for the doors to mention the word subjunctive. Uttered loudly or softly, the word will for most of us call forth a repressed memory of treacherous days in grammar class, days made all the worse if we saw the sun shining brightly outside. …
Upcoming Seminar
Sentence Design: Parallel Construction Tuesday, February 9 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. CT Could this sentence be improved: My new apartment is bright, sunny, and transportation is just around the corner? Probably so, because its construction is not parallel: three elements follow the verb, but only two, bright and sunny, are adjectives. The next Writing Smartly …