(5 Changes That Matter From the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition.)

It’s unquestionably nostalgic but also unquestionably new. It means that you can hold the English language in your hands. 

Let’s explore some of the fun new entries in the Twelfth: 

adulting

We all know that nouns can become verbs in English. Sometimes we notice the shift, and sometimes we don’t: Most of us think nothing of the fact that we butter bread and we voice opposition and we iron clothes. Nouns more conventionally come from verbs–just think of walk and run. But it’s pretty rare that a noun comes from a verb that came from a noun, which is the case with adulting, derived from the verb to adult meaning “to behave like an adult.” The verb dates back to the early 1900s, while the new noun adulting surfaced in 2013, a high point of social media saturation. It’s a word that emerged while we narrated our lives while living them.

amirite

Texting and social media have made the informal language of others part of our daily lives in a way wholly unprecedented,  and the language has expanded accordingly. Terms like lit, bae, fomo, mood, stan, sus, and lowkey come from a new register of informal expression. It’s not just the compressed phonetic respelling, shorter for quick keying and perhaps a bit ironic in a knowing way, that distinguishes amirite; there’s a grammatical singularity about it, too, since it’s usually used as a tag question in social media posts. Amirite?

dad joke

Compound terms need to pass a simple test before being added to the dictionary. If a compound can be understood by consulting the definitions of its constituent parts, no new definition is needed. There is no entry for cattle ranch, for example, but there is one for dude ranch. A dad joke isn’t just a joke told by a dad—it has the specific qualities of wholesomeness, obviousness, and endearing corniness. 

fanfic

One of the inarguably positive things about social media has been the ability to find others who share one’s hobbies, habits, and passions. From knitting to gaming to collective fangirling and fanboying (two more newly added words), people have found a new way to share what they care about. The communities that both read and write fan fiction have given us another shortened term, fanfic, which can refer to both the genre and to a specific story, as in: “We wrote a fanfic about vampires who knit sweaters for fun.”

fluffernutter

Trademarks are a tricky thing for dictionaries. On the one hand, many trademarked terms are generically used to refer to things that correspond to the category, if not the specific brand, named by the trademark. You might be surprised to learn that escalator and dumpster and thermos began as trademarks. Still-active trademarks are only given usage indications rather than definitions, since only the trademark holder can legally say what their name refers to; this is the case for Jeep, Kleenex, and Xerox (when used as a noun). Fluffernutter, a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow fluff, is among the newest and most delicious trademarks to become a dictionary entry.

free solo

The sport of rock climbing without ropes or safety equipment is specific enough to have its own name: free solo. It might have continued as an obscure and fairly specialized niche activity, but an Oscar-winning documentary film entitled Free Solo made it much more familiar to the general public.  

mediopassive

As language lovers and certified word nerds, we love seeing new linguistic terminology in the dictionary. Mediopassive names the way the subjects of some sentences receive, rather than perform, the actions of their verbs. Seen in such sentences as “The window opens easily,” “The house sold in four days,” and “The car drives smoothly,” it’s a curious sentence structure that is useful and efficient. Intransitive verbs used in such sentences are said to be in the mediopassive voice. 

non-rhotic

Some English speakers don’t pronounce the sound of the letter r before vowels or at the end of words–think the classic Boston accent, for example, but also many accents heard in Britain or the American South. An “r-less” accent is called non-rhotic by linguists. Rhotic derives from a Greek word that means “to use the /r/ sound excessively or incorrectly.”

petrichor (geosmin)

Petrichor is one of those words that for a long time was used mainly to cite itself. It was the answer to the question, “Did you know that there is a word for that distinctive smell after rainfall?” But petrichor has been used more and more frequently as the name for the smell, and is a welcome new addition to the dictionary. Another new word, geosmin, is the chemical compound that generates the petrichor smell.

side-eye

Side-eye (a word born in the late 18th century but only made common in this one) means “a sidelong glance that indicates scorn, suspicion, disapproval, or veiled curiosity.” It’s sometimes used with the, as in “She gave him the side-eye,” and it’s a verb, too, as in “They were side-eyeing us with envy.” This is a linguistically interesting case of a facial expression carrying a specific meaning, which isn’t the case for words like smile or frown. Those words might indicate emotions but don’t often have metonymic uses that can be substituted for the cause of the expression; giving someone the side-eye is often showing scorn, but giving someone a smile is just smiling. 

Check out the Twelfth Edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary here:

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(Play Wordle right now.)

In case you’ve been resistant to the recent Wordle phenomenon, it’s a simple game: Every 24 hours, there is a new five-letter word provided and players are tasked with guessing the word in six tries or fewer. If you can guess it, you win. If you can’t, you don’t. Super simple.

Of course, there’s a lot of strategy that can go into the simplest of games, including whether to use the same starting word each day or change it up each day. Originally, I took a haphazard approach, but I finally landed on my personal favorite starting word: piano.

I’ve read a few articles on the best starting words, and I’ve yet to see piano mentioned as one that makes analytical sense. But I like that it has three vowels and a couple normal consonants. Plus, the poet in me just likes the musical quality of the word: piano.

What Is Your Favorite Starting Word in Wordle?

That’s the question, I recently asked on Facebook. I’ve got a lot of writerly friends on there, so I was interested in their answers. I’ll share a few quotes here, and then a list of words below that. While statisticians and mathematicians may not agree, I don’t know that there’s really a best starting word, but it’s fun to think there is a magic word that will unlock more doors than others.

“I never use the same one.” -Alice Pope

“I mix it up but use Shore a lot.” -Mike Maher

“I have been stupidly using aorta. Sometimes I will use weary. I should start using tears bc those are all common letters and I might learn more.” -Heather Fowler

“I try different words sometimes, but usually start with arise or arose.” -RJ Clarken

“I always use CHAIR as my opening play.” -Khara House

“I use different starting words. Usually also with five different letters.” -Sari Grandstaff

“Heart was a good one out of the gate today. Might be one I make a mental note of using again.” -Hannah E Bowles

“I always use a word with 4 vowels and then my second word contains the remaining vowel and Y.” -Linda Evans Hofke

“I always change it up, it’s more fun for me that way.” -Phayvanh Leukamhan

“I have two or three I rotate. Sometimes I use ouija even though strategically the ‘j’ is a wasted space; I love that word for all its vowels and its happy sound.” -Janet Hale Tabin

“There are a lot of words that can be made from the most common letters, and I get bored writing the same thing every day. I mean, it’s a game I play just to play, so I don’t feel the need to really drill down into that statistically most valuable opening word, which I saw in an article recently and then promptly forgot.” -John Gallaher

A List of Favorite Starting Words

Here are some of the words others shared with me on Facebook:

• irate
• frost
• great
• soare
• deity
• adieu
• stead
• weary
• poise
• learn
• mouse
• route
• alone
• above
• moist
• audio
• stare
• train
• trunk
• beach
• beaus
• union
• lions
• steam
• aster
• dream
• point
• rates

*****

No matter what type of writing you do, mastering the fundamentals of grammar and mechanics is an important first step to having a successful writing career.

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(Where are the toxic families in children’s books?)

My father was a juvenile probation officer who dealt with a lot of troubled kids, kids in trouble, and their parents, who were often the worst trouble of all. Growing up, our house was filled with kids who had no place to go, had either left their house, or had been removed from a bad environment, and were waiting for a foster home. I remember sitting at the kitchen table one night with my mother and my older sister and older brother when my dad came home with a high school-aged boy and said, “This is Leroy; he’ll be staying with us a while.” Leroy’s father had tried to shoot him and Leroy called my dad for help. When my father got to the house, the father said, “Take the son of a bitch; I don’t want him.” Leroy stayed in the bunk bed in my brother’s room for a few months before he was taken in by a family up the street. He and my brother became best friends. Other kids stayed a few weeks, a few almost a year.

My father also taught at the Iowa State Penitentiary for a few years. He was told explicitly not to give out any personal information to the inmates. He told them his address and his phone number. Our house became a popular destination for guys just released from prison. I remember answering the door one time and a man asked for my father. I told him that he wasn’t home. “I just got out today,” he told me. “I didn’t know where else to go.” He came inside and waited for my dad to come home.

I recall another prisoner, who had served a long time for armed robbery, took the bus to our house immediately after being released. He stayed with us for a number of hours, talking and watching us intently. He finally said goodbye and immediately went and robbed the bus station. “I don’t know what we did,” my father said, “but it wasn’t good.” When he visited the man back in prison, he told my father that talking to us he realized that he couldn’t live outside prison, that he’d been institutionalized.

(How to Create a Narrative Arc for Personal Essays.)

The Iowa State Penitentiary was a massive building with high stone walls and higher stone turreted guard towers. It looked like a medieval fortress. It was built in 1839, one year after Iowa became a territory, and seven years before it became a state. It was remodeled in 1982, but when I was growing up, the original building was still operational, holding 550 prisoners. A federal prisoner was hanged there in 1963, the last federal execution until Timothy McVeigh was put to death in Indiana in 2001.

I didn’t know any of this when we would go and sit outside the prison’s massive walls and wait for my father to finish his class. It was always night when we waited. My mother anxiously watched the entrance; I watched the building itself, as it stretched high above us, the stones seeming ancient in the harsh white spot lights. The building frightened me; but it also fascinated me. I liked sitting there in the car in the night, with my mother nervous and worried. Behind the secure, placid walls was danger, I imagined. But then again, maybe there wasn’t. I thought about the men, sitting in small desks in a classroom not unlike the one I probably sat in during the day, but locked inside, and my father locked inside with them, at least for a few hours every week. And I thought about the men who walked through the walls and came to stay with us.

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As a kid just starting to read Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, just starting to watch Bogart and Cagney in the Warner Bros. crime films of the 30s, I was fascinated with the men that came from the penitentiary. My father treated them the same as almost anyone else who came by, from the cops, lawyers, and judges my father knew and worked with, to the priests my mother worked for at the Catholic High School. And, in truth, they didn’t seem any different from anyone else.

There was one particular man we became close to; he came and stayed with us a number of times, would stay the weekend like any other guest or relative. The only thing different was that I remember him calling his parole officer. When I was in college, his name came up in conversation and I said to my father, “I don’t remember you ever telling me what he’d been in prison for.” “I didn’t tell you,” my dad said. “He was in for murder.”

Which reminds me about that guy with the gun outside our house.

(The Case for Writing Rituals.)

I don’t remember how long my father was in the car; it seemed like hours. Too long. My sister and I watched out the window of the darkened living room. My mother paced, sobbing and terrified. We all kept wishing my father would get the hell out of the car. We couldn’t see them, sitting there in the street, just a car with dark windows, but we kept staring. I wondered what a gunshot would sound like. And I wondered why my mother, who had begged my father not to go out, had pleaded with him to call the police, hadn’t called the cops herself. He had made his decision, and she let him. The same way she let him bring kids home to stay with us, the way he invited criminals into our home.

My sister and I were still at the window. The car was still in the street. Finally, after maybe a half an hour, my father opened the passenger door and came back into the house. He never told me exactly what he said, but I knew it had to be good.

As a seven-year-old kid, I didn’t think of my father as brave. To be honest, I wasn’t sure. Part of me wished that he hadn’t gone out and put his life in danger, that instead, he had called the cops. The man should be punished, I thought. Which is, of course, not what my father thought. He thought he should be given a chance not to make a mistake. So he talked to him, probably the way he would have talked to him if he’d been sitting in our living room. And to the man’s credit—a man angry over something he thought he couldn’t control, a decision a judge had made that my father couldn’t change or control either—he listened.

Whatever my father said to the man—who did in fact have a gun, and did intend to kill my father when he parked in front of the house—had stopped the man from committing a terrible act. Words had stopped a gun from being fired; words had maybe saved two lives that night.

I asked my father recently about that night; he didn’t want to talk about it. He wouldn’t talk about it. So I asked him about teaching in the prison. “I wish I’d done it longer,” he said. I asked him why he stopped. He told me that one night he went to check in and he was met by two prisoners, who walked him to class. This was not the way it was done. He was never escorted by prisoners. “I didn’t ask any questions,” he told me. “I learned that much at least.” He taught class and was then led out by two prisoners. He found out later that other teachers had been taken hostage, along with a few guards. “I couldn’t put myself at risk,” he told me. “You and your sister were just little then.” I reminded him that the incident with the man in the car happened later. “That was different,” he said. And then he didn’t say anything more about it.

*****

This course guides beginning and intermediate writers through elements of how to write a personal essay, helping them identify values expressed in their stories and bring readers into the experiences described. Writers learn how to avoid the dreaded responses of “so what?” and “I guess you had to be there” by utilizing sensory details, learning to trust their writing intuitions, and developing a skilled internal editor to help with revision.

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(Grammar Rules for Writers.)

If not, no worries. A palindrome is a sequence of characters (in writing, it would be letters) that read the same forward as backward. In math, a number like 2002 or 404 would be a palindrome.

In the English language, we have a plethora of word examples that are palindromes.

Examples of Palindrome Words

Here’s a quick list of some palindrome words:

• Bob
• dad
• ewe
• eye
• mom
• pop
• poop
• toot
• civic
• kayak
• level
• radar
• Hannah!

But some people combine multiple words and even sentences as palindromes.

Here are some examples of palindrome phrases:

• taco cat
• race car
• evil olive
• pull up
• Sir Tetris
• “Code nine, Doc!”
• “Madam, I’m Adam!”
• A man, a plan, a canal: Panama

As mentioned earlier, palindromes are fun for the wordy-inclined. “Aha!” Now, you can follow the “liar trail” to the “top spot!” 

Have fun trying to puzzle out your own palindromes!

*****

Proper grammar, punctuation, and mechanics make your writing correct. In order to truly write well, you must also master the art of form and composition. From sentence structure to polishing your prose, this workshop will enhance your writing, no matter what type of writing you do.

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As a poet, I love anagrams, because they’re a fun way to play with language and meaning while also dealing with sounds, because anagrams use the same the letters. You may have even played around with anagrams on your own without realizing it.

Sooo…

What Is an Anagram?

An anagram is a word or phrase that a writer can form from using the same letters in another word or phrase by shuffling the order of the letters. For instance, the word “sing” can be rearranged as “sign,” and that’s an anagram.

(Anagrammatic Poetry: Poetic Forms.)

But anagrams can get even more complicated by transposing letters from one phrase to another. For instance, one big moment in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is when Tom Riddle shares with Harry Potter that the name “Tom Marvolo Riddle” is an anagram of “I am Lord Voldemort.”

So anagrams can be fun little word games, for sure, but they can also end up playing pivotal roles in the plots of books.

Examples of Anagrams

There are, of course, a wide range of anagrams available to writers, but it’s always nice to have some examples to get the brain firing and thinking in anagrams. So here are a few example anagrams to get you started:

• field – filed – I fled
• sword – words
• post – pots – stop
• Boston – no bots – to snob
• evil – vile – live – veil
• thin – hint
• late – tale – teal
• teacher – cheater – the race – the acre
• anagrams – snag a ram
• listen – silent

*****

Poem your days away with Robert Lee Brewer’s Smash Poetry Journal. This fun poetic guide is loaded with 125 poetry prompts, space to place your poems, and plenty of fun poetic asides.

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(21 authors share one piece of advice for writers.)

But fear not! We are here to share a plethora of grammar rules for writers that we’ve tackled over the years. If you have a question, we may have the answer. And if we don’t, be sure to share your question in the comments below.

So let’s dig into these grammar rules together.

104 Grammar Rules for Writers

Below is our list of grammar rules for writers. We give a quick explanation after each bullet point. But click on each link for further understanding and examples of correct usage.

1. “A” before consonants and “an” before vowels is not the rule. Rather, the rule is that “a” is placed before consonant-sounding words and “an” before vowel-sounding words.
2. A lot vs. alot vs. allot. “A lot” is either an adverb or pronoun, “allot” is a verb, and “alot” doesn’t exist.
3. A moral vs. amoral vs. immoral. A “moral” person knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses the right way; an “immoral” person knows the difference and chooses the wrong way; an “amoral” person has no concept or recognition of the rules at all.
4. Abate vs. bait vs. bate. Abate and bate both basically mean the same thing: to reduce the intensity of and/or deduct something (or even outright end it). Meanwhile, bait is a verb or noun that’s used to lure something or someone as if it’s prey, whether that’s as dinner or a customer.
5. Adapt vs. adept vs. adopt. Adapt means to make something fit for a new use or purpose; adept refers to a well-trained person; and adopt refers to taking a child as your own or putting something into effect or practicing something (like adopting a resolution or a new singing style).
6. Advice vs. advise. “Advice” is a noun, and “advise” is a verb.
7. Affect vs. effect. “Affect” is usually used as a verb, while “effect” is usually a noun.
8. Allude vs. elude. “Allude” means to suggest or hint at something, while “elude” means to evade or escape.
9. Alright vs. all right. “All right” is a commonly used phrase for okay, while “alright” doesn’t technically exist.
10. Analogy vs. metaphor vs. simile. A “metaphor” is something, a “simile” is like something, and an “analogy” explains how one thing being like another helps explain them both.
11. Annual vs. perennial. When it comes to plants, annuals have to be planted each year while perennials do not. 
12. Anybody vs. anyone vs. somebody vs. someone. “Anybody” and “anyone” are interchangeable; also, “somebody” and “someone” are interchangeable. Further, there are times when anyone can be somebody, though other times when not just anybody can be a someone.
13. Are subjects joined by “and” singular or plural? It depends on if the subjects are independent of each other.
14. Awhile vs. a while. If you can swap out the word “while” with “period of time,” then you’re likely dealing with “a while.” If not, then you’re likely dealing with “awhile.”
15. Bearing vs. baring vs. barring. As present participle verbs, remember that “bearing” means “to bear,” “baring” means “to bare,” and “barring” means “to bar.”
16. Bi-annual vs. biennial. “Bi-annual” means twice a year; biennial means once every two years.
17. Bolder vs. boulder. Bolder means “more bold,” while boulder refers to a very big rock (or city in Colorado).
18. Can I use contractions in my writing? While avoiding contractions may be proper, it can also be quite stilted.
19. Can you start a sentence with “because?” Because there’s no grammar rule against it, it’s totally acceptable to begin a sentence with “because.”
20. Canceled vs. cancelled. If you play “soccer,” then it’s “canceled.” However, people who play “football” (with a soccer ball) should probably use “cancelled.”
21. Canon vs. cannon. “Canon” is an accepted rule or collection of books, while “cannon” is a big gun formerly used in warfare and currently used to make loud noises at random events.
22. Capital vs. capitol. Capitol refers to a specific government building; capital can refer to an uppercase letter, net worth, or specific cities.
23. Collage vs. college. Collage is something pieced together with diverse fragments; college refers to a group of people gathered together for a purpose, whether that’s education, religion, or government (as in the electoral college).
24. Compliment vs. complement vs. supplement. Remember that “complement” with an “e” completes things, “supplement” is something added to, and “compliment” with an “i” is just something nice to say.
25. Conscience vs. conscious. Conscience is the understanding of moral goodness or wrongness; conscious means you’re aware of your surroundings.
26. Creak vs. creek. “Creak” with an “-eak” (like the word “break”) refers to a noise, while “creek” with an “-eek” is a small stream of water.
27. Dialog vs. dialogue. Dialogue is the best way to refer to conversations between your characters and each other.
28. Do you underline book titles? Sometimes titles are underlined. Other times, they are italicized or put in quotes. Heck, some folks put them in ALL CAPS. Adhere to individual house styles and stay consistent.
29. E-mail vs. email. When the AP and Chicago style guides agree, it’s time to make it official and drop the hyphen.
30. Empathy vs. sympathy vs. apathy. “Empathy” means you can understand what another feels; “sympathy” means you can share sadness for another’s misfortune; and “apathy” means you don’t care one way or the other.
31. Ensure vs. insure. Some style guides make these words interchangeable, but WD uses “insure” when referring specifically to financial insurance policies and “ensure” to mean “to make certain.” 
32. Everyday vs. every day. “Everyday” is an adjective; “every day” is a phrase that means “each day.”
33. Fable vs. parable vs. allegory. Fables and parables are actually both allegories with fables usually featuring animal characters and parables featuring humans.
34. Fewer vs. less. Use “fewer” to refer to descending counting numbers and “less” to indicate declining degrees of something (often in an abstract way).
35. Foreword vs. forward. The “word” in “foreword” is a dead giveaway that it’s supposed to be the commentary (or words) in the front of a book; every other usage is likely supposed to be “forward.”
36. Further vs. farther. “Farther” describes how “far” in terms of physical distance, while “further” is used in the other cases.
37. Heroes vs. heros. “Heroes” is the plural of “hero,” while “Heros” is a type of fish.
38. Heroin vs. heroine vs. hero. Some people prefer to make “hero” gender neutral for men and women. Others feel “heroine” is the correct usage. On the other hand, “heroin” is a drug.
39. Homonym vs. homophone vs. homograph. “Homophones” sound the same, like if you were talking on a phone; meanwhile, “homographs” are spelled the same, like if you used a graphite pencil; and then, “homonyms” are either, both, and/or only both.
40. Hone vs. home. “Hone” means to make more accurate; “home” means to aim toward a target with greater accuracy.
41. How many spaces after a period? One space. Just use one space.
42. How do you handle animal pronouns? Refer to animals as “it” unless the relationship is personal or you happen to know the gender.
43. I could care less or I couldn’t care less? “I couldn’t care less” means you don’t care; “I could care less” means you do care.
44. Imminent vs. eminent vs. immanent. “Imminent” means something’s about to happen; “eminent” describes a person (or thing) that is famous and/or respected; and “immanent” means inherent, intrinsic, or spread throughout.
45. Incite vs. insight. Incite means to rile up or put in motion; insight describes the ability to comprehend the inner nature of things, people, and/or situations.
46. Into vs. in to. “Into” is a preposition that expresses movement toward or into something else. Meanwhile, “in to” is a separate use of the word “in” that happens to be next to the word “to.” 
47. Introvert vs. extrovert vs. extravert. An introvert is a reserved person; extrovert is a generally outgoing person; and extravert is just another way of saying extrovert.
48. Is “none” singular or plural? “None” can be either singular or plural.
49. Its vs. it’s. “It’s” is a contraction of “it” and “is,” while “its” is an adjective or possessive pronoun (basically whenever it can’t be replaced by “it is,” it should be “its”).
50. Ketchup vs. catsup. They both describe the same condiment, though “ketchup” is currently the more commonly used term.
51. Lay vs. lie (vs. laid). It’s too complicated for a short blurb, so check out the graphic below this list.
52. Lead vs. lead vs. led. As a noun, “lead” is a type of metal. As a verb, the past tense of “lead” is “led.”
53. Leaped vs. leapt (vs. lept). “Leaped” and “leapt” are both acceptable past tense versions of “leap,” but “lept” is a misspelling of “leapt.”
54. Leave alone vs. let alone. “Leave alone” means to leave a person alone, while “let alone” means to quit bugging a person. However, it’s becoming more common for people to use “leave alone” in both instances.
55. Lets vs. let’s. “Let’s” is a contraction of the words “let” and “us,” and “lets” is the present tense form of the verb “let.”
56. Lose vs. loose vs. loosen. “Lose” means to cease to retain something and/or be unable to find something; “loose” means to set free as a verb or describe something that is not fixed as an adjective; and “loosen” is a verb which means to make less tight.
57. May vs. might. “May” and “might” mean the same thing, but “may” hints you’re more likely to do it, while “might” signals you’re less likely to follow through.
58. Metaphor vs. personification. “Metaphor” is a word or phrase that takes on the meaning of something else (“I am an island”); “personification” is a figure of speech that attributes human behavior to things that are not alive (“the stars winked”).
59. More than vs. over. They’re interchangeable. 
60. Myriad vs. myriad of. If you want to say “a great number of,” then use “a myriad of.” If you want to say “many,” then use “myriad,” without the extra words.
61. Nobody vs. no body. The single word nobody refers to a person, while the phrase no body is the lack of an actual body.
62. OK vs. okay vs. O.K. All versions are okay, but OK is the version most commonly used.
63. On vs. upon vs. up on. If you can remove the “up” and use only “on,” then feel free to use on or upon; if you can’t, then use the phrase “up on.”
64. Oxford comma (or serial comma) and why it’s so cool. When you list out three or more things (like commas, periods, and question marks), use the serial comma to make your lists clear.
65. Pair vs. pare vs. pear. Pair refers to two corresponding things; pare means to trim or reduce something; and pear is a fruit.
66. Passed vs. past. “Passed,” which has the verb “pass” in it, can only be used as a verb; meanwhile, “past” is used in all non-verb instances.
67. Peak vs. peek vs. pique. “Peek” means to take a look; “peak” is related to the highest point (like a mountain peak); and “pique” is a French word meaning “to stimulate” (as in a new grammar rule piqued my interest).
68. People vs. persons. While most people prefer to use “people” in all situations, “persons” can be used when referring to a smaller group of people (like fewer than 10).
69. Poetic justice vs. poetic license. Poetic justice is when a good or bad deed is rewarded or punished; poetic license is embellishing a story or playing with language.
70. Precedent vs. president. Precedent indicates something that has happened before; president signifies the top leader in a government or organization.
71. Principal vs. principle. Principal is an influential person; principle relates to a law or moral code someone might have.
72. Pronoun problems: “He/she,” “he or she,” or just “he.” Honestly, it’s a question of style over grammar, since all versions, including the consistent use of “she,” are appropriate.
73. Prophecy vs. prophesy. “Prophecy” is a noun that means a prediction, while “prophesy” is the verb that means to make a prediction. 
74. Question mark placement in dialogue. Question marks should always appear at the end of questions (even within sentences) and within quotation marks.
75. Raise vs. rise. Both mean the same thing, but a subject “raises” an object while something that “rises” does it on its own. 
76. Real vs. reel. Real means something is genuine, factual, practical, permanent, or essential; meanwhile, a reel holds something (like thread, fishing line, or film) that winds around it.
77. Reign vs. rein. “Reign” is a period of time dominated by a ruling power or verb that means one possesses power over someone or something; “rein” is a leather strap used to control a horse (or reindeer). 
78. Remove that from your writing. Seriously, the word “that” is usually not necessary.
79. Right vs. rite vs. wright vs. write. Rite refers to the words and actions of a ceremony or ritual; wright is a skilled worker; write means forming characters on a surface; and right can refer to directions, morals, politics, and more.
80. Role vs. roll. While the word “roll” can have several meanings, “role” can only mean a part played or a function performed.
81. Same vs. similar. Both words are similar, but they’re not the same.
82. Sedation vs. sedition. Sedation describes the process of inducing a relaxed state with the use of sedatives; sedition means the incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.
83. Semantics vs. syntax vs. pragmatics. “Syntax” is the study of sentence structure and grammar rules; “semantics” is the study of meaning for those sentences; and “pragmatics” is the study of meaning within context.
84. Semicolon use. Go for it; they’re fun.
85. Shook vs. shaked vs. shaken. Shook is active, shaken is passive, and shaked doesn’t exist.
86. Sight vs. site vs. cite. “Sight” involves your vision; “site” is a location; and “cite” is an act that involves praise, compelling someone to appear before a body, or calling attention to someone or something as proof (as in a report or discussion). 
87. Simile vs. metaphor. I know we discussed these above (see analogy), but this is a reminder that simile is like something whereas metaphor takes on the identity of something.
88. Since vs. because. Both can be used interchangeably, but the use of “since” can get ambiguous if it’s not used in reference to time. 
89. Slight of hand vs. sleight of hand. “Sleight of hand” refers to manual dexterity, and “slight of hand” refers to small hands.
90. Snuck vs. sneaked. Traditionally, “sneaked” is the proper word to use, but “snuck” is sneaking into everyday use. As a result, this may be an actively evolving change in language. Grammarians, prepare yourselves! 
91. Starting a sentence with “but.” Some folks will tell you it’s improper to start a sentence with a conjunction. But it’s fun and grammatically OK to do it.
92. Stationary vs. stationery. Stationary refers to someone or something that is fixed in place or that’s in a fixed condition; stationery is the paper someone may use to write letters.
93. Steal vs. steel vs. still. Steel is a metal, steal means to take something, and still means to be quiet and/or motionless.
94. Subjunctive vs. indicative mood (or “if I was” vs. “if I were”). Use indicative mood to express fact (such as “I was editor of Writer’s Market) and subjunctive mood to express a hypothetical wish (such as “If I were the CEO of Fill-in-the-Blank Inc., I would do things my way.”). 
95. Synonym vs. antonym vs. homonym. Synonym refers to words or phrases with a same or similar meaning; antonym is a word with an opposite meaning; and homonym is when a word that’s spelled and pronounced the same has more than one meaning.
96. Tell vs. tale vs. tail vs. telltale. Think of “yell” as a loud way to “tell” somebody something, while “tail” indicates the bottom and “tale” is a story. Finally, “telltale” is just a fun word to say that indicates something, whether that’s with words or some visual cue.
97. Toward vs. towards. Both are a preposition that means in the direction of, but “toward” is preferred in North America with “towards” preferred everywhere else.
98. Waist vs. waste. Waist refers to the area of the body between the ribs and hips, while waste refers to unwanted or unusable materials or other things with little to no purpose.
99. What is the plural form of email? “Email” is what you use in a general sense (like “I get a lot of email”); “emails” is what you use when using numbers (like “I received 17 emails”); and “email messages” works in both situations (so it’s the safe option when in doubt).
100. When do I spell out numbers? There are exceptions to the rule, but a sound rule of thumb is to spell out numbers under 10 (zero through nine) and use numeric form when more than (or over) 10.
101. When do you capitalize president? The word president (or any title) is only capitalized when it directly precedes a person’s name or is used in place of a specific person’s name 
102. Where vs. were vs. wear vs. we’re. “Where” defines a location or position; “were” is a past version of “be;” “wear” is a verb and noun most commonly related to clothing; and “we’re” is a contraction of “we” and “are.” 
103. Which vs. that. Brian Klems said it best: “If the sentence doesn’t need the clause that the word in question is connecting, use which. If it does, use that.”
104. Who vs. whom. If you can replace the word with “he” or “she,” then use “who.” If you can replace the word with “him” or “her,” then use “whom.”

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Please refer to this list whenever you’re stuck on an issue. And if we don’t have the answer you’re looking for, please let us know in the comments below. We’ll be happy to add it to the list.

Happy writing!

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No matter what type of writing you do, mastering the fundamentals of grammar and mechanics is an important first step to having a successful writing career.

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This infographic is courtesy of Jennifer Frost of GrammarCheck. Visit them online at grammarcheck.net or check out the free online grammar checker at grammarcheck.net/editor for proofreading help. 

Baihley Grandison is the assistant editor of Writer’s Digest and a freelance writer. Follow her on Twitter @baihleyg, where she mostly tweets about writing (Team Oxford Comma!), food (HUMMUS FOR PRESIDENT, PEOPLE), and Random Conversations With Her Mother.

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