At my critique group meeting the other night, we were going over some pages from a member we’ll call the Divine Miss M. She’s writing an urban fantasy about a straight-up avenging angel, and it is going to be amazing. But as I was critiquing the pages, I found that she was using uppercase for epithets like “Honey” and “Sweetie” and “Babe.” This bugged me, but I couldn’t find any expert resource that addressed this issue. I went to the Chicago Manual of Style and first of all wasn’t sure how to search for such information. I did a Google search and found forums discussing the issue, but again, no definitive answers (mostly a lot of “I think it should be X” and even worse, “I feel it should be Y.”)

So I hit the Amazon bestseller lists and went through the books that have the “Look inside” option.

At least the sign painter didn’t add an apostrophe to “walk-ins.”

So let me get this straight…lips are makin’ the grub? Those are some talented lips!

Out of the mouths of Carnegie Mellon University freshmen come great wisdom. My daughter, the lovely and talented Chloe, turned me on to this amazing tool. I’ve got a behemoth of a manuscript that desperately needed reorganization, but because it was so large, I’d all but given up. Read more

Should we re-cover this or use it to recover?

Dear Conan,

Long time no gripe!

I’ve been reviewing a company document…I’m sure I’m right about the first word I questioned: “recover.” Read more

Dear Conan:

If I want to express gratitude for someone copying me on an email or such, should I say “I really appreciate your keeping me informed” or “I really appreciate you keeping me informed,” or something else? I suppose I could avoid the problem by saying “Thanks for keeping me informed,” but that would mean I don’t need to consult the grammar guru.

~Mark Read more

Dear Conan:

Can you help me determine proper word usage? I am proofing a document which contains the following sentence:

Neither Company nor Client makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the truth, accuracy, or completeness of any information provided to Reviewer under this Agreement.

Should the word “express” be changed to “expressed”? Read more

Hi Conan,

I am really enjoying your podcast and will spread the word on Facebook!

Anyways (I threw that word in for you as I thought you’d love it, down here in Australia we just say ‘anyway’), I was reading the Scientific American article on agro-forestry and noticed the following line.

“Recognizing farmers’ property rights was equally crucial in Niger, according to Tony Rinaudo, an Australian missionary and development worker who was one of the original champions of FMNR.”

The apostrophe after farmers has me stumped. Read more