Group items tagged

The passive voice is weak, vague, and wordy. "New York publishers are being attacked by self-publishers" is not as powerful as "Self-publishers are attacking New York publishers." I search for every instance of "be" and "being" to eliminate as many instances of the passive voice as I can.

hyphenate two or more words used as an adjective—"social-media sites"

bulleted lists should maintain a parallel structure

, for example, use H.L. Mencken’s The American Language (4th ed revised with supplements), Garner’s Modern American Usage (as well as its two predecessor editions), Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style, Good’s Whose Grammar Book Is This Anyway?, The Gregg Reference Manual, and Burchfield’s Fowler’s Modern English Usage