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Earlier this month I was asked by Penguin Ltd to present my thoughts about a book that I think is relevant to modern fiction. I chose a...

I have been editing texts for over ten years. In that time I have worked with all kinds of source material: academic theses and articles,...

If you want to improve your writing, then a good place to start is by teaching yourself to spot redundant adjectives. They appear in all...

The word “up” is a parasite, an invader, a tyrant. It latches on to other words, dilutes meaning and leads to unimaginative sentences. It...

This little punctuation mark can often cause confusion for writers. This is not surprising, since the rules that govern it are not always...

Writing is a unique art form, it is an essential part of what every human does each day—communicate. In education, work, play, socially...

Words can be tricky things; it is relatively easy to say certain words and be perfectly understood, yet it can be harder to write those...

Accept and except Accept means to receive or agree with something. Except means to exclude. The party guests were pleased to accept their...

Complement and compliment Complement means to enhance and compliment means to congratulate. They gave their compliments to the waiter;...

There, their and they’re These words (depending on accent or dialect), have almost identical pronunciations. Mistakes involving them are...

Its and It’s Its is an irregular possessive form (see The Possessive Apostrophe ) and it’s is a contraction of it is . If your...

Your, you’re (and yore) Like there, they're, and their, these words have (depending on accent or dialect), almost identical...

Passed and past Think of passed as an action, and past as a time or place. Passed is a form of the verb pass ; verbs are “doing...

To, too and two In speech there is no difference in the pronunciation of these three words, but when written, the meaning of a phrase or...

Farther and further These two words are the most closely related examples on this list. They have been used interchangeably for hundreds...

Illicit and elicit Illicit means improper or not permitted by custom or law. The lovers carried on with their illicit affair. The dealer...

Lose and loose Although these two words do not sound the same when spoken, it is worth including them in this list because they are so...

Affect and effect Probably the two most confused words in the English language! Affect is used to describe an influence or cause of...

Every eye has a natural blind spot; the place where the optic nerve attaches to the retina at the back of the eye. You might not have...