#grammarnerd

Traditional grammar drills don’t work for everyone but no red ink does. With adaptive content and real engagement, students can finally enjoy learning how to write better.

I finally read eats, shoots & leaves; a book about punctuation, clarity, restraint; and the quiet moral stakes of the comma.

It is, genuinely, very good—witty; learned; humane—and it has the unfortunate side effect of making you want to deploy punctuation responsibly; and then; almost immediately; irresponsibly; for sport.

Reading it, I found myself thinking: yes; of course punctuation matters—meaning accrues; drifts; collapses; entire worlds hinge on a mark—and yet there is something deeply comic about insisting upon this with such civility; such care; such faith in order.

The book argues (correctly!) that punctuation is not decoration; but sense; not fuss; but structure; not pedantry; but care. And then it dares you—silently; politely—to prove you understood it by punctuating like someone who knows exactly what they’re doing; and is enjoying it; perhaps too much.

I finished it feeling both instructed; and slightly unhinged; which seems; to me; the ideal outcome.

✍️🇬🇧 Should you use British spelling in your college essays?

Unless you’re applying to schools in the UK, stick with American English.

So it’s “honor” not “honour,” “organize” not “organise,” and “color” not “colour.”

It’s not about loyalty to the Queen 👑; it’s about consistency and clarity.

📌 Tip: Set your spellcheck to U.S. English before writing. Admissions readers will notice. 👀

Me, writing a sentence:

“I go to the store.”

Simple. Clean. Present tense. No drama.

Aalso me, five minutes later:

“I had been going to the store when I realized I had forgotten that I was supposed to have been meeting someone who would’ve been waiting had they known I was coming.”

Bro, what is this: a sentence or a time travel plot.

Past me: “This will make sense.” Present me: “It doesn’t.” Future me: “You fool.”

Grammar is hard, even for native speakers. If you are looking for easy-to-follow grammar rules, bookmark this page. I will be updating it regularly with tips and explanations.

🤓💔 Being a grammar nerd is fun until it ruins your life.

Me: tries to fall in love Them: “I should of known better.” Me: 😐 “You should have… and now it’s over.”

I didn’t choose the grammar life. The grammar life chose me. And now I correct street signs for free.

🙋🏻 How many of you can relate? 🙋🏻‍♂️

Think of a semicolon (;) as the cool, collected cousin of the period and the comma. 😎

Here’s when to use it:

1️⃣ To join two related sentences

✨ I have a big test tomorrow; I can’t go out tonight.

2️⃣ To separate items in a complex list (especially when geographic locations are involved—and using commas would make it confusing)

✨ We traveled to Paris, France; Tokyo, Japan; and Lima, Peru.

🔥 Bonus Tip: Don’t use a semicolon where a comma or period would be clearer; use it sparingly but confidently. (👀 See what I did there?)

99% of the time, you’ll use “affect” as a verb and “effect” as a noun.

I tried to affect my grade by studying.

This was the effect: I passed with flying colors.

Grammar: it’s a cause-and-effect relationship. 😉

🔗 Here is a detailed explanation.

Reblog if you’re on #TeamOxfordComma 🙋🏻‍♂️