Surely the most maligned mark of punctuation among journalists is the semicolon. They fear it, avoid it, doubt their ability to use it correctly. It seems stodgy, archaic and academic, traits they are ...

We’ve all been there: You ask someone a direct question and they answer a question you didn’t ask. Like you want to know whether you should turn left or right on Maple Street and they say, “Yup, Maple ...

I almost wound up underlining all of Walter Isaacson’s slim new book, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written. It’s that smart, challenging, personal, humane -- with only 41 pages of text and a few short ...

One of the most common questions I get is: Which is correct: X or Y? The X and Y don’t matter much. They change from email to email. Sometimes they’re accompanied by a Z or even an A, B and C. But the ...

We all want to be happy. Yet happiness can often feel fleeting and largely elusive. But as much as the path to happiness remains a mystery, the answer might actually prove surprisingly simple. It’s ...

A year ago I wrote an essay for the New York Times titled “The Short Sentence as Gospel Truth.” It argued that authors express their most important ideas or dramatic moments in the shortest sentences.

Office Q&A: How to handle end-of-sentence spacing in Microsoft Word Your email has been sent Whether you prefer one space or two at the end of sentences, Word can help you apply that preference ...