Words for Granted - An etymology and linguistics podcast Lessons on Language with the Grammar Girl (Mignon Fogerty)
18 snips
Jan 2, 2024 
Mignon Fogarty, creator of Grammar Girl and Quick and Dirty Tips, is a practical grammar teacher and author. She tells the story of starting her project and making language tips accessible. Conversations cover style versus prescriptivism, shifts in usage like "graduated college," punctuation choices including semicolons and the Oxford comma, and why standard English matters in professional life.
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Why People Cling To Rules
- Early schooling and effort invested in learning rules intensify attachment to 'correct' language.
- Non-native learners often become more prescriptive because of the effort they spent learning the rules.
Capitalize Only When Required
- Avoid unnecessary capitalization in business writing; capitalize only proper nouns or sentence starts.
- Don't highlight words by capitalizing common nouns like 'salespeople.'
Further Versus Farther
- Use 'farther' for physical distance and 'further' for abstract or figurative distance in American English.
- Remember 'farther' contains 'far' to cue physical distance.
