Jim Baumann
-
Grammar Moses: Punctuation world adither over Oxford comma's day in courtMar 25, 2017 1:00 am - I'm sure you read the big news last week in The New York Times. Shocking stuff. I can't tell you how many people emailed me a link to that blockbuster piece. But seeing ...
-
Grammar Moses: Calling out the CalvaryMar 18, 2017 1:00 am - Pronouncing the words "jewelry" as jewlery and "nuclear" as nukeyuler are annoyances, but this time of year it's even more important to make sure you keep your letters i...
-
Grammar Moses: 'Old-school' engineer is lost in spaceMar 11, 2017 12:00 am - By Jim Baumann jbaumman@dailyherald.com I'm occasionally asked whether it is proper to put two spaces after a period ending a sentence or if one is enough. My definitive...
-
Grammar Moses: Is this headline different than what you'd write?Feb 25, 2017 12:00 am - Don Meseth of Des Plaines asked a question I hear often: "How does one use 'from' and 'than'? Example: 'Black is different from white' ... or 'black is different than wh...
-
Grammar Moses: Did I shortchange you on men of action? Absolutely.Feb 18, 2017 12:00 am - My, you're an attentive crowd. Or you're the type of readers who love quizzes. I wrote last week about U.S. presidents who are - or were - men of action by virtue of the...
-
Grammar Moses: Which presidents were men of action?Feb 11, 2017 12:00 am - I wrote once about the difference between redundancy (bad if you're a writer, good if you're an astronaut) and repetition. Redundancy in writing is exemplified by the se...
-
Grammar Moses: Who snuck that word into my headline?Feb 04, 2017 12:00 am - I gather Steve Bense of Wheaton never snuck a peek at his Christmas presents as a kid. He might have sneaked a peek, but that's between him and his confessor. "When I wa...
-
Grammar Moses: Never cleanse your palate with a palette knifeJan 28, 2017 12:00 am - I've written several times about the fun you can get into with homophones. But then you'll remind me of another. "A common error I've noticed in print is the willy-nill...
-
Grammar Moses: My first column ever with no redundanciesJan 21, 2017 12:00 am - It's always nice to find a kindred spirit, and I've found one in veteran reporter Eric Peterson. He will flag me down in the newsroom for rulings on word choice now and ...
-
Grammar Moses: To be, or not to be: that is a dilemmaJan 15, 2017 6:33 am - To be, or not to be: that is both the question and Hamlet's dilemma. As the Danish prince contemplates suicide in his soliloquy, he weighs two lousy options: to continue...