HEARTICLES: Articles with Heart

The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood. ~ Edgar Allen Poe PUNCTUATION punc·tu·a·tion pronounced: pəNG(k)(t)SHəˈwāSH(ə)n noun the marks, such as period, comma, and parentheses, used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning. Reflecting over this past year, one of the biggest things that stood out for me was manuscript submissions. Submissions stood out because, as a writer myself, I was trained to always submit as perfect a manuscript as possible. Unfortunately, a majority of submissions that came in this year were disappointing from a presentation standpoint. I'm not talking about author voice or story quality. I'm talking about what the manuscript looked like when I opened the file. What I see on the screen instantly tells me a lot about the author and his/her work. Examples: The author is lazy and/or careless The author is sloppy with his/her work The author is unprofessiona...

What's a part of speech? Q: What's a part of speech? A: It's a word. Q: Are all words parts of speech? A: Yes. Q: Are all words the same part of speech? A: I'm glad you asked that question. No. Words are words are words. Their functions vary. There are 8 common parts of speech – nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.  It's important to know parts of speech. These are the pieces of the puzzle. The way they are combined creates the full picture. Unless an author knows how to combine these pieces properly, the finished picture will be a chaotic mess. You can't analyze your own work or understand a critique if you don't know what the parts are and how to put them together.  Below, I've given a simple definition of each part of speech with links to a site that not only goes into more explanation, it has exercises and teaching tools. I wish I'd had a page like this available to me wh...

I'm not going to rail about poor grammar. I'm not a Grammar Nazi or the Grammar Police. I am, however, someone who appreciates when appropriate grammar is used. As a writer, I know that presenting my work in the best possible light will give me the best chance of having it looked at, and possibly contracted. As a publisher, seeing well-presented work impresses me and tells me a lot about the author. Like -- Their attention to detail, or lack thereof Their determination to work hard, or if they're lazy and hoping it will be fixed in editing Pride in their work, or just skating by, etc. The first step to a great presentation is using appropriate grammar. If you're like me, sometimes the easiest explanations are not the most obvious. Hopefully, this little tutorial will help you understand in which context words should be used in your writing. Let's focus on some of the most obvious. I know you've seen the jokes about they're, their, and there . B...