If you’re an author writing your first book, editing before sending it to a publisher or agent is essential. Trust me. If you’re going to skimp on anything during the publishing process, don’t let it be editing. This stage requires a professional to help you fix errors you might have missed, such as repetitiveness, plot holes, and misspellings. It can make or break your book. I’ve compiled the 26 best book editors in the USA and Canada for you. These …
In English grammar, prepositions of place are used to pinpoint the location of a person, a place, or an object. Some people wrongly believe that the only prepositions of place are in, at, and on. However, English also includes prepositions that indicate location, such as in front of or behind. Here is your dose of preposition practice online to help you understand how to use them.
In English grammar, reported speech is used to tell someone what another person said. It takes another person’s words (direct speech) to create a report of what they said (indirect speech.) With the following direct and indirect speech exercises, it will be easier to understand how reported speech works.
The English language groups grammatical nouns as either singular or plural. That means there are either one or multiple persons, places, objects, events, or animals. Did you know that there’s more than one rule on how to make a word plural? In my little guide, I’ll show you the two types of plural nouns, their rules, and a list of examples. I also provided a worksheet that will test your understanding of plural nouns. What Is a Plural Noun? While …
I remember when we were taught that all sentences have subjects. However, sometimes these subjects only take up space without adding meaning to the statement. The use of it and there as subjects only serves to fill the slot of a subject in sentences without one. They are called dummy subjects, which we will discuss in this article. Keep reading to learn the difference between it and there. Then, answer the worksheet I provided to test your knowledge. What Is …
Propositions are parts of speech that you use every day in English grammar to build your sentence structure into something that is understandable. But, when I ask a class to name a preposition, they struggle to provide an answer despite their adept use of them. Most teachers assume prepositions are easily recognized because they are a lesson taught early in grade school. But for English language learners or secondary students, a review is necessary. Let’s take a look at a …
The English language is defined by various parts of speech that help you make messages clear to your audience. The details you add to your speech and writing are especially important to ensure you are understood. When describing things, you need to follow a specific order of detail. Adjectives are words that provide detail, and the rules of order of adjectives help you keep your writing clear and concise to avoid confusion. Let’s look at what this means and how …
A Few/A Little. Both a little and a few are quantifiers and pronouns that refer to some. Their negative definition is not as much as expected or desired. Rules for “A Little” Use a little as a quantifier when referring to singular uncountable nouns. This quantifier implies that something exists or occurs at a small degree or amount. Here are some sentence examples. As a pronoun, a little can be a replacement for a noun that may be explicitly or …
When naming off items in a list, many people choose to include the abbreviation, etc., to help avoid creating long, rambling sentences. It quickly allows the reader to understand that other items in the list are related to one another and are not important to the overall understanding of the author’s message. Etc. is mostly used in informal, business, and technical writing. When used in parentheses, follow the same rules of use when included in regular sentences. Let’s look briefly …
The most common helping verbs are do, does, am, is, and are. Let’s talk about when to use these six helping verbs in sentences. What Are Helping Verbs? In English grammar, a helping verb is a type of verb that is found before the main verb in a sentence. For example: In this sentence, the helping verb is am followed by the main verb helping. You can find more than one helping verb in a sentence. For example: Here, the …