Proof, Edit & Style

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Oxford Word of the Year 2024 - Oxford University Press The Oxford Word of the Year 2024 is 'brain rot'. Discover more about the winner, our shortlist, and 20 years of words that reflect the world.

Which Parts of 'Pirate Talk' Are Authentic and Which Come from Disney? For Talk Like a Pirate Day, we look at pirate talk and which parts are real and which came from movies. Home languages of pirates...

Can I Start a Sentence with a Conjunction? - Quick and Dirty Tips Is it wrong to start a sentence with a conjunction? Nearly all the major style guides say it's fine. See what teachers and style guides say.

Fun with Animal Verbs To hog, to ram, to bird dog. How many "animal verbs" can you list?

‘Backward’ Versus ‘Backwards’ Did you know that your use of “backward” or “backwards” depends on where you live?

When to Use a Comma Before ‘Because’ - Quick and Dirty Tips A reader named JC asked when he needs a comma before the word because. He wondered about this exchange: What did you like about camp? I liked swimming and hiking because they were fun. Does he need a comma before because they were fun? The short answer is no. It’s unusual to put a comma Read More ...

Quotation Marks with Periods and Commas One of the most common question people ask me is whether periods and commas go inside or outside a closing quotation mark, and there’s a reason everyone is confused. The rules in American English are different from the rules in British English.