Karen DeGroot Carter's Blog
October 5, 2025
Rarely Used English Words From the Past to Use Now
Including some fun “reduplicated compounds” and two terms perfect for spooky season
September 7, 2025
The Many Moods of Modal Auxiliary Verbs
And whether “also” should precede or follow modals in most cases
August 17, 2025
How to Use ‘Appraise’ vs.
As well as other commonly confused words, including doublets (AKA “etymological twins”)
July 27, 2025
The Nuts and Bolts of Nongradable Adjectives
And why it’s best to leave the indisputably absolute alone
June 29, 2025
June 15, 2025
Rules Related to the Oxford Comma Revisited
Including why not using the Oxford comma in a list may require a punctuation switch
May 18, 2025
How to Use Creative Collective Nouns to Add Color to Your Writing
Plus the medieval source of many well-known — and less well-known — collective nouns related to wildlife
April 27, 2025
How to Correctly Use Commas with the Subordinating Conjunction “While” in Your Writing
And why the rules differ depending on meaning and placement in a sentence
April 6, 2025
How to Correctly Use Common Descriptive Latin Terms in Your Writing
And whether to italicize or hyphenate “ad hoc,” “bona fide,” “de facto,” or “per diem”
March 9, 2025
Common Punctuation Marks Revisited
And why it helps to understand their intended as well as general use
