Freelance Resource Monday: Grammar and Usage Gurus

Grammar is incredibly important for any professional writer (or anyone who communicates, for that matter). Even copy editors and proofreaders occasionally are faced with grammar conundrums or need to brush up on the basics (a fact I personally can attest to).

For these reasons, it's always good to have a set of resources on hand to help you work around a tricky sentence construction or confirm that the way you hope to use a word or phrase is correct. Here are some of my favorites:

• Merriam-Webster Dictionary 11th Edition: It seems obvious, but it's worth reminding you: When it comes to usage questions, one of the easiest places to look up a word and determine its proper use is in the dictionary.
  
  
• The Elements of Style: This classic by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White clearly lays out the fundamentals. I reference it often, but even if you don't, it's worth having in your library.
  
  
• Style Guides: Depending on what you're writing for, referencing the appropriate style guide—whether it's Chicago, APA, MLA, or AP—is a smart place to look for grammar and usage guidelines that vary from style to style.
  
  
• The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): Originally designed for student writers, this website also holds a wealth of information for pros who are stuck on a grammar or usage question. The newly updated site even includes a selection of resources for professional writers (although it's more for professionals who write in their jobs—aka workplace writers—than it is for pro writers).
  
  
• Grammar Girl: Grammar Girl provides podcasts and daily emails with short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Sign up for one or the other (or both!) to get a daily dose of grammar and usage, or search the archives to find pointers on a specific topic.

What resources do you turn to first when you're on the hunt for a grammar or usage answer? Share here!

They: The Ultimate Pronoun?

Is "they" the ultimate, universal pronoun? On Language is so bold as to say yes, although I hear that plenty of traditional grammarians are up in arms about the fact.

You decide: All-Purpose Pronoun.

Let's Talk Prepositions

What type of word are you not supposed to end a sentence with?

If I were to listen to the many well-meaning people who love to catch a writer or grammarian in the act of messing up, I likely would be called out on the sentence I wrote above. And, come to think of it, the sentence I just finished writing as well.

That's because of all the grammar rules the general public tends to latch onto and not let go of, the "rule" about not ending a sentence with a preposition is one of the most often-recited. Even though it's not really a rule.

The next time someone wags a finger at you for ending a sentence with "on" or "up" or "through" or any other particularly helpful preposition, go ahead and wag your finger right back at them and tell them this, straight from the text of The Chicago Manual of Style 15th edition (which, you might recall, is on my brief freelance writer's must-have list):

5.169 Ending a sentence with a preposition. The traditional caveat of yesteryear against ending sentences with prepositions is, for most writers, an unnecessary and pedantic restriction. As Winston Churchill famously said, "That is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put." A sentence that ends in a preposition may sound more natural than a sentence carefully constructed to avoid a final preposition. Compare Those are the guidelines an author should adhere to with Those are the guidelines to which an author should adhere. The "rule" prohibiting terminal prepositions was an ill-founded superstition.

Take heed, all you naysayers. There's nothing wrong with where I put my prepositions. Enough said.