Commas -- How many are TOO many?

Many of you have probably heard of the Oxford comma in school and learned that it was a way to combine a list of three or more items, such as:

I like dogs, horses, and spiders.

However, this sentence is also correct:

I like dogs, horses and spiders. 

Sometimes, commas are helpful to avoid making a connection between the wrong words, like in this sentence:

I am so grateful to my friends, the President and Steve.

In this example, the reader may confuse the "President and Steve" as the appositive of the word "friends." Appositives are nouns or pronouns that come before or after another noun to describe it further. Basically, you may think the author's close friend is the President, when they really meant to show gratitude to their friends, the President, and Steve, separately. 

The important thing to remember is that a comma and the conjunction "and" are interchangeable, so figure out which one works best for that particular sentence. 💮

Should I Hyphenate?

Does anyone else ever feel confused about hyphens and when to use them? You may be deep into a paper for school when all of a sudden you're stumped. Is "longtime" supposed to have a dash in between "long" and "time"?


‣ One way to figure this out is to look in the dictionary. Your best bet is to use it how the dictionary is using it. 📖


‣ Another tip is to see if the compound words are trying to modify another word.

Ex. The plant-based diet helped her lose weight.

Here, "plant-based" is modifying "diet."



‣ For nouns and verbs, try to determine if the hyphen would help with clarity.

Ex. The red-hot politician shouted his frustrations to the crowd.



‣ Prefixes and suffixes are trickier. For the most part, you add 'em, unless it sounds too strange.

Ex. prefaced vs pre-1800's

Simile, Metaphor, Analogy: Associative Imagination

A strategy comedians, poets, and writers use to spice up their words are creating similes, metaphors, and analogies. Each literary device basically compares a concrete idea to an abstract idea. 

The difference between them are simple:

Similes use like or as to compare an idea to another.

Metaphors are a direct statement of a comparison (usually using "is").

An analogy makes a comparison by taking something less known and using something more known to explain the connection/similarity. 

Try this exercise to practice making connections between concepts:

Column A - concrete idea		Column B - abstract idea
Bank	Money	Happiness	Defeat
Cow	Book	Learning	Success
City	Beach	Calm	Trust
Storm	Street	Fury	Life
Sun	Feet	Soft	Itch
Nose	Cat	Love	Fear
Exercise	Crowds	Starving	Naive

Find a connection between two words from the bank and give an example of comparing/contrasting through a simile, metaphor, and analogy. Use at least 6 pairs of words.

Ex. 1. Trust / Bank

Simile: Her trust in others is like a successful bank.

Metaphor: His trust in her was a bank that had been depleted, and he demanded to be paid back somehow.

Analogy: A bank does not loan money out freely; it checks a person or entity’s past to see if they meet certain conditions that deem them trustworthy. Similarly, some people look at a person’s past actions to decide if they can trust them.

Post some of your examples in the comments!

Who vs Whom vs Whomever

Choosing whether to use "who," "whom," or "whomever" can be tricky if you do not understand the difference between subject and object pronouns.

Subject pronouns: I, he, she, it, you, we, they 

A subject is the main noun doing the action in a sentence.

Object pronouns: me, you, him, her, them, us, it 

An object is the noun that receives the action.

Ex. I saw a girl whom I'd thought went to the same middle school.


It should be "who" instead of whom, because the verb went needs a subject. Only who can be a subject.

* A simple trick to determine which one to use is to substitute the "who" or "whom" part with a different pronoun. Only one will sound obviously correct:

Ex. We all know he slapped her. ✅ → We all know him slapped her. 🆇

The same goes for "whomever" (object form) vs "whoever" (subject form).


Ex. I will play with whomever finishes their homework first.


It should be "whoever," because the object is the entire clause "whoever finishes their homework first" is the object. The verb finishes needs a subject, which would be whoever.


A final tip: "whom" is considered mostly fit for formal situations, so if you think it isn't necessary, then it isn't!

The History of the Dollar Sign

Punctuation marks and symbols give our phrases another layer of meaning or function. Today I will share some interesting facts I learned about the history of our U.S. dollar sign. 

Symbols come from words, and it is interesting to see how translations and initials for words can become a universally-understood symbol.