This is the second in a series of articles addressing several common grammatical issues. This article explains phantom or one-sided comparisons, which might be the most prevalent issue of all, particularly in academic papers.
In this article, we discuss what we call the wandering or misplaced "only," which, although common and usually understood in everyday casual speech, is often confusing and has no place in formal or academic writing.
The comma is the most important punctuation mark for ensuring clarity in a sentence, but it is often incorrectly used. Follow our helpful comma rules to ensure you are using commas correctly.
In our earlier article we learned that commas remove ambiguity and ensure that the reader understands the meaning the author wants to convey. Let's continue looking at some additional grammatical constructions that call for comma usage.
Making the decision to pursue a PhD degree is a significant commitment. Even if undertaken on a full-time basis, you will be committing several years of your life to a process with no certain outcome. Our editors explain what a thesis is and if it's right for you.
Your instructor has asked you to format your term paper using Modern Language Association (MLA) style. You feel confident enough to gather your thoughts in order to produce the paper, but you have never heard of MLA style—do you panic or do you research MLA style and MLA formatting?
Words are words and those annoying little punctuation marks can't be that important...can they? Scribendi's editors offer solutions to common punctuation errors.