1. “That”: Don’t always cut it! Where “that” is necessary: When time comes up after a verb: Josh said on Thursday he’d bring the dog to the vet. Better: Josh said that on Thursday he’d bring the dog to the vet. When the beginning of a sentence could be misread without it: Katie felt cold weather made her tired. Better: Katie felt that cold weather made her tired. When there are two objects and the sentence could be misread. Julie thinks the cake stinks and Sarah does too. = ambiguous Julie thinks that the cake stinks and Sarah does too. = Julie and Sarah think the cake stinks Julie thinks that the cake stinks and that Sarah does too. = Julie thinks the cake and Sarah both stink

2. Commonly misspelled words Two words: gold mine, hot dog, photo shoot, talk show, video game Hyphenated: cliff-hanger, hour-long, kick-ass, long-term, sing-along (n.), spin-off (n.), stand- alone (adj.), stepping-stone, stock-in-trade One word: badass (n. & adj.), lineup (n.), longtime, onetime, watercooler, wineglass, daylong, weeklong, monthlong Words that are trademarks and need to be capped: Dumpster, Hula-Hoop, Ping-Pong (the game, not the verb), Taser, Windbreaker

3. hemorrhage, hemmorhage embarrass, embarass consensus, concensus drunkeness, drunkenness sheriff, sherriff privilege, privelege seperate, separate fraudulant, fraudulent restauranteur, restaurateur accomodate, accommodate liquefy, liquify committment, commitment harass, harrass definitely, definately prerogative, perogative alright, all right inoculate, innoculate seize, sieze ecstasy, ecstacy bellweather, bellwether fairwell, farewell manageable, managable Caribbean, Carribean miniscule, minuscule ophthalmologist, opthalmologist pronounciation, pronunciation dumbbell, dumbell millenium, millennium pixilated, pixelated

4. An exercise in consistency: Dorie called Sally three times this morning, but there was no answer. The phone rang and rang, sometimes for 9 rings; it became discouraging. Dory was furious…. When Sally returned from her exciting adventure, the telephone was ringing—br-i-ing, bri-ing, bri-i- ng—she picked it up on the fourth ring. “Hello?— she was out of breath—“Sally speaking.” But no one was on the line…

5. An exercise in consistency: Dorie called Sally three times this morning, but there was no answer. The phone rang and rang, sometimes for 9 rings; it became discouraging. Dory was furious…. When Sally returned from her exciting adventure, the telephone was ringing—br-i-ing, bri-ing, bri-i- ng—she picked it up on the fourth ring. “Hello?— she was out of breath—“Sally speaking.” But no one was on the line…

6. Misplaced and dangling modifiers Note the difference in meaning between these two sentences: I almost failed every art class I took. vs. I failed almost every art class I took. How about these? People who write rarely are unimaginative. vs. People who rarely write are unimaginative. vs. People who write are rarely unimaginative.

7. Danglers Take a look at this sentence: Walking down the road, the tree branch fell right in front of me. Written as is, this sentence implies that the tree branch was walking down the road. How should it be correctly rewritten?