Here are today’s two grammar tips:
- Place modifiers as closely as possible to the words they modify. For example, don’t say, “The young girl was walking the dog in a short skirt.” Say, “The young girl in a short skirt was walking the dog.”
- A friend of mine told me the other day that he liked the “tact” I took in writing a book review. He didn’t mean my diplomacy but rather the approach I took to the review. The word he should have used was “tack.” It’s a sailing term that means “the heading or position of a vessel relative to the trim of its sails.” More broadly, it has come to mean an approach or a course of action.
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