Category: Uncategorized
A gift fit for the Graceful Grammarian
A very appropriate birthday gift I received from good friends. This plaque is sure to grace my workspace for years to come!
Pluralization Primer: The Christmas Card Edition
It’s Black Friday: You might waiting on a horribly long line. Alternatively, you might be taking a break from writing out your Christmas cards. If the latter, please do yourself and all of your card recipients a favor and read this witty and insightful post by Kate Brannen about pluralizing last names. Don’t let your enthusiasm for spreading holiday cheer get in the way … Read More Pluralization Primer: The Christmas Card Edition
The fowl in your kitchen
You know that big bird, the one that you might or might not be trying desperately to defrost right now? Here’s how it got its name!
Thank you!
Thank you for making my first year as the Graceful Grammarian memorable, fun, and successful! I hope that the Great Turkey brings each of you a cornucopia full of happiness. In the meantime, here’s a cornucopia full of Graceful Grammarian goodies! Will you see professional or amateur writers, graduate students writing theses or dissertations, journalists, PR types, or publishers around your Thanksgiving table? If … Read More Thank you!
And the winner is…
Here in my little corner of northeastern New Jersey (the most densely populated area of the nation’s most densely populated state), I guess I live a sheltered life. This is the only explanation I can conjure for having never heard of the newly-proclaimed Oxford 2014 Word of the Year: “vape.” To add to my embarrassment, I have only ever heard of one of the … Read More And the winner is…
Cards are in!
Cards are in! Share this photo to let your friends know about the editing and writing services of The Graceful Grammarian. If you’d like some cards to distribute to friends, family, and colleagues, inbox me! These cards also make beautiful autumn table decor, as you can see.
How to embarrass yourself in print without even trying
This is the stuff of which nightmares are made. THIS is why it pays to have someone review your work before you submit it for publication. Someone who has published many articles of her own. Someone who has reviewed hundreds (if not thousands) of manuscripts: books, essays, dissertations, journal articles, press releases, short stories, and more. Someone who goes by the name of The … Read More How to embarrass yourself in print without even trying
We remember on the 11th of November
Each year, we in the United States of America celebrate Veterans Day on November 11. Yes, this day (and the weekend closest to it) is very important to retailers who want to boost their pre-holiday sales. It is even more significant, though, for another reason: we take this day—or at least a moment of it—to recognize and pay tribute to all of the valorous … Read More We remember on the 11th of November
Watch out…it’s October 30th!
October 30th: the night on which the Halloween specials came on TV when I was a youngster in the ‘80s. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” the Garfield Halloween special (which I found extremely frightening), and probably some others. To me, it wasn’t just “October 30th”—it was also “Mischief Night”! Although the possibility loomed that teenagers in the neighborhood might decorate our trees with … Read More Watch out…it’s October 30th!
The Scream
“The Tell-Tale Heart”: One of Poe’s most iconic stories. I first read it when I was 23: an overworked and tired graduate student. One foggy Wednesday evening in October of that year—in fact, immediately after I read “The Tell-Tale Heart” in preparation for class—my younger sister asked me to accompany her on a walk around the neighborhood. I gladly took this opportunity for some … Read More The Scream
“My narrative”
Edgar Allan Poe is most often remembered as the mid-19th century’s master of macabre tales. Many of us have probably already read “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Black Cat,” or “The Tell-Tale Heart.” While these and similar stories might be Poe’s most famous, he also wrote tales of ratiocination (detective stories, such as “The Purloined Letter”) and … Read More “My narrative”
My reflection on a great Poe teacher
I am honored to be able to say that most of what I know about the work of Edgar Allan Poe, I learned from Dr. Merrill Maguire Skaggs. To be honest, prior to taking her doctoral course on Poe and Emerson in the fall of 2003, I was not particularly interested in Poe. As my perspicacious advisor at Drew University, Dr. Bill Rogers, suspected, … Read More My reflection on a great Poe teacher
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