by Phil Williams | Feb 5, 2026 | General English, Grammar, Writing skills
Hello, it’s been a while, so I finally have a new article! Today, I’m exploring a language problem that is tricky to navigate: computer language assistants giving inaccurate advice. That is, when you have autocorrect or grammar assistant programs that flag...
by Phil Williams | May 13, 2025 | Grammar, Vocabulary, Words, Writing skills
If you want to say something with fewer words in English, it’s often possible to choose more specific vocabulary. When it comes to choosing your verbs, this can impact entire phrases. Today, I’m looking at a common issue in my fiction editing work, where we have verbs...
by Phil Williams | Feb 18, 2025 | Grammar, Writing skills
I often discuss breaking down sentence structure and word order to demonstrate how understanding sentence components helps provide flexibility with structure. You can use the full word order guide to help with this here. Today, though, I’d like to discuss cases when...
by Phil Williams | Jan 16, 2025 | Grammar, Writing skills
Effective pronoun and determiner use in English can be tricky and very nuanced. I’ve already got a few articles on their uses here, where I’ve said it’s hard to learn from the rules alone. The issue I want to discuss here is when general plurals are used instead of...
by Phil Williams | Nov 12, 2024 | Definitions, Vocabulary, Words, Writing skills
In today’s new article I’m taking a look at the difference between ‘all right’ and ‘alright’, something which has come up a few times for me in my editing work and a point I’ve considered probably more than I should have in my...
by Phil Williams | Nov 14, 2023 | Punctuation, Writing skills
I know a few people would like a proper introduction to commas and how to use them, so I’ve compiled a guide here based in part on the chapter on commas in Advanced Writing Skills for Students of English. Some of the specific areas I’ve gone into more detail on in the...