Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Apr 23 2024 126.9k
Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing Podcast artwork

Five-time winner of Best Education Podcast in the Podcast Awards. Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing and feed your love of the English language. Whether English is your first language or your second language, these grammar, punctuation, style, and business tips will make you a better and more successful writer. Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast.

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The birth of punctuation: from oral traditions to silent reading. Noun clusters. A wing wang in a mucket.

Apr 23 2024 16 mins  
979. Explore the fascinating origins of punctuation and how it evolved to shape written language. Plus, learn techniques to untangle confusing noun clusters and bring clarity to your writing.

How to become a supercommunicator, with Charles Duhigg

Apr 18 2024 19 mins  
978. Join Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author, Charles Duhigg, as we talk about mastering the art of communication and his new book, "Supercommunicators." We explore the skills anyone (yes, you!) can learn to become a powerful communicator. (Grammar Girl Conversations)

Big changes in Associated Press style. The 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' finale was catawampus. Bappy

Apr 16 2024 13 mins  
977. This week, we cover the latest AP Stylebook updates that were just revealed at the ACES conference. From the switch to Merriam-Webster to easing up on the word "unique," we look at what these changes mean for writers and editors. Plus, we explore "catawampus" thanks to its cameo in the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" finale. Learn about its quirky origins, regional differences, and wor

Pet-Speak: From Meowlogisms to Zoomies. 'Imply' or 'Infer'?

Apr 09 2024 19 mins  
976. This week, we dive into the "cativerse" and explore the vocabulary, grammar, and spelling habits of our furry friends. Plus, don't get tripped up by "imply" versus "infer." In the second segment, we dive into the definitions, origins, and proper usage of these often-confused words.

You love to read. Could you narrate?

Apr 02 2024 24 mins  
975. This week, I learned all about audiobook narration from David H. Lawrence XVII, who is launching a new program called "Narrate Your Own Book." If you've ever dreamed of being a narrator — or wondered what it's like — this episode is for you!

Memory, Aging, and the Lingering 'Anyways'

Mar 26 2024 17 mins  
974. How does aging affect our ability to understand language? From the challenges of processing complex sentences to the resilience you get from a rich vocabulary, we look at how our language skills change over time. Plus, looking into why people say "anyways" led me to some interesting historical tidbits.

A nuclear win at the Oscars. CamelCase. One clo.

Mar 19 2024 16 mins  
973. "Oppenheimer" leads us to wonder about the "nucular" pronunciation of "nuclear." And why do people have that second capital letter in the middle of MySpace, OutKast, and PowerPoint (and is it grammatically correct)?

From grunts to grammar. The Irish 'after doing.' The winning NGD poem!

Mar 12 2024 13 mins  
972. How did humans evolve from grunting ancestors to masters of language and poetry? This week, we explore fascinating theories on the origins of human language, including the laugh-inducing Bow-Wow and Pooh-Pooh theories. We also delve into Irish-English calques for St. Patrick's Day (and in response to a question from a Grammarpaloozian) and celebrate Leslie F. Miller's winning

Where did our language start?

Mar 05 2024 21 mins  
971. Linguists have traced modern languages like English and Sanskrit back thousands of years to a single Proto-Indo-European source. This week, we explore their detective work and the debates around the origins of the ancestral tongue.

'Addictive' or 'addicting'? Types of nouns. Folley

Feb 27 2024 14 mins  
970. We answer a listener question about the difference between "addictive" and "addicting," and then we look at how to write compound nouns: did you visit a coffeehouse or a coffee house?