Tag: The Art of Writing

Here they come, a whole battalion – a million, a jillion, all in rebellion. But not a stallion among them, just slubberdegullions fed on slumgullion, slavering for bullion but barely getting bouillon. What do we do with this cotillion of tatterdemalion hellions? Why, rap them with scallions and they’ll scatter, the rapscallions.

Not that that’s where rapscallion comes from. You know what a rapscallion is, don’t you? If the word looks like rascal decked out for a cotillion, you pretty much have it. A rapscallion is a rascal, a rogue, a vagabond (to quote the OED), a raffish scalawag. The word is just rascallion with a rap of p to make it smarter and sharper. And rascallion? Just rascal with a fillip on the end. The OED tells me that rampallion may have had some influence too – it’s a now less-used word with similar sense.

Of them…

This is a quick grammar post.

It’s simple: “should have” and its contraction “should’ve” are correct.  As are “would have” (would’ve) and “could have” (could’ve).

Incorrect: “should of”; “could of”; “would of”; “shoulda”; “woulda”; “coulda”

• I should have (should’ve) left earlier to avoid traffic.
• He could have (could’ve) told her he was on his way so she wouldn’t leave.
• She would have (would’ve) brought a snack if she knew there was no food.
• I could’ve won that race if I had trained more!
• He should’ve had a V-8 for breakfast instead of a donut.
• She would’ve gone to the movies if she didn’t have to work.

Questions?

Happy writing!

What other grammar topics or tips would you like to see?

Lisa J. Jackson is an independent writer and editor who enjoys working with manufacturing, software, and technology businesses of all sizes. She loves researching topics, interviewing experts, and helping companies tell…

By Sean Dorsey

A green Lincoln rattles its way along asphalt in dire need of repaving, the pizza light on its roof shining on the stone wall to the right and the wiry trees to the left. It creaks to a stop on the dirt outside the cemetery gate. The delivery dude steps out of the car, looks at the order address and then at the fog enshrouded graveyard, nose wrinkled.

Penny Dreadful Season 2 is Again a Macabre Good Time

by Kristin Battestella

Penny Dreadful’s sophomore year opens with a recap of the the Showtime series’ debut before picking up the Gothic sophistication right where we left off – this time with ten episodes of scorpions, witches, monsters, and devils.

Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) is attacked by a group of Nightcomer witches led by Madame Kali (Helen McCrory), but ex-gunslinger Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) protects Vanessa along with Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) – whom Madame Kali pursues romantically. Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle (Simon Russell Beale) helps translate a mysterious demonic tale written on a monk’s relics alongside Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), but Frankenstein is distracted by his work on the late Brona Croft (Billie Piper) – now resurrected as Lily Frankenstein at the request of the Creature Caliban (Rory Kinnear), himself going by the name John Clare for his…

Jim Baumann writes a column in the Chicago Daily Herald under the title Grammar Moses, in which he dispenses (mostly bad) advice on grammar and usage.

This week, Moses has crowdsourced his tablets.

One of his contributors writes that we should use ’til and not till as the short form of until. Till, he says, “can be a noun, meaning a cash drawer, or a rather inexact verb describing what growers do to the soil so as to produce crops or decorative plants”.

No.

Anydictionaryyoubothertocheck will confirm that till is a legitimate word in its own right. It’s not a short version of until. Things are the other way round: till dates back to the ninth century, until only to the twelfth, when it was derived from till (compare the relationship between unto and to).

As for ’til

(image via Wikimedia)

The adverb has an undeservedly bad reputation, I believe.  The adverb is a part of speech, so it has to have an important role in grammar and sentence structure.  I learned that in school.  Yet, famous authors often malign the adverb and say its usage hurts writing.  Stephen King has said: “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs,…”  When the Modern Master of Horror equates a kind of word with eternal damnation, you have to take that seriously.

I just finished reading On Writing by Stephen King.  It seems that every writer says that every writer should read it, so if I’m going to be a writer, I thought I’d better read it.  I’m not going to review the book because you can get a review of it anywhere.  I’ve criticized King recently about how sometimes he doesn’t follow his own writing advice, and…