48
OBSCURITY
OFFICIALESE
-OR; -OUR
OVERSTATEMENT
OXYMORONS
A. Generally
B. Plural
PARALLELISM
A. Generally
B. Parts of Speech
C. Phrases and Clauses
D. Content
PASSIVE VOICE
A. Generally
B. The Double Passive
PER-
PERIPHRASIS
PHRASAL ADJECTIVES
A. General Rule
B. Exception for -ly Adverbs
C. Suspensive Hyphens
D. Duration or Amount
E. The Compound Conundrum
F. Proper Nouns
G. Phrasal Adjectives Following the
Noun
H. Foreign Phrases
PHRASAL VERBS
PLAIN LANGUAGE
A. Generally
B. A Plain-Language Library
PLURALS
A. Generally
B. Borrowed Words
C. Nouns Ending in -f
D. Nouns Ending in -o
E. Nouns Ending in -y
F. Proper Names
G. Compound Nouns
H. Differentiated Forms
I. Acronyms and Abbreviations
J. Mass (Noncount) Nouns
K. Numbers and Decades
L. Words and Letters
M. Plural Possessives
POINTING WORDS
A. Generally
B. This vs. that
PORTMANTEAU WORDS
POSSESSIVES
A. Singular Possessives
B. Plural Possessives
C. Absolute Possessives
D. Double Possessives
E. Joint Possessives: John and
Mary’s house
F. Names as Adjectives
G. Possessives of Names Made
with Possessives
H. Inanimate Things
I. Phrasal Possessives
J. Attributive Nouns Ending in -ed
K. Possessives Followed by
Relative Pronouns
L. Units of Time or Value
M. Titles of Books, Films, and the
Like
N. Goodness’ sake and con-
science’ sake
POSTPOSITIVE ADJECTIVES
PREPOSITIONS
A. The Preposition Quotient
B. Ending Sentences with
Prepositions
C. Redundant Prepositions
D. The Wrong Preposition
E. Prepositions as Particles or
Adverbs
PROFANITY
PRONOUNS
A. The Basics
B. Confusion of Nominative and
Objective Cases
C. Underused in Specialized
Writing
D. Indefinite Pronouns: Number
E. Reflexive Pronouns
F. Overeager Pronouns
G. Restrictive and Nonrestrictive
Relative Pronouns
H. One as a Pronoun
I. Noun-Pronoun Disagreement
J. Relative Pronoun-Antecedent
Disagreement
PRONUNCIATION
A. General Principles
B. Commonly Mispronounced
Words
C. Lambdacism and Rhotacism
D. The Mispronounced -ph-
E. Names
F. Pronunciation and enunciation
G. Bibliography
PUNCTUATION
A. Apostrophe
B. Bullet
C. Colon
D. Comma
E. Dash
F. Ellipsis Dots
G. Em-Dash
H. En-Dash
I. Exclamation Point
J. Hyphen
K. Parentheses
L. Period
M. Question Mark
N. Quotation Marks
O. Semicolon
P. Square Brackets
Q. Virgule
R. Bibliography
PUNS
QUADRI-; QUADRU-; QUADRA-
QUESTIONS, DIRECT AND INDIRECT
QUOTATIONS
A. Use of Quoted Material
B. Handling Block Quotations
C. Punctuating the Lead-In