contributor

Erin Brenner

Erin Brenner is the founder of Right Touch Editing, a customizable editing service. She has been an editing professional for over 15 years and is sought after for her expertise in language mechanics. She works on a variety of media in all levels of editing. In addition, she provides bite-sized lessons to improve your writing on her blog The Writing Resource and is the editor of Copyediting.com, which offers advice and training for those who edit copy. Follow her on Twitter at @ebrenner or on Facebook.
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Writers Talk About Writing

Don't Let Your Modifiers Dangle!
May 19, 2014
By Erin Brenner

In English, modifiers go next to the thing they modify. Dangling and misplaced modifiers are challenging because they can be difficult to spot. Often the meaning is clear enough that readers pass right over them. That doesn't mean, of course, that we shouldn't fix them.  Continue reading...
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Writers Talk About Writing

Adverb Placement, Generally and Specifically
April 7, 2014
By Erin Brenner

Recently, I came across a version of this sentence in a client document: "ABC Corp. hired XYZ Co. exclusively for testing multiple simulations in order to find the best solution." Did ABC Corp. hire just XYZ Co. or did it hire XYZ Co. just for testing? Although the sentence is grammatical, the meaning is ambiguous absent further context.  Continue reading...
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Writers Talk About Writing

The Politics of Writing: Should You Use Skunked Terms?
March 13, 2014
By Erin Brenner

Decimate. Literally. Hopefully. These words, and others like them, provoke so much ire in some readers that they become troublesome to use. Critics feel that the writer is using the word in an unauthorized way, that it's being using to mean what it does not mean.  Continue reading...
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Writers Talk About Writing

Killing More Zombies: "Curate" and "Reveal"
February 6, 2014
By Erin Brenner

Last summer I wrote a lot about zombie rules, usage rules that really aren't rules but that we teach, follow, and pass along with little thought anyway. I have two more zombies to share with you, about using the verbs curate and reveal.  Continue reading...
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Writers Talk About Writing

Sorry, Lynne Truss, English is Not Doomed
January 15, 2014
By Erin Brenner

Recently Lynne Truss, professional pedant, declared in her Telegraph column that English is "doomed."

Her proof? Someone wrote "It maybe time to act on this" in an email to her.  Continue reading...
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Writers Talk About Writing

Caroling the "Lie"/"Lay" Distinction
December 10, 2013
By Erin Brenner

English language users have long struggled with lie, meaning "to recline," and lay, meaning "to put down." Many of the traditional English Christmas carols we hear at this time of year were written or translated during the 19th century and use lie and lay distinctly.  Continue reading...
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Writers Talk About Writing

To Have and to Receive: Two Usages of "Have"
November 15, 2013
By Erin Brenner

Noel Anenberg, a regular reader of this column and author of the forthcoming book The Dog Boy, asked me about a usage of have that implies, Anenberg writes, "the speaker's active role in the events." Compare "I had my house cleaned" and "I had my car stolen."  Continue reading...
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1 2 3 4 5 Displaying 8-14 of 55 Articles