Quotation Marks

Always place commas and periods within close quotation marks. In England, the custom is to write She said he was "intelligent". But in the United States, the convention is to write She said he was "intelligent."

You might notice that placing quotation marks around the word intelligent casts doubt on the man's IQ. Maybe he is not intelligent, the quotation marks imply. This use of quotation marks is but one of many ways punctuation can be used to convey important meanings, but writers who do not know the conventions of punctuation will not be able to make use of these important writing tools nor will they truly understand the writings of other people who do know the conventions.

"Among" or "Between"?

In most cases, use the preposition among when referring to three or more things and use between when referring to just two.

Both of the following sentences are correct:

• Among the residents of the city, there was universal agreement that Kristine was destined for success as both a librarian and an author.

• Just between you and me, this book should be on every writer's reading list.

By the way, among and between are prepositions, so their initial letters should be lowercased in titles.

"Criteria" or "Criterion"?

Criteria is the plural; criterion, the singular. Like data and media, criteria is often mistaken for the singular form.

The first criterion (singular) for successful writing is rewriting.

Of all the criteria (plural) for successful writing, rewriting is the most important one.

"Data Is" or "Data Are"?

Data is a plural noun; therefore, it is followed by a plural verb: Multiple data are needed for convincing correlation studies.

The singular form is datum: A single datum is insufficient in correlation studies.

Mysticism

Except in religious or spiritual literature, this word is almost always used incorrectly to mean something like mystification, fuzzy-wuzzy, or airy-fairy. But contrary to popular misconception, mysticism means nearly the opposite of those common and ignorant connotations. In reality, mysticism is the most empirical aspect of religion because it involves direct experience of the Divine, rather than faith in the Divine. The direct mystical experience of God is the experience of yoga or oneness with the Divine.

Mysticism is becoming increasingly important in the world because of the decline of traditional religions that rely on faith and the rise of spirituality to take their place. In the meantime, mysticism is a common denominator of all of the great world religions and is an element that can bring religions closer together rather than separate them as do so many other aspects of religion.

An excellent little book about mysticism is Walter Stace's The Teachings of the Mystics (New York: New American Library, Mentor, 1960); if you can't find it in a bookstore, try a library or http://www.bookfinder.com.

"Miss," "Mrs.," or "Ms"?

I am solidly pro-choice. In other words, every woman has the right to choose which courtesy title, if any, she wishes to use, so you will have to ask each woman what her individual preference is, regardless of her marital status or age.

By the same token, each man has the right to choose which courtesy title (Master, Mr., Jr. etc.), if any, he wishes to use.

"Media Is" or "Media Are"?

Media is a plural noun and always takes a plural verb: America's media are free.

The singular form of media is medium: Which medium do you prefer above all others?

"None Is"? or "None Are"?

Don't let populists rule your grammar. The contraction none means "not one" and takes a singular verb in almost every instance. The following sentence is correct: None of the wines is good. The word wines is the object of the sentence, not the subject; therefore, the subject none governs the number of the verb. None is singular: None [Not one] of the wines is good. Populists will argue nobody does it that way. Ignore them. Conformists will cite important style manuals. Ignore them. Pay attention to the grammar, not the hype.

Series Comma

To preclude ambiguity, every element in a series should be preceded by a comma: The boy liked pizza topped with lettuce, mustard, relish, and onions. If the comma before the final element of the series is omitted, ambiguities often result, as in the following sentence: His lover's will left him all of her investments, stocks and bonds. Without the series comma between the second and third elements, we cannot know if she gave him all of her investments plus her stocks and bonds, or whether she left him only that portion of her investments consisting of stocks and bonds.

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"More Than" or "Over"?

If you can count what you're describing, use more than: She earned more than $1 million being naughty. If you mean something spatial, use over: Then she flew over the city in her own private jet.

"Allusion," "Illusion," or "Reference"?

The three words are often confused. An allusion is an indirect reference to something without actually saying what it is, without naming it. An illusion is a perception of something that actually exists in a misleading way. A reference is a direct naming of something. Therefore, all of the following sentences are correct:

She alluded to her daughter's father in a way that aroused everyone's curiosity about his real identity.

She had no illusions, however, about who would raise the child.

Fifty years later, a reference to the child was discovered in the will of a lifelong millionnaire—and his daughter eventually inherited.

"Comprise" or "Constitute"?

To comprise is to contain or to include; the whole comprises the parts, not the reverse. Thus, a rich vocabulary comprises many words or is made up of many words, but many words do not comprise a rich vocabulary; rather, many words make up a rich vocabulary or constitute a rich vocabulary.