| Merriam-Webster | |
|---|---|
| _ and I | nominative case, when it stands for the subject of the sentence |
|---|---|
| _ and me | objective case, when used as direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition |
| 's | Append to noun (not pronoun) to form possessive if it is singular (even if it ends in s like Charles's). Append to subject to form contraction of subject is (informal). |
| conscience | awareness of moral implications |
| conscious | mentally alert |
| e.g., | for example |
| Earth | the planet |
| earth | soil |
| i.e., | in other words |
| fewer | for countable quantities, e.g., fewer students |
| good | adjective (not an adverb) |
| it's | contraction of it is |
| its | possessive form of it |
| less | for non-countable quantities, e.g., less gasoline |
| past | beyond in time or place, e.g., "... past the gas station." |
| passed | past and past participle forms of to pass |
| their | possessive form of they |
| there | location other than here |
| they're | contraction of they are |
| to lay | to place something, transitive, present: lay, past: laid, past participle: laid, gerund: laying |
| to lie | to recline, intransitive, present: lie, past: lay, past participle: lain, gerund: lying |
| well | adverb (not an adjective) |
| who | nominative case, when it stands for the subject of the sentence |
| whom | objective case, when used as direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition |
See Regular Expressions to locate sloppy writing.
A quick and dirty summary for fiction writers. Nothing fancy.
| Effect | TeX/LaTeX | HTML | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| & | \& | & | |
| “ | `` | “ | |
| ” | '' | ” | |
| - (hyphen) | - | - | for compound words |
| – (en dash) | -- | – | for numeric ranges like 1–100 |
| — (em dash) | --- | — | for traditional dash |
| (no-break space) | ~ | | Mr.~Smith, Figure~1 |
| ... | \ellipsis | ... | use \ldots for LaTeX |
| Pow! | {\em Pow!\/} | <em>Pow!</em> |
In particular, note the use of the backslash after quotations that end with ? or ! to keep TeX from adding intra-sentence space before the dialogue tag. Use \ellipsis for a three-dot ellipsis Aidtopia macros or \ldots in LaTeX. The Aidtopia version can be followed by a period to acheive a four-dot ellipsis.
``I'm pregnant,'' said Mary.
``What?''\ said Bob.
``It's true.'' Mary retied her apron for the third time. ``I went to the clinic this afternoon.''
``But I thought\ellipsis.'' His mind raced. ``The doctor said---''
``He was wrong!''
Dashes are suppose to signal abrupt changes in ideas, but often they visually connect adjacent words. This can be avoided by putting spaces on either side of dashes, but you have to be careful to avoid bad line breaks by using a non-breakable space before the mark.
He was pretty sure~--- no, he was certain~--- that the child couldn't be his.
<p>“I'm pregnant,” said Mary.</p>
<p>“What?” said Bob.</p>
<p>“It's true.” Mary retied her apron for the third time. “I went to the clinic this afternoon.”</p>
<p>“But I thought....” His mind raced. “The doctor said—”</p>
<p>“He was wrong!”</p>
Dashes are suppose to signal abrupt changes in ideas, but often they visually connect adjacent words. This can be avoided by putting spaces on either side of dashes, but you have to be careful to avoid bad line breaks by using a non-breakable space before the mark.
<p>He was pretty sure — no, he was certain — that the child couldn't be his.</p>