Grammar books, and hundreds of websites out there, are appallingly confused about statements, questions, orders, and exclamations. Most of the problem lies in their failure to distinguish syntax from ...

“Clarity is the most important characteristic of good business writing,” says Mignon Fogarty, creator of the “Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” podcast. “Often businesspeople will ...

There are four different ways of asking questions in Spanish. Use question words, such as ‘How much is …?’. Use a declarative sentence, such as ‘I would like … please’. Invert, or swap the order of, ...

“There’s not much to be said about the period except that most writers don’t reach it soon enough,” wrote William Zinsser in “On Writing Well.” It’s true that most sentences should be shorter. But ...

The growing ubiquity of e-mail means that everyone in business, from lords of finance to programmers who dream in code, needs to write intelligently. By using simple, clear, precise language--and ...