While they are also common in non-fiction, they are not so common but the same rules will still apply. I do not wish to leave any writers out of the proverbial loop.

Most writers already know the fundamentals of using quotation marks. In many instances however, a character or characters in a novel setting will be quoting each other as well.

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Most word processors will be able to differentiate the two and if not, an apostrophe will work just as well when you are typing something. If you are writing with pen and paper as I frequently do, if your handwriting is anywhere near as bad as mine is, nobody will ever be able to read it anyhow so it really does not matter as long as you can understand what is there and translate it when necessary.

Many writers will be familiar with the old “he said” and then “she said” in the telling of a story. “Oh my!” they exclaimed in unison as they made their way through the dark, dusty and dimly lit hallway.

However, a great portion of many stories involves interaction between the characters and references to other characters are often used within these dialogs. In these cases, when one character is quoting another, it is not important what the motive is either of the author or of the characters.

The rules will always be the same.

“I was talking to my friend the other day and they said ‘the times are changing, darkness fills the air every day now’ and then they told me of many other mysteries.”

The actual quotation in the dialog between the characters was included in single quotes.

It may actually look very awkward when the quote within the character dialog is placed at the beginning or ending of a sentence however, but this should not deter you from using proper grammar. If you are like me and do not like the way it looks, you can always change the dialog around.

Still, since many people will see things differently, those examples need to be examined here as well.

“‘Many are the mysteries of life!’ he said to me as he was leaving.”

In the preceding instance, the primary quotation is there because it is part of the character’s dialog.

It is followed by the single quote to indicate that it was a quote within a quote.

When the quotation is at the end of the sentence, it will look the same but there is still the matter of punctuation to be considered as well so it can seem a little tricky at first. Just remember that if there is a complete thought or sentence within the quotation marks, the punctuation is also included inside of the quotes.

If the quotation is not a complete thought, the punctuation goes outside of the quotation marks.

“As I was walking back to my house after this eerie chance encounter, I was suddenly startled to see the same mysterious man. I do not know what surprised me more, the fact that he had been walking the other way when I left or when he looked at me and said ‘Beware the darkness!’”

Notice that there is no additional punctuation for the sentence of the character’s dialog but only of the quote. While this is not by any means the only correct answer to the problem of double quotations, it is one of the most common methods and will usually allow you to get your writing past the initial proofreader and into the editors desk for selection.

Certain styles of writing will require some variations and I must include that fact as a disclaimer. Additionally, while it may occasionally be necessary to include a tertiary quote, it is best avoided if possible. On those occasions when it is necessary, alternating between double and single quotation marks is the general rule to be followed.

About the Author

Ward Tipton is a Professional Writer who personally prefers writing his science fiction but has spent the last five years providing highly specialized and quality informational product creations and online content for his clients. Ward Specializes in E-Mail Marketing Campaigns, promotional content and quality online articles for your web sites, article directories, press releases and more! Visit the Eclectic Ward Website today for truly Professional Writing Services.

Do you ever make any of these common mistakes with your writing? Now might be a good time to drop them from your regular use.

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Using irregardless as a word

Irregardless is not a word. Regardless, on its own, already means “without regard.” What, then, does irregardless mean? It means you’re not a good English writer, that’s what!

Adding the suffix -wise to everything

Lots of common words end in “-wise.” That doesn’t give you the license, however, to affix it to everything. Words like “specs-wise” and “profit-wise” have no place in formal business writing, or for any form of writing in general.

Using gift as a verb

Some nouns may be used as a verb but gift, with the many action forms that can be used to express an act of giving, isn’t one of them. Instead of saying “We gifted him with a new toy,” you can use presented, gave, awarded, provided, confer and many more. Run your English grammar software through that sentence and stumble upon about a dozen alternative words you can use instead.

Avoid Repetition

When writing any sort of piece, whether it be an article or a report, using the right words can mean the difference between a compelling read and a tedious bore. Unnecessarily repeating words, even when they bear the correct meaning, can leave your writing bland and wanting in quality.

Take this paragraph as an example:

Gadget freaks, rejoice! The company has announced that the gadget will shoot videos in native HD resolution, which you can then stream to your HD-ready TV sets for full HD enjoyment.

Contrast it to this, which replaces repeated words across the text:

Gadget freaks, rejoice! The company has announced that the device will shoot videos in native 1080p resolution, which you can then stream to your HD-ready TV sets for a complete high-def viewing experience.

How many times can you repeat a word? Generally, avoiding use of the same word within the same sentence or the one immediately after it can endow your piece with added readability. In its place, you can use a pronoun or another term that carries the same meaning.

When trying to find words that can express the same idea, there’s no better tool to use than a thesaurus. Simply look for the word you’re intending to substitute and look for a suitable replacement. Many English grammar software applications come with a built-in thesaurus that you can use as reference while writing your piece. The software will also likely recognize excessive repetition in your text and suggest replacements from it.

This simple trick of avoiding the use of the same words over and over can facilitate tremendous improvements in your writing.

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A similar approach can be taken with verbs.

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As with subject and object, you already know which words in a sentence are verbs, even if you can’t identify them when asked. The fact is, whenever you change the tense of a subject you automatically shift the verb to match. And since verbs are the only words that change form according to tense, in order to identify verbs, all you need do is change the tense.

The basic technique

Let’s start simple:

Peter and Paul went to Kentucky.

Now shift the tense.

Peter and Paul are going to Kentucky.

The only word that changed was went which became are. This tells you immediately that went is a verb.

Now try this one:

No matter how you look at it, there is no artistic merit in the Transformers movie.

Now we start shifting tenses.

No matter how you looked at it, there was no artistic merit in the Transformers movie.

Notice that look became looked, while is became was. Each is a verb.

Distinguishing between verbs and gerunds

This technique can also help determine gerunds from verbs. A gerund is a word that looks like a verb, but acts like a noun:

The fishing in Tennessee is great this time of year.

In this case, fishing is being used as a noun, although it looks like a verb. By changing tenses, we can immediately verify this.

The fishing in Tennessee was great this time of year.

See how is changed to was, but fishing stayed the same?

Now compare it to this:

I am going fishing in the river.

Now we change the tense:

I will fish in the river.

See how this time fishing changed to fish? That’s because it’s acting as a verb in this sentence.

Of course, another clue to gerunds is the presence of an article (the, a, an) before them: the fishing, the skiing, the diving.

Stubborn verbs and auxiliary verbs

Sometimes a verb appears to stay the same despite a change in tense. In these cases you will find that the words immediately preceding it have changed. These are auxiliary verbs, verbs that modify another verb to create a new tense. In some cases, the original verb you were looking at stays the same, but is accompanied by an auxiliary verb.

I am going fishing in the river.

We can change the tense of this:

I was fishing in the river.

In this case, while fishing stays the same, you’ll notice it’s now preceded by was instead of am going. These words are all auxiliary verbs. Their appearance should clue you in to the main verb, but just to be on the safe side you can put the sentence through several tense shifts so that the particular word you’re looking at has the chance to change — and all verbs have at least one change in form for tense. For instance, in we can force a change in the verb if we put it through a few other tense changes:

I fished in the river.

I fish in the river.

There will always be at least one tense which forces a change in the verb.

Dealing with complicated sentences

In a complicated sentence, there is no need to put the whole sentence through tense shifts, since usually you can identify some of the verbs just by looking at them. In that case, if there is any doubt about a particular word, then put the phrase it’s in through the shift.

The Beatles were one of the best groups I ever saw.

Let’s say that you already know that saw is a verb, so there’s no point in bothering with it. In that case, just work on the front part of the sentence.

The Beatles are one of the best groups…

That means that were is a verb.

Now let’s try a really complicated sentence:

I ran all the way home to tell my roommate that The Wicked Penguins were going to be playing a concert at the Varsity Theatre on Sunday.

Now there is no need to try changing the whole sentence — it can be taken in chunks.

I will run all the way home…

Okay, so in the first bit we’ve seen that ran is a verb. On to the next part:

…told my roommate…

So to tell is a verb — and notice that it wasn’t just tell that changed, but to tell. That’s because to is auxiliary.

…The Wicked Penguins are going to be playing…

So were going is a verb, but what about the rest of this part? Well, let’s change it around a bit more and see.

…The Wicked Penguins were going to play…

…The Wicked Penguins had played…

So what we can see is that the whole phrase here is actually one long verb — that’s because there are a lot of auxiliaries.

Now the next part.

…a concert at the Varsity Theatre on Sunday.

No matter what we do, there is no way to change the tense here. That’s because there are no more verbs.

Summary

By consciously using your innate knowledge of grammar, you improve not only your awareness of grammar, but your use of it — and you do so in a way that is natural and intuitive. As you practice this method, you will soon begin to find that you are recognising the verbs more and more frequently. So until next time, watch your grammar — you already know how.

Apply these simple strategies to improve your spelling skills.

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Use mnemonics. Mnemonics are rhymes or phrases which make memorization easier. A common spelling mnemonic is “i before e, except after c or when sounded as a as in neighbor and weigh”. You can make up your own mnemonic for any word you find difficult or for remembering other spelling rules.

Say it right. Many of us get a little lazy in our everyday conversations and do not pronounce words properly. For instance, it is fairly common to drop the “g” at the end of the “-ing” suffix. So running becomes “runnin”. While people will understand what you mean, if you spell the word the way you say it, you would be incorrect. Be sure you pronounce a word correctly and you are more likely to get the spelling correct as well.

Play word games. Improve your spelling skills by playing fun word games. Word searches, hangman, crosswords, Scrabble, and other word puzzles reinforce spelling skills. You can buy books which contain collections of word puzzles or search the internet on any of the games mentioned here.

Research. There are two areas you can research which will give you excellent practice material. Search the internet for “spelling lists”. Download those that interest you and use them to learn how to spell new words. The other area to search is for Latin and Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes. More words in the English language are based on these two languages than are based on Old English! Learning the Latin and Greek roots and affixes (prefixes and suffixes) will increase your spelling skills tremendously.

Know which word you are spelling. Many “spelling” errors are actually problems with selecting the correct word. Homonyms are often the culprits. Homonyms are words that are spelled differently but sound the same (homophones) or words which are spelled the same but have different meanings and different pronunciations (homographs). One of the most commonly confused group of homonyms is their, they’re, and there. Spend time reviewing the most commonly misused words. Make sure you clearly understand when to use each word and what its meaning is.

You can be a better speller. Faithfully practice every day using one or more of the spelling strategies presented here. You will very quickly see your spelling is improving.

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But of late I have deduced that my inability to find good verbs is a result of laziness. Why laziness? Because it takes more effort to pull out the thesaurus and look up a word then it does to hit Shift F7 and use the Word synonym finder. And because it takes consistent exertion to look for verbs in your daily travels and readings, and most important, when you find them, write them down. It takes energy to drag yourself out of the rut of using plain, ordinary words and passive verbs.
Perhaps at this point you might be asking, what, exactly is a strong verb? Let us take a look:

* All variants of the verb to be are weak verbs. (Sorry, to be it is a harsh judgment, but it must be said.) Poor old to be is so over-used that it does not pull up any fresh imagery (or any image at all). To be is the work horse of the verb world, and work horses age early and get tired and sick and feeble. So send your to bes out to pasture and find some young fresh fillies, or colts if you prefer.
* Verbs with an ing ending are weak verbs. Yes, I know, the justification for using the ing ending is that it indicates time passing. Such as “I was reading while I waited for the train.” However, a simple ed ending accomplishes the same thing in a crisper fashion: “I read while I waited for the train.” I have a tragic propensity to fall in love with ing endings and so once in awhile, I must whip myself soundly and rid my manuscript of as many of them as possible. Put those ing endings out in the back 40 with the workhorse to bes, where they can have senior citizen parties together.
* Verbs based on nouns are strong verbs. A fun verb exercise is to sit in a room, look around and start naming every noun you see. What you’ll discover is that many of our most beloved verbs are based on nouns. And in the process of turning nouns into verbs, you might stretch your mind a bit to discover some hot new verbs.
* Strong verbs stand alone, on their own two feet. They don’t need helpers like had, or would, or any other words that exist mostly to suck up to the handsome strong verbs. For instance, “The policeman had run so fast he was out of breath.” How about “The policeman ran so fast he was out of breath,” instead? You get the gist. Banish the helper verbs. They can rent the room next to the senior citizen verbs and hold a wake for themselves.

Make it a habit to write down strong verbs when you notice them in a book or article that you are reading. The more you make note of strong verbs, the easier it will be for you to use them in your own writing. And the more you use strong verbs in your own writing, the stronger your writing will become.

OR

The ex-con bolted up, rubbed his eyes and then the stubble on his chin, and crept out of bed. Those footsteps didn’t belong in his apartment.

Look at the above sentences, and see if you can figure out why the second example is better written than the first. If you still don’t know, look above that. At the risk of stating the obvious: nouns and verbs are the backbone of any sentence, and thus of all writing. I could have made my title really long and added “… and Adjectives and Adverbs Are Your Enemies,” but as you may have figured out, I like to keep it short.

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It’s not only about eliminating adjectives and adverbs so that your writing contains few words that aren’t nouns and verbs. After all, if we did that to the first example, we’d be left with:

The man got out of bed when he heard the sound of footsteps in his apartment.

Not very exciting, is it? That’s why it’s important to focus your writing not only on nouns and verbs, but on interesting nouns and verbs. I began my second example with “The ex-con,” but of course, I’m inventing a sentence that has no manuscript surrounding it — no context. If we’ve already met the character, use his name or a more descriptive noun such as mine. If you’re introducing a new character, use the best noun possible. “The businessman” would evoke a completely different image in your readers’ minds, and it would be a stronger image than “The blond, well-groomed, middle-aged man.”

Why is one noun stronger than three adjectives (and one verb stronger than three adverbs)? Sure, we can picture a guy who’s blond, well-groomed, and middle-aged, and we might guess from that description that he’s a businessman. We can picture a “wearily handsome, nervous, stubble-chinned man” and perhaps guess that he’s an ex-con. But using the noun rather than a string of adjectives accomplishes two important things: First, it adds action to the character’s description. “Ex-con” not only calls forth a set of physical attributes, but also, by definition, tells you something about the guy’s life outside of this moment: he’s trying to recover from his time in the slammer and go straight. A “businessman” probably looks a certain way, and presumably spends his days doing business.

Then again, maybe the guy isn’t trying to go straight. Maybe he wants to return to a life of crime. Which brings me to the second advantage: involving the reader’s mind in the storytelling. If you string together a list of adjectives, you’re feeding a character to your readers without allowing them to draw their own pictures. Part of the fun — and the fascination — of fiction is the fact that everyone who turns the final page of a book has read a different one. And the more you allow people to be cocreators of your characters, your settings, etc., the more enveloped in your novel’s fictional world they will become.

Or in your nonfiction book’s world — nonfiction writers must leave less to the reader’s imagination, but editing using this principle will make nonfiction stronger as well. As with any other tips, customize it to your writing. It’s also, as I mentioned, about brevity. I don’t need to explain why “crept out of bed” beats “slowly and carefully got out of bed.”

Of course, adjectives and adverbs have their places. Otherwise languages wouldn’t contain so many. You might even find a few in this article (only a few). Again, customize this editing technique to your writing. Read a few pages and see if you find yourself using dull nouns such as “man” or “thing” a lot — chances are they’re surrounded by adjectives. If not, the potential book sitting in front of you may be dull indeed. Don’t go crazy with your thesaurus looking for obscure nouns to replace “man,” but do use this technique as a way to vary word choice. And, if you don’t have a thesaurus, for god’s sake, get one. The thesaurus in Microsoft Word, or anywhere online, won’t hold a candle to the old-fashioned bound kind.

Replace adjectives with more interesting, descriptive nouns, and watch your writing become streamlined, subtly evocative, laced with intrigue, varied in word choice… Oops, those are all adjective phrases. Just think of this noun: “bestseller.”