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“Correct” spelling, indeed, is one of the arts that are far more esteemed by schoolma’ams than by practical men, neck-deep in the heat and agony of the world. – H.L. Mencken, The American Language, SupplementII: An Inquiry into the Developme

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The rules of punctuation seem arbitrary. How can they not, when an apostrophe looks like nothing in this world so much as a comma that can’t keep its feet on the ground? Or when, by simply placing next to that wafting comma its twin, one creates (of all things) a quotation mark? – Richard Lederer and John Shore, Comma Sense: A Fun-damental Guide to Punctuation

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Grammar

A semicomma, we should note, doesn’t exist; we just made the word up. But it sounds like a punctuation mark that should exist, doesn’t it? – Richard Lederer and John Shore, Comma Sense: A Fun-damental Guide to Punctuation

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Grammar

Language, never forget, is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling, and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines. – Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way, 1990

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Grammar

Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression. – A. Bronson Alcott, “Culture: IV.—Mother Tongue,” Tablets, 1868

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Grammar

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