Grammar and Writing

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Grammar Help: Plural Letters

In MLA and APA format, the grammatically correct option is As, not A’s; however, an apostrophe is often used for clarity in writing.  

But even then, when writing dates, I tend to see 1990s or things like that used more often. I actually just did a bit of research right now, and I found this: "According to the 4th ed. of The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers the answer is this. When indicating plural letters like 4 s's, 4 i's, and 2 p's you separate the letter and the 's' that makes it a plural with a single apostrophe. When writing the plural of a number like 3s or 5s you can omit the apostrophe."

Thank you so much!  Here’s your answer, my dear anonymous inquirer.

I always learned that apostrophes don't denote plurality, so I should think "As" would be the appropriate term. However, I tend to avoid things like that if I can, instead saying "I got an A in both such-and-such and so-and-so." That's how I see it, anyway.

I tend to avoid these things when I’m not entirely sure, too.  Usually, an apostrophe would denote possessives, but, when writing dates, it’s the 1980’s, 1990’s, etc., so I would think it could be used for letters as well.  I’ll do some research on it, though.

So, say you got two A grades in your classes. When you are reporting that to someone, would you say, "I got two As in so-and-so and so-and-so," or would you say, "I got two A's in so-and-so and so-and-so." Since the apostrophe represents possession and the actual A itself is not possessing anything here, would we include the apostrophe or not?

According to what I’ve learned and/or read, I believe it’s “A’s” not “As.”  If I’m wrong, feel free to correct me.

Hi :) I get stuck on this sentence a lot often. "A voice called out of from nowhere/behind/other locations" I hate it when I write that sentence(it sounds so amateur), but I always stick to it because I can't find a better way to put it. Could you help me find a better way to put it?

Hmm.  I would suggest trying, “Out of nowhere, a voice could be heard,” or any variation of that.  I hope this helps!

Word of the Day: Tepid (adjective)

1. showing little enthusiasm
2. only slightly warm; lukewarm

The tepid response received from the new album made the band rethink their music.

The water was not scalding, but tepid.

shannahmcgill:

I hate the word villain.  The villain is the bad guy.  I like antagonist a lot better, because the antagonist is just the person or thing that opposes the protagonist.  A villain is somebody evil.  A lot of them are evil enough to be stand-ins for the devil, and unless you’re actually writing a Christian allegory, you don’t want your antagonists to be that pure in their badness.

I recently read The Kite Runner, and I could empathize with Amir even as he lied and destroyed the lives of those around him because I knew why he was doing it.  The Kite Runner’s major flaw was that I couldn’t do the same for Assef.  Assef was just a flat villain.  Amir and Assef both did bad things, but we only got to see Amir’s motives.  A better book would have given the motives for both sides and let us ponder things out.  Instead, Assef pretty much just did things because he was “evil and a bit off in the head.”  Boring.  The difference between a villain (bad) and a non-villain antagonist (good) is that a non-villain antagonist has reasonable motives.  Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t a single motive that would have made me like Assef as a person.  But a motive would have made him more than a one-dimensional OMG SOO EVUL character.  People like this do exist in real life, but they’re hard to write about without appearing flat and dull.

Every character has their own story.  Try to think how, if your antagonist were the POV character, you would make the readers sympathize with him or her.  In a good story, every character could possibly be a hero.  If you have an antagonist who could never be a good protagonist because their motives are too unsympathetic, I suggest changing them.

The follower of the day is inkwellforaheart.