“Make friends with your stylebook,” I advise incoming students each summer at international pre-orientation.  “Not only will you learn AP style, but you’ll also learn a lot about the English language.”  These days, of course, “stylebook” really means the online version. It’s superior to the physical book for two reasons: it’s updated constantly (as opposed to […]

Every fall brings a new crop of students making the same mistakes in English as the class before them, and the class before that, and one before that. (And second-year students aren’t necessarily any better.) From student work early this semester, here are fresh examples of some of the most common, and avoidable, mistakes I’ve seen […]