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Diction & Tone: Striking the Right Balance
For a student in high school or college, the struggle when writing an essay is to use more formal diction and tone than they are accustomed to using. Students nowadays write “kinda” and “gunna” as though they were texting, not to mention “2” for to (or two even). The pressing issue for students, then, is…
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Michael Cohen’s Disloyal: a Repentant Lawyer Throws Stones
Cohen frequently expresses his moral revulsion at his own actions and antics as Trump’s executive vice president and personal attorney.
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Adjectives Shouldn’t Modify Verbs
One of the most common errors in spoken English, made even by educated people, is the misuse of adjectives in the place of adverbs: “They need to push forward much quicker.” I’ll give you a moment to try to figure out the grammar issue, and then I’ll reveal it in the next paragraph… The problem…
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Don’t Look Up: a Film to Flatter its Audience
Netflix’s Don’t Look Up will please its target audience who holds the conceit that they are in possession of the facts, while those that disagree with them are too benighted to see a metaphorical comet coming towards the earth. Meryl Streep as President Orlean is, among other things, a parody of President Trump, complete with trucker hats…
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When to Stop Revising: How to Avoid Overediting
‘ Are you a perfectionist? Perfectionism can be maddening. Imagine rereading and rewriting a piece until you can no longer even understand how it will be perceived by other people. Yet this type of revision is essential to creating a creditable piece of writing, whether it’s fiction, expository writing, or an essay for class. Perfectionism…
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“You’re Good”: An Annoying Verbal Tic
The use of the phrase “You’re good” has become increasingly common. You might hear it if you say “excuse me” to someone. It means that the apology was not necessary. You’re good. Well, it sounds awful. And it needs to stop. So what should you say instead of “you’re good” when someone commits a minor…
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Reducing Clutter with Adverbs & Sentence Combining
Tightening up prose is necessary when reading it feels labored or dull. After the tightening up, it feels, well, tight and spry. Tell me which sentence sounds better to you: “The students filtered down the main staircase with an extra exuberance in their steps.” Or “The students filtered down the main staircase exuberantly.” I am…
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Mission Statement
People have often said to me: “Wow, you should start a blog.” I have finally, reluctantly agreed. This will be a good way for me to fight back against an unjust world in which people do not say things correctly. In fact, I don’t even want to limit myself to a singular mission statement, other…
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About
People have often said to me, Hey, you should start a blog. I have finally, reluctantly agreed. My writing has appeared in The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, Real Clear Politics, Education Week, and The Washington Times. Moving forward, I will mostly be publishing right here. The aim is to provide a slightly…
Michael Machera Blog
Book Reviews, Grammar, and Opinion
