In February, the Supreme Court heard a case that hinged on the grammar of a single phrase in a federal law. The law calls for a 10-year minimum sentence for anyone possessing child pornography if he ...

Have you ever read a sentence that just didn’t work but you couldn’t put your finger on what was wrong? Have you ever written one? Reader-unfriendly sentences are everywhere. Many you can fix just by ...

Not long ago, I used as an example in this column "Having already missed two mortgage payments, Jane asked her mother if she could loan her some money." I was making the point that editors usually ...