“Avoid the passive voice” is a favorite maxim of writing teachers. But for young learners, exposure to passive construction—and other more complex sentences in spoken language—may help children ...

Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. Years ago, a copy editor working on a reporter’s story changed some of the “whiches” to “thats” when they were being ...

Writers can use metaphors and similes to make a comparison and show the similarity between different things. But they can also deliberately use contrasting words and ideas to make us pay attention to ...