Dear Stylebot subscribers, we have some important and exciting news: Indiegraf, the operating system for independent local media, has acquired Stylebot. That means Stylebot's technology is becoming Indiegraf's built-in editing assistant, Indie Editor. What that means for you: Stylebot’s products (our Slack, Teams, Chrome and Google Docs integrations) will remain operational until April 28. By the end of that day, all accounts will be closed and your access to these products will end. Refunds:...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Have you ever had to alter a draft of your writing because you confused two homophones? It's easy to do online, but harder if you're using expensive stationery. And what about those instances where you didn't even realize you were using the wrong homophone? Knowing you've been doing it wrong for years can feel like a hangar-size mistake. Any idea where we're going with this? 😉 You might have spotted three sneaky homophones in the sentences above: alter, stationery and hangar. Each has a...
10 days ago • 1 min read
If you waited with bated breath last week for the Ides of March to pass, you can thank Shakespeare. We already told you that he gets the credit for the lasting power of the Ides of March as a bad omen. He's also responsible for keeping bait's homophone "bate" around in another enduring phrase. We don't use "bate" very much anymore, but it came about in the 1300s to mean "to diminish" (and yes, its origins are tied to a shorter version of "abate," which is still commonly used today)....
17 days ago • 1 min read
Today is Friday the 13th, the second one of the year. And if today's association with bad luck isn't enough for you, then look no further than Sunday's bad omen: the Ides of March. So what do we make of these two inauspicious days? The origins of Friday the 13th being unlucky are hard to pin down, though Christianity and Norse mythology regard 13 as an unlucky number of dinner guests, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica also points to other biblical references that regard Friday...
24 days ago • 2 min read
If you've been watching hockey this season or you're gearing up for this year's World Cup, you're likely familiar with the term hat trick. And if you're not, here you go: It's when one player scores three goals in one game. It's commonly associated with hockey and soccer, but it can apply to other sports, as well as to a series of three victories. But there are no hats in soccer, and hockey players wear helmets. So why the "hat"? "Hat trick" made its sports debut in cricket. When a bowler...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Today we're going to talk about dashes — but not that kind. The em dash has gotten a lot of attention in recent years because of its tendency to show up in AI-generated writing. Some of us who are longtime lovers of the em dash (including the humans behind this newsletter 🙋♀️) might pause before using it now, for fear of giving the wrong impression about how our writing was generated. (For the record, we still lean into the em dash, but you do you.) The en dash is a close relative of the em...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
What a week! People celebrated Presidents' Day, Mardi Gras and Lunar New Year this week, all while the Olympics were happening and Ramadan began. To top it off, there was a solar eclipse on Tuesday. To mark this week, we have some event- and holiday-themed writing tips that you can use through the rest of the week and month: The Olympics closing ceremony is on Sunday. Just like "opening ceremony," "closing ceremony" is not capitalized. Remember, Team USA is an exception to the rule about...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
We're going further than we've ever gone before into the difference between farther and further. Many of you have requested that we cover this commonly confused pair of words, and with good reason: "Further" is used a lot when language sticklers would use "farther." OK, so what's the difference? "Farther" is for references to physical distance, while "further" is for figurative descriptions. So to further your fitness goals, you might run farther than you did yesterday. Here are a couple of...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
An historical event is taking place today: For the first time, Olympic Torches will light two cauldrons during the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 games. How many errors do you spot in that sentence? The 2026 Olympics kick off today in Italy today, and yes, in a first, two Olympic cauldrons will be lit in the two host cities: Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. That much we know. What's less clear is exactly how to write about it. We count five errors in the opening sentence of this newsletter. We'll...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
