Beyond Reason

Back in "the day," when I pretended I might one day have a career, I received a Bachelor's degree in English. I know, it's hard to tell some days as you're reading this blog, but it's true.

15 years later, I am finally doing what I always dreamed of...  Editing!  A friend has written a book and is kindly (and oh-so-patiently) waiting for me to finish reading it and making suggestions for revisions.  I'm about half way through.

(And there was much rejoicing.  Yaaaaay.)

Anyway, as you may have guessed, I'm a bit rusty when it comes to proper AP Style grammar and all that. What's changed?  What are the rules about commas and quotation marks?  Are there exceptions?  And how many tenses are there in the English language?  Good grief!

So, I've been looking up a lot of these questions.  Online.  [Gasp]  There are a few websites that seem to be quite accurate and thorough in their grammatical explanations.  Occasionally though, I just can't find an answer on one of those sites.  So I go exploring.

Today, while looking for rules on the proper use of "half" vs "half of," I read a comment from someone who seemed quite knowledgeable.  Except that one of his sentences began with "The reason is because..."

I remember learning early on that I should never say "The reason is because..."  The reason for this is that the proper way to say it is "The reason is that..."  See what I did there?

(I'm slyly winking at how clever I am.  Can't see me?  Hmm... I'll work on my sly winking for future editions of "So I Think I'm an Editor.")

All that to say, I found the blunder of this grammar genius amusing.  And I'm back to digging up an answer to "half" vs "half of."  The reason is that I just can't trust this The-Reason-is-Because Guy to lead me down the right path.