Reading time: About 5 minutes Have you ever wondered how to build a style sheet? Has your boss ever asked you to create one? Here’s a straightforward guide on how to accomplish the task… I’ve long held the belief that good copy editors are born, not made. I’m a very good substantive editor — I understand how […]
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Can you write a good sentence? Try one for this cartoon and you could be the winner of it… If I had a dollar for every person who told me they had “no writing talent,” I could treat myself to a no-expense-spared trip to Manhattan. I won’t subject you
Write a great cartoon caption and win a piece of art… Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post about libraries and librarians… I love libraries. My love affair began when I was an 8-year-old and a teacher
If librarians were honest… Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute Are you aware of all of the perils posed by blue light? The biggest danger may be to your sleep…. Occasionally, I have to work late. And, on some evenings, I like to unwind with an hour of television. At other times, I need to check my cellphone for
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Reading time: About 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a metaphor from Jonathan Gottschall… Jonathan Gottschall is an American literary scholar who teaches at Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. I can no longer remember who recommended to me his fascinating book, The Storytelling Animal, but I
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: aldehydic… The novel The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro was a book I shouldn’t have bothered to finish. The story — about a young newly married woman
What does aldehydic mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes “Fail” is one of the most dreaded four-letter words. But it shouldn’t be! Here’s why you should overcome the fear of writing failure… When I worked in daily newspapers, in the early 1980s, I wrote and edited my stories on a computer. This was shortly before desktop computers were
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post by Seth Godin… I don’t check Seth Godin’s blog every day. But when I do read it, I inevitably
Seth Godin searches for metaphor Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute ‘Avoid jargon,’ corporate writers are often told. My advice regarding jargon is a lot more specific than that… Does jargon ever have a place in corporate communications? You might be surprised to hear me answer ‘yes.’ But let me quickly define exactly what I mean by jargon. The dictionary
What’s the use of jargon? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about two metaphors from Steven Galloway…. I read the Steven Galloway novel The Cellist of Sarajavo in 2013 and found it slow going. Set in Bosnia, in the 1990s, when 22 people are killed
The figurative language of Steven Galloway… Read More »
