Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you ever feel overwhelmed when you need to write? Here are some suggestions for how to improve your focus… As I write this column, I’m feeling overwhelmed. Why? I just said goodbye to a contractor who carved a hole in our dining-room ceiling.
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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 of interest to other writers. Today I discuss an article written by Clay Shirkey. I began my working life in newspapers. My parents
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Reading time: About 1.5 minutes Have you ever thought of hiring a professional proofreader? Here’s why you should take the idea seriously…. I work with many clients who — in addition to having me write or edit — also hire me to coordinate their various suppliers. These might include graphic
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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 simile from Emily Nussbaum… Here’s one of the reasons I read The New Yorker each week. It allows me to learn about things I would never in a million
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Reading time: About 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: helter-skelter… I’ve known the meaning of the adverb and adjective helter-skelter for at least 45 years. It means something done in a haphazard manner or
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Have you ever thought of the value of self-talk? I’d always seen it as a liability but there are ways in which it can help you… I adore open-area offices. When I started working in a newsroom 30 years ago — with a hundred
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Reading time: About 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 an article written by Tim Kreider. I hadn’t heard of Tim Kreider until I regularly started reading
Not necessarily shown to your best advantage… Read More »
Reading time: About 2 minutes Do you ever get tense over tenses? I’m talking about verb tenses— and the the time or state they express. But, honestly, there’s no need to get upset… Most of us know that there are present, past and future tenses and we can identify them
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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 simile from Margaret Talbot… My kids introduced me to young adult videographer and writer John Green about four years ago. I found his Vlog Brothers videos, which he prepares
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Reading time: About 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: palaver. I had never heard of the bestselling novel The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared until I saw my 20-year-old daughter
