Word count: 240 words 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: mishegoss. Somehow, when I saw the word mishegoss, I knew it was Yiddish, even though I didn’t know what it meant. (Perhaps it […]
What is mishegoss? Read More »
Word count: 710 words Reading time: less than 3 minutes If you’re unfamiliar with readability statistics, here’s an introduction. And if you haven’t gone beyond the Flesch-Kincaid index, here’s a new idea for you… Did you know that in pre-Elizabethan times an average written sentence was 50 words long? Fifty words! Why? I’m guessing that
How to improve your readability… Read More »
Word count: 286 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 writers. Today, I present an article on nominalizations. Are you familiar with “nominalizations”? These are verbs (action words) or adjectives (describing words) that have
What happens when you turn a verb into a noun? Read More »
Word count: 286 words Reading time: Just over 1 minute A great way to improve your writing skills is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. Today’s writing comes from Susan Silk and Barry Goldman. Today, I’m going to break my own rule. Instead
Do you worry ever about saying the wrong thing? Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. Today’s comes from British actor and comedian Russell Brand. When Margaret Thatcher died on April 8, I felt nothing. I hadn’t liked her politics but, then, she wasn’t my Prime Minister. Safely stored across the
The figurative language of Russell Brand… Read More »
Word count: 195 words 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: maculations. I don’t reach much poetry but whenever I do, I always regret not reading more. A friend of mine has recently discovered
What are maculations? Read More »
Word count: 721 words Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you allow yourself to get tied up in your own writing problems? Here are five strategies to try the next time you get stuck. My husband and I were in Oregon last week and spent several days on the Coast, home to some of the
5 writing lessons from the Oregon Trail Read More »
Word count: 327 words 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 writers. Today’s article comes from Geoffrey O’Brien, general editor of the 18th edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. For a time, when I was
Are we what we quote? Read More »
Word count: 295 words Reading time: Just over 1 minute A great way to improve your writing skills is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. Today’s comes from Susan Orlean. I’ve been a Susan Orlean fan for years. I met her on the
Pining at a closer proximity… Read More »
Reading time: about 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. Today’s comes from an opinion piece written by Jessica Soffer in the New York Times. Have you ever read the spritely Opinionator column billed as an “exclusive online commentary from the Times” — meaning, of course
The figurative language of Jessica Soffer… Read More »
