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: kowtow. Shortly after getting my Netflix subscription (only so I could watch the dark but fantastic show House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey), I […]
What does kowtow mean? Read More »
Reading time: Just over 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: suppurate. When I worked in the daily newspaper business, I spent an occasional few hours in the photo studio. I was helping
What does suppurate mean? Read More »
Word count: 208 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: spruiking. I had never before heard the word spruiking. I won’t pretend I stumbled across it in my
What is spruiking? Read More »
Word count: 247 words Reading time: About 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 Adam Gopnik. I’ve written before about Adam Gopnik. My admiration for
Before they were unmoored from their spines… Read More »
Word count: 654 words Reading time: Less than 3 minutes You probably learned the difference between past, present and future in preschool. But how hard do you think about tense when you’re writing? Perhaps, not hard enough…. I am fascinated by tense. Not becoming tense, of course. Just tense. What
Are you tense over your verbs? Read More »
Word count: 374 words Reading time: Just over 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: giddy. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo reads like a novel. In fact, it’s a true story —
Word count: 283 words Reading time: Just over 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: machicolated. I can’t remember where I collected the word machicolated. I think it must have come from a
What does machicolated mean? Read More »
Word count: 250 words Reading time: about 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 Amor Towles. There’s been a fuss about the novel Rules of
I sutured split infinitives… Read More »
Word count: 268 words 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: fulgurating. I can’t remember where I first heard of Junot Diaz but I read the New Yorker each week
What does fulgurating mean? Read More »
Word count: 239 words Reading time: About 1 minute If you build your vocabulary, you’ll not only benefit your reading, you’ll also become more precise in your writing. Here is my word of the week. As a former journalist, I am immeasurably cheered to see fellow scribes write novels. I
What does “extirpated” mean? Read More »
