Variety Can Spice up Your Life And Your Writing
We’d soon get bored if we ate the same foods every day or always went to the movies on Friday nights. Even the most delectable dish becomes trite if we are expected to enjoy it on a regular basis....
View ArticleFewer or Less? Which Should It Be?
Do you have as much trouble as I do remembering when to use fewer and when to use less in a sentence? Those two little words cause me a lot more bother than they should. I do know the rule that says...
View ArticleApostrophes and the Apostrophe Protection Society
A lot of people are irritated by misplaced or missing apostrophes. That’s easy to know just by looking of the number of blogs dealing with the subject. Until yesterday, however, I didn’t know of the...
View ArticleThe 10 Most Misspelled Words
Do you know that definitely is the most misspelled word in the English language? Until I ran across an article in the Daily Record, a U.K. publication, about the ten most common spelling blunders, I...
View ArticleHow to Begin a Nonfiction Article
Much has been written on the subject of how to begin an article (the lead). I have long been a fan of the following short piece about nonfiction leads, and I’ve turned to it many times when I had...
View ArticleWhat Kind of Writer Are You? What Kind of Writer Would You Like to Be?
What kind of writer are you? What kind of writer would you like to be? These deep thoughts came about, I think, because I’ve been without a computer for some weeks. (I bought a new computer but it had...
View ArticleMore Word Wisdom from Lydel Sims
Today I happened again upon some yellowed clippings from Lydel Sim’s old “Watch Your Language” columns. You may recall I wrote about him and his writing advice in my earlier post, Remembering My...
View ArticleThe List of Banished Words (and Phrases) for 2010
Lake Superior State University has released its list of banished words for 2010 and I’m glad to say that I agree that most of them should be banished, and quickly. This was the university’s 35th annual...
View ArticleMichael Gartner, an Impressive Journalist
Among some of the yellowed clippings in my files, I have one by Michael Gartner, who at one time wrote a syndicated column, “Words,” that appeared in my local newspaper. I clipped this column, I think,...
View ArticleAbout Mistakes That Make You Look Bad
Today I ran across another post that can help me improve my writing. Mistakes That Make You Look Bad was on the WritingThoughts site and I think it is going to be a valuable addition to what I do here....
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