Write better sentences with Joe Moran
Joe Moran’s First You Write a Sentence. suggests an exercise to help you learn to write better sentences. Try this exercise Learn from the artistry of others when you try this exercise described by Moran. Find a sentence you like and look at it for a distressingly long time, until you start to see past […]
A great way to annoy your editor
Would you like to guarantee that the editor of a magazine, blog, newspaper, or other publication never asks you to write for them again? Then, follow the advice in this article. I feel confident that your assigning editor will ignore your future proposals. Surefire way to annoy Here’s my advice: Accept a clearly defined assignment […]
MISTAKE MONDAY for July 27: Can YOU spot what’s wrong?
Can you spot what’s wrong in the image below? Please post your answer as a comment. Don’t feel bad if you don’t identify it immediately. I had to check my notes to catch this one, even though I’d spotted right away when I made this screenshot months ago. I post these challenges to raise […]
Moot or not?
For years, I assumed that if something was “moot,” it didn’t matter, or wasn’t worth arguing about. Was I ever wrong! However, it turns out that I have company in misunderstanding this word. Here’s what I discovered thumbing through Theodore Bernstein’s The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage. Moot means arguable or subject […]
Top posts from 2020’s second quarter
Check out my top posts from the second quarter! They’re a mix of practical tips on marketing (#1), writing (#2, #3, #5) and punctuation (#4). Ready-to-use content for financial advisors—Everyone wishes for marketing shortcuts. If you don’t have time to write your own content, you may consider using content written by others. It’s not ideal. […]