What is it with CAPITAL LETTERS? One of the most common errors that I have to correct a professional editor is Overuse of Capital Letters. I see a lot of Unnecessary Capitalization. I have to wonder, why? What is it that drives writers—and by that I do not necessarily mean Professional or aspiring Professional Writers, […]
The useless and the pretentious: disposable words What’s the greatest threat to clear communication today? It’s not using “lay” instead of “lie” (“Lay your shield here, Captain America, next to Mjolnir, mine enchanted hammer, as we lie down for a moment’s respite” is correct). And it’s not writing “between you and I.” The biggest problem: […]
There are some errors that drive me crazy, not because they’re so terrible — anything can be corrected — but because they appear so frequently, and they’re really so simple that it’s hard to imagine how people make them. “Lightening” for “lightning.” People who should know better make this mistake all the time. Even some […]
Few punctuation marks seem as misunderstood as quotation marks. Few punctuation marks seem as misunderstood as quotation marks. I see so many misuses of quotation marks in fiction and non-fiction, technical reports, brochures, advertising and just about everywhere else. The rules for quotation marks are fairly simple. Perhaps schools are not teaching how to use […]
Eliminate those awful passive sentences! I’ve been finding more passive sentences in my reading lately. Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, scholarly articles or marketing bumph, this is an easy problem to fix. And it is a problem. Passive sentences are longer and less interesting than active sentences. Let’s take a first-grade example: Passive: The […]
Have you noticed the new functionality? Written Words has moved from the worthy Blogger platform to WordPress. Along with that, as you can see, it sports a new, cleaner look and new functionality. I like the white space, the categories for blog posts and the ability to search through the blog. I hope you do, […]
Entering a new kind of world I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Austin Job by David Mark Brown. As soon as I started it, I realized that I should have read its predecessor,Fistful of Reefer, which creates and introduces the new sub-sub-genre of science fiction, reefer punk. According to the author’s introduction to The Austin Job, […]