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 […]
Of all the tools and techniques for writers that I have written or spoken about, the outline gets the most resistance. Students, bloggers, aspiring writers and tweetmates argue “I like to write by the seat of my pants” or “I can’t use an outline.” But I have yet to find a professional writer, one who […]
While this is part 4 of this series of posts, this is the fourth step in pre-writing—the stages you have to follow before you start writing even the first draft of your brilliant document. If you recall, I call the process “getting a GRIP.” G – goal or purpose—what you hope to achieve with your writing […]
What is the one thing you have to say? The third step you have to take before your write anything is to decide on the main idea of your document. No matter how long or short it is, you have to be able to sum up the point in one clear, complete sentence. When U2 […]