Things writers do to drive me crazy, part 3 I’ve advised against using the passive voice before. Sure, there are places where it’s warranted. (See what I did, there?) But those are rare. To clarify what passive voice means, let’s contrast it against the active voice: Active: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy […]
“The skunk in the back yard last night stunk, didn’t it?” “No, it stank.” Or is stunk right? What about this one: “The ship sunk during the storm last night”? Is that correct? English. It can be beautiful, powerful, inspiring. It can also be maddeningly confusing and inconsistent. There are so many inconsistencies to trip […]
Writing is less about putting words on a page or screen than it is about putting thoughts in order. Our job as writers, as professional communicators, is to clarify the world and ideas for our audience. That means illuminating—showing something that was hidden before—and simplifying—sorting out ideas, phenomena and events that are tangled and difficult […]
“A camel is a horse designed by a committee.” That’s been attributed to more than one person, and it’s an excellent way to describe written documents that get approved by authorities who are more concerned about things other than the content of the documents themselves. In other words, documents produced by corporations and governments. Recently, […]
Commas are probably the most abused punctuation mark in English today, and probably the most overused, too. Here are a few tips to make them easier to use correctly. Commas separate parts of a sentence: Don’t leave out commas from your writing. They represent the pauses in speech, and give readers a chance to take […]