Great thinkers and writers often have pithy things to say about the writing process. Here are a few quotations to make your writing day go more smoothly. Don’t write merely to be understood. Write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood. – Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) The most valuable of all talents is that of […]
Quotations About Writing: “I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” Read More »
The Oxford or serial comma is the comma that separates the conjunction (such as or, and) from the last item on a list. Furious controversies have erupted over this small punctuation mark. Millions of worthy people maintain that the Oxford comma is a necessity in every list. Millions of other worthy people claim that it
The Oxford Comma Turns Out to Be Worth Real Money Read More »
What’s wrong with me? Both speakers and writers seem averse to correctly using this basic pronoun. Instead of using me when appropriate, they end up sounding hoity-toity by asking, “Could you bring a glass of Merlot for the lady and myself?” or “Let’s keep it just between you and I.” In both of those examples,
Quick: What is a noun? No matter where you went to elementary school, your brain probably leapt into action, screaming, “I know that! I know that! A noun is a person, place, or thing.” And that’s true. A noun is a person, place, thing, or concept. And what is a verb? Your brain triumphs again:
Eliminate Unnecessary Nouns Read More »
“Make every word tell.”Strunk and White, The Elements of Style In preparing for a recent writing training, I received 60 pages of sample documents. I found myself writing, “omit needless words” at least once on every page, as writers wrote sentences like “The company frequently from time to time receives discounts on its products.” and
Omit Needless Words: Limit Low-Information Phrases. Read More »
