As Mark Twain said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” In the hum of daily speech, people may misunderstand a phrase without realizing that they have misunderstood it. Then they prance merrily through life, saying and writing things like “in the […]
More Tortured Idioms: The 800-Pound Gorilla in the Room Read More »
Avoid annoying your readers by eliminating these problem phrases.
Never Say This! Phrases to Avoid in Business Writing Read More »
How do emotionally intelligent draw their readers in and keep them engaged, even with challenging subject matter? Here are four habits of these successful writers.
4 Habits of Emotionally Intelligent Writers Read More »
An idiom is a phrase that fluent speakers generally understand and that would not make sense if you looked at its component parts. For example, what does it mean to say, “It’s raining cats and dogs”? We’re not feeling fur fall from the sky, but we know what the phrase means. Most of us use idioms all
Sets of words that sound similar often confuse writers. My book, Get to the Point, 2nd edition, contains an extensive (or was it intensive?) list of these words. Several Writamins subscribers have requested that we review a few classics. Affect versus Effect AFFECT (verb or noun) in its verbal usage means to act on; to
7 Commonly Misused Word Pairs Read More »
