The Write Blog
WHAT IS WEB 2.0?
I’m not afraid to admit that I’ve been a little behind the curve when it comes to the whole dotcom thing. I wasn’t the first on the facebook bandwagon, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around the concept of digg and others like it. But with the emergence of more and more blogs, […]
SUCCESSFUL PROFESSIONAL BLOGS
Many businesses are turning to blogs to provide fresh content for regular readers, enhance their web visibility, and to ultimately drive business back to their website. All successful blogs have a few things in common, so keep these tips in mind when developing your business’ blog: 1. Make it Interesting Gain a loyal readership by […]
BETWEEN ‘THAT’ AND ‘WHICH’
Having to choose between that and which is one of those tricky little grammar rules that used to trip me up constantly as I wrote. To spare you the same aggravation, I’m sharing the words’ definitive usage guidelines: 1. That That is used solely in restrictive clauses, meaning it introduces specific, essential information in a sentence. […]
GOOD DISCUSSION MAKES GOOD WRITING
I can remember back to a creative writing class I took in college. It was the first round-table discussion writing class I ever took, and had I known ahead of time that each one of my classmates would read and critique my work each time an assignment was due, I probably would have never signed […]
INSPIRATION FROM ANYWHERE
As I missed my international flight home to Houston from Trinidad today, I was suddenly struck with an inspiration. Writers can find their muse anywhere at any time. Now, you may be wondering why being stuck at a foreign airport alone with absolutely no money and no lay of the land could inspire this thought […]
STICKING TO THE RULES
The thing about the English language is that when it can, it defies most of the rules. The “rules” are so loose that they’re more like guidelines or suggestions – and a lot of people out there want to give you their interpretation of the language. There’s the Associated Press Stylebook, New York Times Manual […]
MAKE YOUR OWN KIND OF MUSIC
This week we have some advice passed on to me from best-selling author Karleen Koen. Your assignment: Write something, anything, every morning. No need for prompts like those we gave you in a recent post. No, this exercise is completely freestyle. Keep Your Mind and Fingers Nimble Every Day As a writer, even if you […]
SHAVE THE FLUFF OFF YOUR COPY
Lots of copywriters love fluff. They gravitate toward it instinctively because it sounds good. Check out this sentence: “At Acme Pet Supplies, we offer superior customer service to match our outstanding products.” You might be thinking, “Oooh – that sounds so good! Everyone wants to see that a company has ‘superior customer service.’ Anyone who […]
GOOD WRITER TACTICS
Being a writer is NOT easy. You know that. Whether you are a freelancer or a Pulitzer-prize winning novelist, an immense amount of work goes into each word you put on paper. And even the most renowned writers have to work at it. Sure, every writer has his own personal tricks to keep the content […]
PACK MORE PUNCH INTO YOUR PROOFREADING
I find that most writers approach proofreading as a dreaded afterthought. Once they finish the actual writing, the idea of poring over their copy one last time to discover tiny errors seems…loathsome. Trust me, proofreading is infinitely important. Nothing looks sloppier than using “your” when you should have used “you’re.” Or misspelling the name of […]