Editing & Proofreading
WHY COPYWRITERS AND JOURNALISTS JUST CAN’T GET ALONG
Versatile writers are hard to find. For a long time I was surprised when I’d get great journalism samples from a writer, but the minute I put them on a copywriting project, it was a total flop – and vice versa. But I’ve finally discovered the disconnect: the real reason that some writers have such […]
A QUICK GUIDE TO PUNCTUATION
Punctuation may seem like a small thing: After all, what’s so bad about one, teeny-tiny misplaced comma or the occasional wayward apostrophe? Nobody pays attention to that stuff, right? Wrong. Bad punctuation – whether it’s in your web copy, your newsletter, or even in an email to a prospective client – is a credibility killer, […]
MOST STUPIDEST GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES
Hopefully you’ve already met the New Year refreshed and invigorated – and you’re still on top of those resolutions. I suggest adding another resolution to the list: No more absolutely embarrassing, lowest of the low, flat-out dumb grammatical mistakes. Grammar certainly isn’t for everyone (non-essential relative clauses? Gross.). But some rules – especially the most […]
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 […]
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 […]
REDUNDANT AND REPETITIVE
There is a lot to be said of brevity. Shakespeare wrote somewhat ironically through the mouthpiece of the long-winded Polonius in Hamlet that “brevity is the soul of wit.” And William Strunk reminds us in Elements of Style that “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason […]
SILENCING THE “EDITOR WITHIN”
One of the most difficult parts of writing – even if you write all day, every day – is learning to ignore your internal editor when you’re working on a first draft. Even now, as I start writing, I can hear the nagging voice of doubt that makes it difficult to put words on paper. […]
IN OTHER WORDS . . .
When you work with words every day, it’s not always easy to keep your vocabulary fresh. I’m a word junkie. I’d like to think that I’m a formidable Scrabble opponent. I even have one of those dorky word-a-day calendars on my desk. But, like any other writer, I occasionally slip into a word choice wasteland […]
“IRREGARDLESS” IS NOT A WORD
Sometimes when trying to achieve a fun, casual tone in writing, especially important in many marketing and sales projects, it’s usually best to write the same way we talk, right? Wrong. Our speech is riddled with poor grammar and misused words because we don’t have the advantage of editing our words as we speak (but […]
BEAT THE BLOCK
In the world of writing, writer’s block is an inevitable beast even the most valiant of writers must take on. After all, writing full time is not for the faint of heart. Luckily, there are a few tricks of the trade to keep the brain functioning and the creativity flowing even when the ugly beast […]
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