I started the tradition of sending a holiday letter in 1997 or maybe before, but I have no proof. Originally, I sent cards and write a short note. Since I enjoyed reading letters from others, I thought I’d do the same and the annual letter began. Took the lazy way out this year and didn’t … Read more
Reading about business schools take aim at bad writing didn’t surprise me. When I was a MBA graduate student for one semester, we had to pass a writing and presentation section. The university conducted seminars followed by students giving presentations and writing a paper. Students who didn’t pass received tutoring and presented again. Those who … Read more
While earning my degree in education, I learned about the Fog Index, Flesch-Kincade, and other ways to measure comprehensibility. This helped us understand how to measure content to determine its reading level. Along the same lines, Denny Hatch introduces colleague Bob Scott. Scott uses Robert Gunning’s Fog formula to make writing clearer and more comprehensible. … Read more
If you get an email with the above in the Subject without looking to see who sent it — what do you think? Considering I was swamped during that time, I jumped out of my seat. I always make an effort to beat my deadlines and probably because of all the things going on at … Read more
I love editing… other people’s work. You know how many of us don’t like to look at pictures with ourselves in them? That’s how I feel about editing my work. After all the research and rewriting of sentences, I can’t see my writing with fresh eyes anymore. Occasionally, I’ll read an article I wrote months … Read more
Who doesn’t like to be quoted in an article? Not many folks, but when you’re talking to big companies or consulting firms — they have gates and policies that make it tough to get a quote and fast. I discovered that not many consulting firms will provide a quote on recent news because they haven’t … Read more
Analyzing Eggcorns and Snowclones, and Challenging Strunk and White looks at Language Log, a blog covering linguistic boo boos. My kind of place. The article talks of eggcorns, “a type of slip of the ear in which people mishear a word and mispronounce it, then insist that the malapropism is correct.” Maybe I’m obtuse, but … Read more
Blogged about Rhetorical Figures earlier this week and got my assignment back with input from the instructor. So I can share my examples without feeling embarrassed as he confirmed I’m not too bad at it 🙂 Anaphora: I used to be one of those women who wanted to climb the ladder. I used to be … Read more
Don’t remember studying anthimeria in school. Its origin is Greek meaning “one part for another.” “Google” is a popular anthimeria for searching. People say, “Google that.” Of course, using a company name as a generic name or verb is dangerous for the company. Here’s a good read on the topic. Better to verb nouns with … Read more
Author Dan Poynter has written over 100 books. Think he knows something about publishing? Not only has he written three digits worth of books, but he also has a publishing company that publishes and distributes many quality articles, resources, and books about publishing. Writing Nonfiction is an easy, educational, fast, and enjoyable read. Poynter goes … Read more