Frankie is tall, smart and handsome and has a great temperament. I love his company, but I can’t go out on a date with him. I’m not that picky, but he’s got four legs and a tail. Frankie is one of the horses at the Hooved Animal Rescue and Protection Society (HARPS), where I spend […]
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Five rules for navigating perplexing possessives Puzzles, math and logic problems supposedly stave off Alzheimer’s. I must be toast since I’m bad at all three. Perhaps there’s hope for me yet since I almost always have to go on a mind-bender to figure out how to handle tricky possessives. Many writers are confused by the […]
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If wishes were horses: A lesson in hypotheticals It’s Monday, again. Welcome to another week of earning a living. Hopefully, you’re in a good mood today. Me? I’m waxing subjunctive. It’s your lucky day that I’m willing to share. Of course, if I were rich and famous, I wouldn’t be writing this blog every week. […]
Eyeball-grabbing headlines rake in readers
Root canals, dressage competitions and peeling paint excite me about as much as this headline: “New Search Tool at Our Company.” Not very compelling, is it? Would you read the story if the headline were rewritten as, “Limitless Search Tool Transforms Top Managers’ Training?” It’s certainly catchier than the first headline. And it gets bonus […]
Less can be more when it comes to writing
Songwriters scribble bits of lyrics or notes on paper and file the scraps away in the hopes they’ll be able to craft a complete song some day. Novelists complete the first chapter of their newest books and run dry. Journalists experience writer’s block and can’t get past their first paragraphs. Were they all failures because […]
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Tricky verbs test our team Thanks to Jada, I actually had to look up the verb, shone, for the correct usage. Is this sentence correct? We shone some light on the right choice for businesses’ power needs with this e-card for Chloride. Hint: It’s not. Instead of shone, it should be shined. Shone means to emit light. The […]
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Are all split infinitives evil? A radio disc jockey and musician turned writing tutor wrote in her blog earlier this year that “knuckle-rapping rule mongers” who advise you to avoid split infinitives are misguided. This is just an “average-level rule” that grammarians obsess about needlessly, she added. You can read the rest of her missive […]