The Guide to Clear and Concise Writing

The Guide to Clear and Concise Writing

As National Novel Writing Month ends, the beginning of the holiday season strikes. The time of the year has come where you embark on reading stories about obnoxious gingerbread men, elves that watch naughty children, talking turkeys, and an incessant use of the word ‘Tis.’

You find yourself watching terribly scripted made for TV holiday movies and ridiculous commercials that make you want to poke your eyeballs out. Now, imagine having to read this stuff year round.

It’s a safe bet you would never again read or watch TV, and the survival of your eyeballs would be debatable.

As you feast your eyes on your NaNoWriMo work, or set your sights on your next writing project, it’s important to focus on the importance of clear and concise writing. Let’s take a minute and review some important tips that will help you prepare a fresh and crisp piece of writing for your readers. Continue reading “The Guide to Clear and Concise Writing”

A Guide to Split Infinitives

A Guide to Split Infinitives

Whether you are writing a novel or a simple short story, the infancy stages of your piece will not be perfect. It is also a safe bet that one of the biggest grammatical headaches, the split infinitive, has been a thorn in your side. Don’t worry, you are not the only writer to enter split infinitive hell! Continue reading “A Guide to Split Infinitives”

How to Use Grammarly

Whether you’re a writer or editor, a little help with proofing is always welcome. Most word processing programs, like Microsoft Word and WordPerfect, come with basic proofreading capabilities. But what if you had access to smarter software? Would you use it? And what if you could use it for free? We’d like to introduce you to a smart software that’s been making our lives easier since 2010. It’s called Grammarly. Continue reading “How to Use Grammarly”

Properly Capitalized Titles

Properly Capitalized Titles

What’s up with properly capitalized titles? Think you know the rules?

As writers — and especially editors — we are tasked with knowing the “what’s what” of the English language. In our industry, we cannot afford to be the writer that constantly makes grammatical mistakes. Likewise, we cannot be the editor that makes improper changes.

Think you know what’s what with title case? Continue reading “Properly Capitalized Titles”