Look smarter to your clients, prospects, or boss with alerts
Will you look smarter to your clients, prospects, or boss if you stay current on news stories about them? Of course. Free Google Alerts The free Google Alerts service provides email updates of the latest Google results (web, news, etc.) for your topic. You can get information from Google on how to sign up. It’s […]
No apostrophes in plurals!
Please stop using apostrophes to turn singular nouns into plurals. It’s wrong, but sadly common. The plural of “client” is not “client’s,” it’s “clients.” “Client’s” is the possessive form of “client,” so it refers to something that belongs to a single client. Why people are confused about apostrophes in plurals I’m guessing that the confusion […]
MISTAKE MONDAY for June 28: Can YOU spot what’s wrong?
Can you spot what’s wrong in the image below? Please post your answer as a comment. I post these challenges to raise awareness of the importance of proofreading.
Keep it short with the Fog Index!
Warren Miller, CPA, CFA, one of my longtime newsletter readers, urged me to remind you to write more concisely. As Warren wrote, “most of us overeducated people write sentences that have too many words, too many of which have too many syllables.” I admit that I’m sometimes guilty of this. And, I see lots of […]
Use movement and description in your writing: A tip from Francis Flaherty
Good nonfiction needs both movement and description, says Francis Flaherty, author of The Elements of Story. One technique he suggests for incorporating both is writing what he calls “right-branching sentences.” These are sentences that, as he writes, “offer up a big dose of action in the beginning so that the writer can branch out into […]