Have you ever been possessed by the glorious desire to commune with nature in a writing retreat outdoors? Of course you have. What could be more peaceful, more fulfilling, more conducive to the flow of ideas than an afternoon spent writing in the quiet of the woods? Uh, maybe an afternoon spent writing indoors in… Read more »
“Believe in yourself, and you can do anything,” we say. “She thought she could, so she did.” It’s good to dream?essential, really. Without dreams, we get stuck. Without dreams, we can’t move forward. But sometimes the opposite is true. As important as it is to dream, It’s equally important to realize when an unrealistic dream… Read more »
Ever quoted a blog? Ever wondered how to? Maybe it was a fleeting thought. Maybe it was an obsession that haunted you in your sleep that night (you know you’re an editor when?). Either way, rejoice: in this week’s Toolbox, we’ll look at how to approach blogs and blog posts in your writing, and when… Read more »
Last week we began our mini-series on parentheses and when, where, and how to use them. This week we’ll go a little deeper, focusing on the way they interact with other sentence elements?particularly where capitalization and punctuation are concerned. Capitalization The general rule is to avoid capitalization if the parenthetical is located midsentence, even if… Read more »
Stumped by parentheses and parentheticals? In this mini-series we’ll look at parentheses and when and how to use them in your writing. In fact, once you’ve got their capitalization, punctuation, and nesting rules down, you’ll find that they’re quite easy to use (easy to overuse too, but we’ll get to that later). Though parentheses are… Read more »
Unless You’re in the middle of a media fast, you’ve probably seen some discussion of the violence in the United States the past few weeks. Well, less like discussion and more like screaming at each other?there’s not a whole lot of listening going on, I’d say. Lots of talking though, and there’s one thing I… Read more »
Have you ever been possessed by the glorious desire to commune with nature in a writing retreat outdoors? Of course you have. What could be more peaceful, more fulfilling, more conducive to the flow of ideas than an afternoon spent writing in the quiet of the woods? Uh, maybe an afternoon spent writing indoors in… Read more »
A few months ago I got exciting news that I eagerly shared with one of my authors: “The AP is finally lowercasing Internet! Can I get rid of all those capital letters?” Her response was equally enthusiastic?heck yes! She thought the convention was stupid anyway. The AP’s decision was announced at the American Copy Editors… Read more »
As the academic year winds to a close, chances are You’re hammering away on final papers, anxious to make your point in a way That’s clear and concise. Pronoun shift hampers both those objectives, and It’s a sneaky error that may have crept into your academic writing without you noticing at all. Pronouns As a… Read more »
The comma splice?the mysterious writing error That’s easy to make but hard to recognize in your writing. Harder still? Deciding when It’s okay to break this rule. This week we’ll explain the error, discuss how to fix it, and cover some instances where comma splices can be quite effective. Just don’t tell your eighth-grade English… Read more »