How do you encourage needed criticism?
Their names don’t appear in the masthead. They work as volunteers. But without them, the magazine I produce would miss its potential.
They serve as my proofreaders, but they do much more than catch typos. They alert me to awkward phrases or unclear passages. They tell me when I overuse words. They ask tough questions.
Most of the time, I agree. … Continue reading
In your intro, dare to sound like yourself.
Are you looking for a way to turn off readers in your first paragraph? Try to impress them.
That’s what two amateur writers did in articles I reviewed this past week.
Rather than sound like themselves, they tried to sound like writers — or at least the way through thought writers sounded. Their introductions were long-winded and pompous, with … Continue reading
Certain words are easy to get wrong.
Some people spell words incorrectly or type the wrong word because they don’t know any better. That’s understandable. English spelling is hard.
I wish I had that excuse. The words I most often get wrong are ones I know how to spell — and know the difference between them, like pore and pour or stationery and stationary. Somehow, in … Continue reading