Monthly Archives: February 2015

“Fraternal Twins”

How many errors do you spot in these two sentences? 1. In his remarks at the all-staff meeting, our CEO inferred that a new vacation policy would go into effect in July 2015. 2. Based on my neighbor’s description of … Continue reading

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Making Sentence Parts Fit

Steel yourself. We’re going to revisit a fuzzy topic from English class: the “dangling modifier.” Oh, yeah. Now what was that all about? The principle – simpler than you might think – is merely that we need to correct any … Continue reading

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Alarm #2: It’s About Time

Last week’s post introduced the notion of setting an alarm on words and phrases that can lull us into making an error or failing to write concisely. To continue the theme, here are a few sentences that each need an … Continue reading

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Alarm #1: The Lonely “Only”

I often emphasize a particular metaphor in my writing workshops for employee groups: that if we’re at all accomplished in any area – whether it’s writing or rappelling or retrofitting – we surely have a highly developed “alarm system” that … Continue reading

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