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Author Archives: Norm Friedman
Major League Mistakes
With the Cleveland Indians playing in the 2016 World Series, a local theater showed the cult classic, Major League. Do you spot any errors in this sentence from an announcement of the special showings? Lead by veteran player, Jake Taylor … Continue reading
Sports News
Even the most casual sports fan knows that tonight the two teams with the longest championship droughts in baseball will be facing off in the opening game of the 2016 World Series. But did you know we are making a … Continue reading
Shades of Gray
Sometimes we tax our gray matter over word choices that seem … well, gray. (Or is it “grey”?) Let’s look at a few. Orient vs. orientate Neither is wrong, but “orientate” is more British. Here in the U.S. we can … Continue reading
Posted in Commonly Confused Words
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Words Matter
Ironically, although an HR firm’s online article was titled “Words Matter,” it contained this sentence in need of editing. How would you improve it? As the economy has improved there are less active candidates in the marketplace. The two errors … Continue reading
Bridget Jones’s Baby
Is the punctuation in the title of the current movie correct? Yep. Would Jones’ also be correct? Yep. Sounds complicated, so let’s approach this in baby steps. We’ll start with a name not ending in “s” or “z,” such as … Continue reading
Handling “Both”
Last night, one of the network newscasters called the presidential race “nail-bitingly close for both candidates.” Hmm. So if the race is close for one of them, doesn’t it stand to reason that the race is about the same for … Continue reading
Posted in Brevity, Common Grammar Errors, Flair & Finesse
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“A” for “Alert”
This week’s 60-second tip covers two occasions when the word “a” should signal an alert: 1. Watch out for abbreviations after the word “a.” I just read an article, for example, that referred to a NFL record. Yes “N” is … Continue reading
60-Second Tip
Last week, in the newly shortened format for year 3 of my blog, we simply struck the needless “who is” in the first sentence of a movie synopsis. Now what would you do to refine the article’s second sentence (which … Continue reading
60-Second Tip
New & improved? As the blog enters year 3, I am markedly shortening my weekly writing tips, but you can always browse http://www.normfriedman.com/blog/ in search of meatier entries. Each of my first 102 posts is about a three- or four-minute … Continue reading
Posted in Brevity, Flair & Finesse
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Summer Reading V
Do you have a perfect score for August? If so, the pressure’s on to close out the month with one more A+. Make your choices. 1. In lieu of/In light of the growing friction between Andrew and Becky, we are … Continue reading