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Category Archives: Brevity
Oldies but Goodies
As we round out 2015, my next posts will give you another crack at improving a few sentences selected from the past year. Good luck with your review test. 1. If your going to consume a record amount of hors … Continue reading
Errors That Make Readers Grumpy
What are some common errors in writing or speaking that irk you? Some folks can’t stand “irregardless.” Others grind their teeth when “I” or “myself” is incorrectly substituted for “me.” And “very unique” has its legion of groaners. Other language … Continue reading
Whiskers II
Two weeks ago (http://www.normfriedman.com/blog/the-whisker-metaphor/), I introduced a cat’s whiskers as another metaphor for the warning system each of us should continually be expanding to refine our writing. This time, instead of focusing on correctness, let’s concentrate on conciseness. As you … Continue reading
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The Whisker Metaphor
No, I’m not above pandering, so this week – in addition to targeting folks who care about perfecting their writing – I’m going after the Internet’s cat-crazy crowd. The word that pertains to both groups? “Whiskers.” In my workshops I … Continue reading
Paper Cuts II
As noted last week, observing what newspaper and magazine writers are doing to inform and entertain us can be quite instructive … while catching their occasional errors can bolster our confidence. I know I felt pretty smug when I read … Continue reading
Posted in Brevity, Commonly Confused Words, Flair & Finesse
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Paper Cuts
The daily paper serves as a living textbook on writing, but we all know that even the pros slip up once in a while. Here are a few gotchas from the past week. The sports page These two sentences appeared … Continue reading
Posted in Brevity, Common Grammar Errors, Flair & Finesse
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Anniversary Month
Yep. If you are one of my original subscribers, you have now been receiving posts for a full year. And if you joined the party late, entries you missed are waiting for you in “Archives.” So let’s mark the one-year … Continue reading
Editing Steps II
As promised, here are six more steps to polishing your message – whether it’s a relatively brief email or a hefty report. Invest in strong verbs. Dynamic verbs give writing more zest, but they don’t always show up in the first … Continue reading
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Reach for That Red Pen
You don’t have to agree with me, but I think some aspects of editing are fun. There, I said it. When editing doesn’t require the unwieldy task of reorganizing, and mainly entails catching a typo here and a missing apostrophe … Continue reading
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An Embarrassment of Glitches III
Here’s another example of how much good we can do ourselves by putting aside a rough draft and returning to it later with renewed energy and refreshed lenses. The brief paragraph, from an online newsletter, describes employees who merit supervisory … Continue reading