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Category Archives: Flair & Finesse
Tips Library
On the right you have access to close to 150 brief posts from my blogging phase. They reflect my desire to clear up many of the common misunderstandings and commonly missed opportunities I see in workplace writing—without making you feel … Continue reading
Grab Your Red Pen
Okay try and read my mind. Why did the following headline aggravate me? Fathers’ Day is Fast Approaching. Now decide how many changes you would make to improve all three sentences above. My edits 1. We need a comma after the … Continue reading
Proceed with Caution
In these sentences, decide if one word is correct or both. 1. I felt (bad/badly) about giving Felix so little time to rehearse his role in our skit. 2. I was worried about Felix’s performance, but he did (good/well). The … Continue reading
Award-Winning Words II
Time to see if you can read my mind again. Come up with a word to replace the underlined section in #1 and another word for the underlined section in #2. (Hint: The words are the same except for the … Continue reading
Award-Winning Word
See if you can read my mind to come up with a basic yet invaluable word that improves both of the following. 1. (Not initially clear.) Since Kim’s family bought a summer home on the lake, we ought to see … Continue reading
Four-Letter Words
What minor repairs would you make in these sentences? 1. Smith might break out of his slump by reverting back to his old batting stance. 2. Did you know that Wilson was drafted right out of high school? 3. Johnson … Continue reading
Posted in Brevity, Commonly Confused Words, Flair & Finesse
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Yada, Yada
Although these posts are mainly geared to writing in the workplace, let’s look at common speech for three symptoms of failures to communicate concisely: 1. Blah, blah, blah. When we are telling a story or explaining something and we insert … Continue reading
Posted in Brevity, Flair & Finesse
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The Semicolon’s Dual Identity
Having covered the colon the past two weeks, we can now progress to its poorly understood cousin*: the semicolon. And continuing a familial theme, does it seem that if a period and comma had a kid, it would look like … Continue reading
Keys to Success
Our computer keyboard isn’t the same as that of an old typewriter, but one constant is the seldom-used colon/semicolon key. Do you use it with confidence? Do you use it at all? Because Rodney Dangerfield probably would have said the … Continue reading
Fine Points
See if you can make a slight refinement in each of these sentences from the Bridge Bulletin, the monthly magazine enjoyed by members of the American Contract Bridge League. 1. Masterpoints, as they are presently constituted are meaningless. 2. Watch … Continue reading