Stop the madness! Rules for using the ex...

A recent study reported on PR Daily found that “43 percent of online daters consider bad grammar a ‘major’ turnoff.” So I think it’s safe to say that bad grammar can affect relationships. And so can punctuation. Does anyone remember the “Seinfeld” episode in which Elaine breaks up with her boyfriend over his failure to use an exclamation point? In case you missed it, Elaine’s boyfriend had written down some phone messages, one of which said that her friend had baby. Elaine found it “curious” that he didn’t think someone having a baby warranted an...

8 creative alarm clocks to rouse you ear...

A recent post on PR Daily offered some great insight into everything you can gain by waking up earlier. You automatically give yourself more time for just about anything — breakfast, reading, exercising, an easier commute. I used to be an early riser—rise at 4 a.m., get to work by 5 a.m. — and experienced all of these benefits. But today I could no more get up that early than I could stop using the serial comma. Getting out of bed to go to work is excruciating. I’ve tried going to bed earlier. I’ve tried not reading before I go to sleep. I’ve tried drinking...

27 expendable phrases to slash from your...

Wordiness is everywhere—in emails, ad copy, press releases, and websites. Even as more people skim and scan than actually read our content, we have clients and bosses who think the more words the better. But readers are busy. Unnecessary words slow them down. Every word should matter. Some words and phrases do no work; they’re slackers. Deleting them doesn’t hurt your meaning; it often improves the readability of your content. Consider this sentence: I am bewildered by your inconsistent use of the serial comma. Tacking on any of the expendable phrases below would...

“Grimm” lessons for corporat...

Recently, my favorite author Philip Pullman published a new version of “Grimm’s Fairy Tales.” Pullman is best known for his fantasy trilogy “His Dark Materials,” but his work includes other genres, such as historic fiction and parodies. I read his work voraciously and always take away something inspiring when I read interviews with him. In his recent book, “Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm,” I was struck by his description of how fairy tales are different from modern fiction and how these differences make the stories work. Pullman writes: “There is no...

Parentheses don’t belong in your c...

Recently, I tried to explain to my 9-year-old son about the use of parentheses. Here’s how the conversation went: He: Mom, how do you know when you’re supposed to use parentheses? I: You use them around words that seem a bit out of place in the sentence. If you’re trying to explain something or make something more clear, or provide extra information, you put that in parentheses. He: Then the reader doesn’t really need to read what’s in parentheses? I: Not all the time. He: Then why put that information in there at all? Now, my son is not at all fond of writing....