Put that jargon to good use . . .

Looking for a way to make all those meetings less mind numbing? Turn them into a creative, brain-building exercise with a game I call Word Quest. The only thing you need to play is an accomplice. For Word Quest, you and your accomplice pick one clichéd, meaningless business term—such as managing expectations—and see who can be the first to use that term in a meeting. That person earns the most points. Bonus points are given if you get someone else (not your accomplice) to say the term in the meeting. Of course, you can give extra points for style when someone...

17 haikus about writing and editing

As a professional writer, I am always looking for ways to keep my writing fresh. Over the past several months, I’ve experimented with constrained writing. And it’s just what it sounds like—imposing specific conditions on writing, such as disallowing certain types of words or writing to a specific pattern. (In college, for instance, we once had to write a paragraph without any prepositions.) Writing to a pattern means I can’t simply use the first words that I type on the screen. I have to stretch to find words that fit the pattern; they’re writing exercises...

Another reprieve

Taking the week off from blogging while I attend the IABC Southern Region Conference in New Orleans.  Looking forward to networking with my fellow communicators.

To capitalize or not to capitalize: 7 ea...

If I don’t know the answer to a spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, or style question, I know where to look it up—or so I thought. The question that stumped me this week came when I was writing a medical case study. In the case, a patient complained of a “charley horse.” My question: Do you capitalize the “c” in “charley horse”? After searching through several stylebooks for rules about capitalization, I was unable to find a clear answer. I asked a colleague, and her response was, “What difference does it make if it’s capitalized or not?” I...

What’s the term for a group of wri...

My friends and co-workers often harass me for what they call my use of “trivial” words. By “trivial,” they mean words that no one else uses except me. I like to remind them that I once received a free lunch because of my “trivial” knowledge of words. I was sitting in a sandwich shop waiting for my order. A white board by the cash register said: “This week’s word puzzler. Tell us the term for a group of kittens and your lunch is on the house.” I recalled my time in library school—before anyone had ever heard of Google—when we were charged with...