Write more better . . . a look at compar...

Bart Simpson: This is the worst day of my life. Homer Simpson: The worst day of your life so far. My first grader has worked hard this school year learning to write basic sentences.One area he struggles with is adjectives. He often writes “I have the bestest pet ever” or “Soccer is more harder than baseball.” As professional writers and editors, PR Daily readers aren’t making these kinds of mistakes. But the rules for comparative and superlative adjectives can be tricky. Not all adjectives have comparative forms (such as the word unique) and many adjectives have...

9 sources to help you find that perfect ...

I once worked with someone who used the word “secure” continually. He’d write: • “We need to secure donations.” • “Have you secured a printer for the newsletter yet?” • “I’m not feeling secure about our chances of securing this contract.” I often found myself correcting his writing and replacing “secure” with alternatives such as “obtain,” “get,” “acquire,” “find.” But he was set on the word “secure” and would often change it back. The importance of varying our words to keep our readers interested cannot be overstated, but...

10 more ways to make the writing process...

In a previous post, I shared 15 tips to make the writing process less grueling. On the list were: Write first, edit later; read your work aloud; and don’t bristle when another writer or editor corrects your work. At the end of the post, I asked PR Daily readers to share their writing tips. Here are some of those responses, along with a few more. The less hellish we can make our work, the better. 1. “Be ruthless in editing your own stuff. One writer who worked for me described my editing style as ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ and I took that as a compliment.” 2....

6 famous run-on sentences

Being a writer and editor can be exhausting. Not “I’ve just run the Boston marathon in two hours” exhausting, but “It’s 5 p.m. and I’ve lost the ability to form words” exhausting. Nothing wears me down quicker than run-on sentences. Lately, it seems every document I’m asked to edit is overrun with run-ons. Run-on sentences contain too many ideas and not enough punctuation. Not all long sentences are run-on sentences. It is perfectly acceptable to join several related ideas in one compound sentence, as long as the correct elements (commas, conjunctions,...

Finding content when it’s scarce

It happens more frequently than we’d like to admit: an unexpected content void. The article scheduled for the front page of your company’s website has fallen through, and you need another to fill the space right now. In my day job as an internal communicator for a regional health care system, I am responsible for developing content for two websites with very different audiences. In my “other” job, I write weekly for my own blog, Impertinent Remarks. So I know how tough it is to scramble when content is in short supply. If you find yourself asking, “What can I...

15 tips to make the writing process less...

Not everyone who writes for a living always enjoys writing. Writing can be a tedious and frustrating task . . . staring at a blank screen, knowing what you want to write but being unable to call up the proper words. Canadian author Ann-Marie MacDonald says “Writing is a hellish task, best snuck up on, whacked on the head, robbed, and left for dead.” What follows is some of the best advice I’ve received to make the writing process less hellish. When you’re stuck, don’t keep staring at the screen. Take a break and come back to it. Write first; edit later Don’t...