10 writing pet peeves

They’re like nails on a chalkboard, the sound traveling up and down your spine. They burn, they hurt, they annoy. I’m talking about writing pet peeves—those grammar mistakes, usage gaffes, spelling errors, and style slips that you immediately change, no matter whose work you’re editing. We all have writing pet peeves, though what annoys us varies. Here are a few of mine: • The use of over with a quantity—over $65 million or over 10 percent. I change over to more than—more than $65 million or more than 10 percent. • I hate periods in a phone number—512....

41 redundancies you should ditch

As corporate communicators and PR professionals, we’ve all experienced writer’s block. But how about editor’s block? I‘ve always believed that editing someone else’s work is easier than writing your own. Lately, though, I’ve been asked to “work my magic” on so many bad writing projects—blog posts, emails, articles—that I am not so sure anymore. Sometimes I just stare at the screen wondering, “What can I possibly do with this?” Because I am not paid to stare at the screen, I have to start somewhere. A good place to start is to cut the clutter and...

Avoid mangling your metaphors

I’ve previously written about figures of speech and rhetorical devices. When used correctly, these phrases help us paint word pictures, adding depth to our messages. When used incorrectly, the results can be confusing and unintentionally humorous. “I conclude that the city’s proposal to skim the frosting, pocket the cake, and avoid paying the fair, reasonable, and affordable value of the meal is a hound that will not hunt.” (a quote from a Boston Globe article, May 8, 2010) Here’s a closer look at two figures of speech that end up mangled quite frequently...

10 tricks of the Web writing and marketi...

Traditionally, marketing sells by sending information to people. Marketers produce brochures, send direct mail or email, or place advertising. This is known as “push.” The marketer starts the conversation. On the Web, most contacts are “pull.” People come to your site to find information; the visitor starts the conversation. And you must converse—you must satisfy their information need before you can market to them. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you craft your marketing content. Marketers often think in terms of how to draw people in. On the Web, the...

You’ve never heard of the interrob...

It’s the Wild West out there—in the world of style and usage, that is: nouns becoming verbs; literally now meaning not literally; and now, made-up punctuation marks. I am referring to the interrobang, which I had never heard of until a friend recently told me about it. A “new social media icon” according to The Guardian, the interrobang is a non-standard punctuation mark—?! or !?—used at the end of a sentence that asks a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or asks a rhetorical question. For...

14 words about words

As a word groupie, I love to collect new words. Lately I’ve been interested in learning about rhetorical devices and the words used to describe them. Here are 14 examples that will make you say, “There’s a word for that?” 1. Ambigram—a word that can be turned upside down and still be read as the same word. Example: MOW or NOON   2. Antimetabole—a word or a phrase that is repeated in the opposite order in the next clause or phrase. Example: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”   3. Collocation—a familiar grouping of words, especially words...