What Presentation Errors Really Say
This brief video says it all: it doesn’t matter how eloquent or captivating the given presentation is — errors and typos will overpower the rest of the content as that’s all anyone will see. That...
Can’t Find the Right Word? Make Up Your Own!
Although your excuses for finding the right word are limited with the vast possibilities in the English language, sometimes not even a thesaurus has the right fit for that word that’s just what you’re...
Dodge Double Negatives
It’s not uncommon to see double negatives in writing. Now, wouldn’t that have read better if we said it’s common instead? All too often, people like to state things in their negative forms. But why?...
When Isolating Thoughts, Finish the Way You Start
When isolating thoughts with commas, dashes and semicolons, people tend to mix and match these marks of punctuation for some odd reason. As if they don’t want to leave any of them out of a particular...
How to Avoid Redundancy
Saying the same exact thing twice in the same sentence is a waste of everyone’s time. Being redundant is almost like being irrelevant. And if you really think about it, saying something more than once...
The Never-Ending Battle with Autocorrect
While it tends to act quite favourably when you’re typing at lightning speed on a mobile device, autocorrect is more of a troublemaker most of the time. Especially when it comes to texting or emailing...
If vs. Whether
We can always question whether we’re using the right conditional word, even if it’s grammatically correct. In many cases, if and whether can be used interchangeably. But there is a time and place where...
Watch Out for Run-On Sentences
This is by far the most common correction an editor will come across. It makes sense, especially with someone who isn’t necessarily a writer, per se. People get lost in their own train of thought, and...
How to Take Constructive (and Not-So-Constructive) Criticism
Relevant in all branches of the craft, criticism for writing is bound to find its way to you. Some take it better than others; some give it better than others. We have little control over how we get it,...
Semi Colon or Em Dash?
When it comes to separating thoughts and clauses, this tends to be quite a complex distinction to make. Especially when you involve colons and commas as well. Oh, the joys of the English language! For...
Like vs. Such As
This is a very common instance of confusion, although in most cases the two are interchangeable. Only a real stickler (or very dedicated editor) would single these out as errors. In any case, it helps...
An Editor’s Favourite Words to Cut (And Ones to Replace them with)
All-too-common words are usually found at the start of sentences. Often, these words are just filler and set you up to write run-on sentences. The thing is, these words aren’t always necessary to your...