Categories for Writing

3 Ways to Create an Effective Writing Outline

Whether you’re creating a monthly report, a term paper, a website or a short story, a writing outline is usually a good starting point. A proper outline helps you organize your thoughts and ideas and presents them in logical form.

This simplifies the writing process, because everything is laid out in front of you. In a way, you can “empty your mind” onto the screen or paper, and the likelihood of leaving out any pertinent information or plot twists is minimal.

Read the full article…

A Simple Guide for Metaphors and Similes

If you’re like a lot of writers, students, business people or others who use words to make a point or tell a story, you’ve been confused about metaphors and similes at one time or another. That’s not to say you haven’t used them successfully. All writers use them to help paint pictures in the readers’ minds, so the writing is richer and more complete.

These two literary tools are similar but different at the same time. Every simile is a metaphor, yet not every metaphor is a simile, but they are both used to make comparisons. Here are some basic definitions to help you out.

Read the full article…

Flare vs. Flair…and Why It’s So Tricky to Tell Them Apart

For this month’s edition of our “vs.” post, the words “flare” and “flair” came to mind.

Flare and flair are a couple of homophones that differ in spelling and in meaning, yet figuring out which one to use in the proper situation is often more of a guess than anything else. Here is some information on the two words that should help point you in the right direction.

Read the full article…

Lead vs. Lead vs. Led….I’m Seeing This One Way Too Often Lately!

If you’ve been following the Re:word blog posts each month you know that we try to include at least one “vs.” themed post (if you haven’t, go back and read them because they’re pretty enlightening).

This month, we’re going to toss three words into the ring. I’ve been seeing a lot of confusion with these ones lately, so this must be a good time to straighten it out. Keep reading to get a handle on lead, lead and led.

Read the full article…

Tips for Making Your Writing “Engaging”

Whether you are a professional writer, a student or a small business owner who prefers to tackle your own blogging and web content, you’ve probably read about the importance of making your writing “engaging” to your intended audience. Here are some tips to help you out:

What It Means

Read the full article…

What the Heck Is a Heteronym?

If you’re like most people, you’ve heard of synonyms, antonyms and homonyms. They’re part of the basic English curriculum in every school, after all. However, you may have breezed through every grade, learning more about grammar rules with each successive year and never heard of a heteronym.

What Is a Heteronym?

Read the full article…

When to Put an Apostrophe Before the ‘s’ and When to Put It After

Apostrophes play a big role in writing the English language. Not so much in an “understanding the meaning” kind of way, but more of a “proper punctuation” kind of way. If you forget the apostrophe when you write contractions like you’re, don’t or isn’t, most people will still know what you mean. Your punctuation will just be incorrect, which reflects on the overall quality of whatever you are writing.

The apostrophe ‘s’ rule is one that is easy to get wrong, even when you know where it should go and when. Here is a basic explanation with some examples to help you along.

Read the full article…

Your vs. You’re…One Trick to Guarantee You Never Get It Wrong Again!

Occasionally mixing up the odd words that happen to sound similar is understandable. If you do a lot of writing, it may even be expected. However, this your and you’re confusion has reached epidemic proportions and it must be stopped.

They do sound almost the same when spoken, but their meanings are not the same at all, so when they are used incorrectly in writing the meaning of the sentence is thrown way out of whack. Luckily, there’s an easy way to fix it that you can use every time you encounter this issue.

Read the full article…

Why Accurate Fact Checking Is So Critically Important to Your Writing

It’s easy to think of “fact checking” as an activity reserved for term papers, essays and other writing that require historical accuracy. However, the need for correct factual information in writing extends far beyond the classroom.

No matter what type of writing you do, if you make claims, include statistics or relay stories, it is imperative that your facts are correct. And not the “your life may be in danger” kind of imperative, but imperative to your reputation as a writer.

Read the full article…

For All Intensive Purposes…and Other Commonly Misused Phrases

Sometimes, to make your ideas flow from one to the next or to hammer home a point, you use a common phrase to get the job done. We all do it from time to time, but there is a problem. It seems that many of us heard these phrases incorrectly and then adopted the incorrect version as law, then spread them around society, continuing to this very day.

Speaking these phrases incorrectly is one thing, because they often sound similar to the correct way, but if you write them they will be there for everyone to see forever!

Read the full article…

3 Ways to Create an Effective Writing Outline

Categories for Writing

3 Ways to Create an Effective Writing Outline

A Simple Guide for Metaphors and Similes

Flare vs. Flair…and Why It’s So Tricky to Tell Them Apart

Lead vs. Lead vs. Led….I’m Seeing This One Way Too Often Lately!

Tips for Making Your Writing “Engaging”

What the Heck Is a Heteronym?

When to Put an Apostrophe Before the ‘s’ and When to Put It After

Your vs. You’re…One Trick to Guarantee You Never Get It Wrong Again!

Why Accurate Fact Checking Is So Critically Important to Your Writing

For All Intensive Purposes…and Other Commonly Misused Phrases

How Can We Help You?

And it's off!