Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers
Does your writing have that bloated, overstuffed feeling? Do you have the habit of packing in more words than needed for clear communication? Are your readers easily fatigued by your writing? Do you send out your documents without first subjecting them to rigorous and strenuous editing? Do you run out of breath when reading aloud?
If you answered “Yes” to any…
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Added by David Bowman on October 12, 2012 at 12:16am —
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I love dogs, and I love a good mystery. So when I came across the Chet and Bernie mystery series, I was ecstatic. The books are narrated from the perspective of Chet, the dog. I really enjoyed this as too many times in books and movies, animals are overly anthropomorphized.
I cuddled up at night with books one and two, Dog on It and Thereby Hangs a…
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Added by David Bowman on April 11, 2012 at 12:57am —
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You have two adjectives together. Do you or don’t you put a comma between them? If they are coordinate adjectives, you do. This follows Zen Comma Rule P.
Comma Rule P: Put a Comma between Coordinate Adjectives.
Definition of Coordinate Adjectives. Adjectives are…
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Added by David Bowman on February 28, 2012 at 1:57am —
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Concise writing is clear writing. By definition, concise writing communicates in as few words as necessary. Everything in a sentence other than the subject, verb, and object is description. Descriptions cause most of the “fluff” in sentences, but, fortunately, some simple strategies will help you write concise descriptions.
Simplifying…
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Added by David Bowman on February 1, 2012 at 9:02pm —
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What are nominalizations?
Nominalizations are the noun forms of action verbs, as seen here:
Sample action verbs - Corresponding nouns
illustrate – illustration
fail – failure
react – reaction
announce – announcement
increase (v.) – increase (n.)
Why are they bad, and how do I fix them?
Nominalizations have…
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Added by David Bowman on January 18, 2012 at 11:18pm —
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When I was in college, I worked behind the front desk of a major hotel. Directly across the lobby was the hotel bar, a small, dark lounge with the bar counter on the opposite side and a stage at one end. George Thorogood, when he stayed at the hotel, would sit at the far end of the counter, next to the stage.
Connie, the bartender, once told me that her job was to…
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Added by David Bowman on October 5, 2011 at 8:58pm —
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The basic principal for writing about complex subjects is to do the work necessary so that the reader can understand you easily. Of course, your first task is to make sure you understand your own ideas. As Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” With this in mind, here are three strategies to help you write clearly about complex…
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Added by David Bowman on September 29, 2011 at 2:35am —
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Before I write anything else, let me state that I like Lynn Truss’s book Eats, Shoots and Leaves. It is funny, and it has a few good pointers on…
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Added by David Bowman on September 14, 2011 at 11:43pm —
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Since my first article on publishing an e-book to Amazon’s Kindle, some things have changed with the Amazon DTP (Digital Text Platform). Instead of uploading a zip file with an HTML document and other digital files to be included, there is now the option to upload a Word document. This was good news to me because I had already been working with Word documents and uploading them to…
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Added by David Bowman on September 6, 2011 at 1:44am —
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Therefore and Too are conjunctive adverbs, and they cause a lot of problems with commas. Before we look at using commas with therefore and too, we need to understand conjunctive adverbs and what they do.
A conjunctive adverb shows how the idea in one sentence or independent clause…
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Added by David Bowman on August 17, 2011 at 8:17pm —
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You have a document, and it has special formatting. Perhaps it has heading styles, block quotes, references, and the like. Maybe you need to use APA style or MLA style. Perhaps your document has special chapter titles. Keeping track of these styles—and using them consistently—can…
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Added by David Bowman on August 9, 2011 at 10:30pm —
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Language, and writing, can do one of two things, depending on how it is used: enhance a relationship or damage it. In simple terms, it can help bring people together or push them apart; it can help you accomplish your purposes, or it can hinder you. Language is never neutral.
What does this mean for you as you write? This means you have to think carefully…
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Added by David Bowman on July 21, 2011 at 1:00am —
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You have two connected ideas, two ideas that together make a complete message. In fact, the connection is so close that you want to join them into one long sentence. For example, let’s say you want to communicate these two ideas:
1. The man entered with a gun.
2. Bank personnel were not amused.
You want to write them in one longer…
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Added by David Bowman on June 21, 2011 at 10:00pm —
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Added by David Bowman on June 15, 2011 at 11:43pm —
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Although paragraph structure challenges writers, it is essential not only to help organize the content logically but also to keep the reader interested to the end of the document. On the other hand, if paragraphs are not structured well, the reader will have difficulty understanding the ideas being presented and will be unlikely to respond as you wish.
You…
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Added by David Bowman on May 21, 2011 at 1:38am —
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The final stage of the writing and editing process is proofreading: correcting any errors in spelling, punctuation, word usage, and format. Roughly 75% of what I do while proofreading clients’ documents is correct commas.
When I teach university writing courses, I ask the students, “What’s the number one thing that confuses you…
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Added by David Bowman on May 17, 2011 at 11:26pm —
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1. The toy was red [comma] round [comma] and heavy.
2. I purchased pickles at the store [comma] gas at the convenience store [comma] and flowers at the florist for my beautiful wife.
Series: A series is a string of three or more…
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Added by David Bowman on April 14, 2011 at 7:00pm —
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Added by David Bowman on April 8, 2011 at 9:17pm —
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For nearly 20 years, I have helped graduate students edit essays, research papers, dissertations, and other graduate-level papers. Some papers only need basic proofreading to correct spelling errors, grammar errors, punctuation errors, and problems with word choice. Other papers need help with APA format, reference lists, and citations. However, most papers need substantial revising.
The most common problem I have found when editing graduate papers is the lack of…
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Added by David Bowman on February 17, 2011 at 12:43am —
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Added by David Bowman on February 17, 2011 at 12:30am —
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