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All Blog Posts Tagged 'proofreading' (31)

Those Doggoned Sentences

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 — No Comments

Strategies for Writing Concise Descriptions

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 — 1 Comment

Whom Do You Love

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 — 12 Comments

3 Strategies for Writing about Complex Subjects

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 — No Comments

The Bad Commas of Eats, Shoots and Leaves

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 — No Comments

Reflections and Advice on eBook Publishing

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 — No Comments

Commas with Therefore and Too

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.

What Conjunctive Adverbs 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 — No Comments

Creating Style Guides for Professional Documents

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 — No Comments

4 Writing Strategies for Improving Relationships and Persuading Readers

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 — 1 Comment

Three Errors with Compound Sentences

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 — 2 Comments

Comma with TOO

Comma before too? Do you or don’t you put a comma before too at the end of a sentence?



Yes, You Do



Put a comma before the final too when too means also or as well. For example, which of these two sentences is correct?



  1. I think chocolate is tasty too.
  2. I think chocolate is tasty, too.


The… Continue

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Added by David Bowman on June 15, 2011 at 11:43pm — No Comments

Ending Paragraphs at the Right Place

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 — No Comments

Where Does the Comma Go?

Do commas confuse you?



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 — No Comments

How much should my e-book cost?

Amazon.com and SmashWords have opened the doors for self-publishing authors to distribute their e-books worldwide, and many authors are quick to take advantage of this opportunity. They upload their book files, fill in the book descriptions and other information, and then get to the question of price. How much should an e-book cost?



Many new self-publishing authors are looking for the most readers possible, so they choose a low price. Perhaps the author is hoping consumers will buy… Continue

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Added by David Bowman on April 8, 2011 at 9:17pm — No Comments

Number 1 Strategy for Revising Graduate Papers

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 — No Comments

Confusing Words Simply Explained

The English language has many confusing word pairs, those word pairs that make people stop and ask, “Is it this word or that word? Which word do I use?”



Writing, of any type, is for communication. When you use the correct word, you can accurately communicate your ideas. On the other hand, if you use the wrong word, you risk communicating the wrong idea, and you risk losing credibility with your reader, whether your reader is a potential client, a professor, a publisher, or a visitor… Continue

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Added by David Bowman on February 17, 2011 at 12:30am — 1 Comment

Test market your book - Free!

DLite Press is offering free eBook publishing - totally FREE! This offer includes cover design and book formatting. Just send us your manuscript. We will post it to our site allowing friends and family to view, or best of all, buy your book. Check us out at http://www.dlitepress.com

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Added by Olive Peart on December 3, 2010 at 2:51am — No Comments

There Can Be Only One

Chocolate is my most favorite ice cream flavor. Pistachio is my least favorite flavor. Most of the best ice cream is made with chocolate, and most of the worst ice cream is made with candied fruit. All in all, most of the best flavors have some type of chocolate.



Although it’s true that chocolate is the best of all ice cream flavors, the statements above are wrong. They have logic problems with the use of superlative terms. A superlative term is a word that indicates the… Continue

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Added by David Bowman on October 6, 2010 at 12:00am — No Comments

Top 5 Strategies to Improve Your Writing



When I teach writing classes, give book talks, or generally discuss strategies for improving written communication, I often get this question: “What are the best strategies for writing well?”…

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Added by David Bowman on August 28, 2010 at 1:30am — 1 Comment

"Free" Publishing Scan Exposed

Here is a scenario with many POD publishers.





Your upfront fee to publish could be as low as $14! However, PODs rarely offer the author free copies of their book. Also, your book (as an electronic file) remains with the

publisher. POD means print-on-demand. The publisher gets to keep a file of your

book and prints the books as needed. It is a fast and easy method…

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Added by Olive Peart on August 5, 2010 at 4:21am — No Comments

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