All Blog Posts Tagged 'usage' (26)

I took a writing course about four years ago. By the end of the second session, I was thinking, “Sheeze! I could teach this course.” I learned only one thing. During the second month, I learned the name of a very important concept I had been using unconsciously for years, thereby increasing my ability to write and edit purposefully.

Grammatical versus Rhetorical Subject

I learned that sentences can have two types of subjects: Grammatical and…

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Have you ever been criticized? Of course you have. Everyone has been criticized at some point. In particular, though, have you ever been criticized for trying something new? Let’s say that you go ahead and do what you want—and it doesn’t work out. You can certainly expect more criticism.



Fortunately, you can use rhetorical strategies in both cases. One strategy is for getting support to do something new, and the second strategy is for damage control when things don’t go as… Continue

Many people will read what you write. We call these people your audience. When you write, your document or manuscript is the tool you use to communicate with them, so understanding them helps you communicate in an appropriate manner. However, unlike some other forms of communication, you actually have two audiences, which we call “primary” and “secondary” audiences. We’ll look at each in turn.

Your primary audience is the person or group of…

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Sponsored by Precise Edit and Writer Watchdog (…

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Punctuation isn’t complicated once you know what you’re looking at. I see many writers making errors when punctuating appositives. This may be a new term for many folks, so we’ll take a look at what I mean by “appositive,” and then we’ll figure out how to punctuate them correctly.



WHAT’S AN APPOSITIVE?



An appositive is a word or phrase that

1. renames something you have written and

2. can serve the same grammatical function as the word or phrase it… Continue

Your book or story has a powerful beginning. It engages the reader. It makes him want to read more. The main character has a big problem, and the reader wants to know how it will be solved. Pretty soon, though, the reader is yawning. She puts the book down and goes to do something more “interesting.” What happened?

You started strong, but your middle is weak.

Based on my experiences as an editor and as a book junkie, two problems create most weak middles: 1) Nothing is…

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