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Spot the Error: Pundit Edition 9 Feb 2012 | 09:29 am
Spotted in a bit of political commentary: If the Romney team believed their own inevitability rhetoric, failing to invest for victory yesterday just as they did before South Carolina, that doesn’t au...
“Writing is a skill, not a talent” 6 Jan 2012 | 03:41 am
“Writing is a skill, not a talent, and this difference is important because a skill can be improved by practice.” –Robert Stacy McCain, The Other McCain
Need to apologize? Speak plain English. 5 Jan 2012 | 04:04 am
There are good ways and bad ways to address a customer service fiasco. Courtesy of Southwest Airlines, here’s one of the bad ways: “We are working directly with the family after sincerely apologizing...
Never underestimate the power of sitting down and doing it 4 Jan 2012 | 03:14 am
Author John Scalzi recently ran across something he wrote back in 1997 upon finishing his first novel: [L]ike most things on the planet, thinking about doing it is a lot worse than simply sitting dow...
Spot the Error: Lists Edition 27 Dec 2011 | 04:36 am
Here’s a poser for you: Our local daily newspaper has a front-page article describing how frequently Fargo makes it into lists generated by various magazines, newspapers, and websites. A few paragraph...
Exculpate the lacuna 24 Dec 2011 | 03:06 am
Yes, there’s been a lengthy break in posting; real life has reared its head with its normal mix of good, bad, and indifferent disruptions. We will have normal service restored shortly. And for those ...
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, borrow lend me your ears” 30 Sep 2011 | 12:08 am
Borrow Lend me your attention and let me share this gaffe on a newspaper website that my friend Fred pointed out: The day before, his sister Dolly Wambach, of Georgetown, Minn., and family spent abou...
New special report available: “Put Your Writing to the Test” 27 Sep 2011 | 11:57 pm
Can you tell if your writing will get the results you want? Will that document, that letter, that brochure meet the goals you have for it? Is there some way to find out? Yes! There are four inexpens...
Voting opens for Best Grammar Blog of 2011! Vote now! 27 Sep 2011 | 11:25 pm
Voting has opened for the Grammar.net Best Grammar Blog of 2011 Award, and Writing, Clear and Simple is one of the nominees. This is the first time my blog has been nominated for an award like this, ...
No such thing as “very imperative” 21 Sep 2011 | 10:32 am
Can something be “very imperative?” No, it can’t. I’ve already written about the overuse of intensifiers, our habit of tacking adverbs like very, really, and extremely onto words in an attempt to tur...
