How many prepositions can you use in a row? Or … when is a preposition an adverb (or a verb particle)? Continue reading
Empower Your Team to Write with One Voice While Still Sounding Like Themselves

As long as companies are full of people, and as long as people insist on having separate personalities and distinct voices, companies need to take action to empower their content teams to write with one voice. Continue reading
How to Write the Kind of Descriptions Your Readers Crave

Your readers crave descriptions so compelling that they see, smell, touch, hear … experience what you’ve put into words. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, for pleasure or for pay, Ali Shaw’s new video explains how you can meditate your way to the descriptive details that may be eluding you. Continue reading
Do You Feel Bad or Feel Badly?
I admit it: I’m thrilled to see my latest article published today on Mignon Fogarty’s Grammar Girl blog. Loved what I learned in researching this piece. If you nerd out on language, you’ll find some brain candy in here beyond the simple answer to the headline’s question. Dig in, and let me know what you think! Continue reading
Tighten This! A Special Emergency One-Time-Only Revival Competition Edition
Special revival edition of the Tighten This! game.
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Writers, How Much Should You Leave Unsaid?

I chopped off the first four paragraphs, massaged the middle, and refashioned and refashioned the ending—oh, how I wanted to say things there!—until nothing remained but what had happened. Continue reading
Enough

“Sir, I need to see your ticket,” the bus driver says. A young man, maybe in his early twenties, is walking toward the back of the bus, where I’m sitting… Continue reading
Ta Ta, Tighten This!

The final post in the Tighten This! game.
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Tighten This! Challenge Sentence 60 [writing/editing game]

How would you tighten this week’s Challenge Sentence? “The successful candidate will be the key leader and customer advocate working closely with…” Continue reading
Tighten This! Challenge Sentence 59 [writing/editing game]

How would you tighten this week’s Challenge Sentence? “There remains a lot of confusion about what buyer personas are and aren’t and how…”
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