Find Long Sentences Instantly in Your Microsoft Word Docs

Try this easy macro to instantly find all your long sentences in a Microsoft Word document. You don’t have to know anything about macros or code. Continue reading

Highlight Passive Voice (and Be-Verbs in General) Instantly in Your Microsoft Word Docs

Use this easy macro to highlight passive verb forms (and other be-verbs) instantly in a Microsoft Word document. You don’t have to know anything about macros or code. Continue reading

“I Used to Be an Ex-Manager” and More Than over 1100+ Other Redundant Phrases

Dip in to this list anywhere, and give your inner editor’s funny bone a tickle. Take “hurriedly scurried.” Or “moral high horse.” Or “live studio audience.” “Old codgers.” “Old coots.” “Old fossils.” “Old ruins.” “Commonly available general knowledge that anyone would know.” I don’t make this stuff up. Bonus: Smiling at redundant phrases sharpens your writing. Warning: These things are addictive. Continue reading

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