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
Find Long Sentences Instantly in Your Microsoft Word Docs
Tag Archives: Editing
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
Be-Verb Bumper Stickers Make a Comeback
A car pulled up next to my Prius at a stoplight in downtown Portland. The driver opened her window and asked, “What does your bumper sticker mean?” Through my passenger window, I told her that it means to look for verbs like “is” and “were” and “are,” and then consider how you might reword to make the writing tighter and more impactful. “You made my day,” she said. 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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