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

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

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