In today’s post, the serial comma—also known as the Oxford comma. For those of us who may become rather focused on such things, the debate about “serial comma, yes or no?” can be serious business. Commas are wonderful tools. They convey changes of direction, clarify sentences, indicate pauses, and flag upcoming dialogue. In marketing communications, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘style’
Sorry, No, That’s Not What You Mean At All
Your Highness: I’m not much of a writer but, like so many of your loyal subjects, I have a job that often requires me to write. I want to be professional—and avoid embarrassing mistakes. I need an on-call editor. Or at least a cheat sheet. Please help! My dear Subject, Ah, English! Constantly changing, constantly [...]
Maira Kalman: A Love Letter
Dear Maira, Is it OK if I call you Maira? Because I love you so. I love Benjamin Franklin’s fur hat, and your paintings of the hole punches and rubber bands and cherry trees, the one with the sea of flags and the one with Herman Melville eating a fried egg. I love all the [...]
Substance Over Style
The 2012 print edition of The Associated Press Stylebook has been published. This news may have passed with little fanfare outside the world of publishing and editing but it’s a cause for rejoicing among some of us here at the Content Bureau. The AP Stylebook is nothing less than the bible of editorial resources. You [...]
Why I Love Bullets (and You Should Too)
With bullets, what’s not to love? They are bold, matter-of-fact, and reliable—kind of like my best friend. (My personal fave? The little square ones.) Most common in business writing is the traditional—but, dare I say, passé—black dot, followed closely by the slightly more updated version of the little black square. But bullets do allow for [...]
Ear Training for Copywriters, Courtesy Uncle Walt and Aunt Emily
Many writers cite Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson as the mother and father of contemporary poetry – or perhaps more accurately, as its queer, brilliant aunt and uncle. The two writers may at first seem to have little in common—Whitman is as expansive as Dickinson is compressed, as wild as she is precise. But they [...]
Quotation Dos and Don’ts
Your Highness: I hold a job that requires I write articles, press releases, and similar pieces in which I quote others. You’d think I’d have such matters down by now, but I’ll come clean: I never really learned the rules for using quotation marks. To complicate matters further, I’m a bit of an Anglophile—only the [...]
Writing Titles That Hook the Reader
Those first six or seven words on the cover can be the hardest part of writing! To make sure readers keep reading, we need snappy, ultra-compelling titles and sub-headlines that are also relevant, informative, and comply with corporate branding guidelines. Stuck in a rut? Here are some tips for getting out. . .
The very best style guide reference books
If you’ve read the fabulous Grammar Queen’s post on creating a corporate style guide (and if you haven’t read it, do so right now), you know you must make some decisions about how your organization crosses the t’s and dots the i’s. However, you can’t possibly list every grammar or style rule in your own [...]
