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 ‘writing’
Check Your Jargon—Please.
Your Highness: I’m clued in enough to laugh at those parodies of over-the-top business jargon that periodically make the rounds… but I’m also quite aware of the need to keep my job fit in by embracing the specialized language of my professional peers. What’s an English major turned midlevel marketing manager to do? My dear [...]
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 [...]
How to Write a Concise and Complete (aka Great) 25-Word Product Description
What can you do with 25 words? Write a note to your kids about how to reheat dinner. Make a grocery list. How about tell a complete, compelling story? It’s possible to finesse about two dozen words into a product description that’s not so high-level it glosses over everything, but also not so detailed it [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
When a Thesaurus is Not Just a Thesaurus
A good thesaurus not only helps you find the right word, it helps you navigate your train of thought. Here’s a great online thesaurus that a word lover could get lost in.
Surfing Words
The ocean captivates, its countenance fickle. Now darkness. Cold, frothy giants pound in unrelenting rhythm, giving no purchase to board or fin. Now light. A twinkling surface throwing back the glow of sun, a glassy caress of warm water—then a clean line easily discovered after a smooth drop in. Surfing that roiling, infinitely faceted sea [...]
