Professional Writing and Editing

Conclusions often don’t get the time they deserve. Typically, they are dashed off with little thought, and therefore are full of clichés, bulky, bureaucratic phrases and missing information.

There are three things to keep in mind when…

You may have been told that you shouldn’t use a comma before the word and. However, you need to be careful – this statement is not always true. Here’s an example of where it’s important to use a comma before the and…

Many things influence whether or not you express numbers in figures or in words. Sometimes it’s your profession, and sometimes it’s the editing style of your organization.

Here are some common number usage guidelines to follow in order…

Continual and continuous can’t be used interchangeably. While some people consistently use continuous, other people consistently use continual. For the most part, it’s because they don’t realize that there is another similar word to use, or…

If there’s one saying that will always be true, it’s “quality over quantity”. This saying is very helpful in reminding us that a long sentence leads to a frustrated reader. If the reader even reads the whole thing!

The general…

Many of our grammar errors are due to the errors we make when we use a structure in speech.  However, if we want to write correctly, we need to not only identify those errors, but to also understand why they are incorrect and how to fix…

To ensure correctness in your writing, pencil editing is one of the best things you can do. Pencil editing is a proofreading technique. To do it, touch and speak each word when you edit your documents.

Here's a great example of…

Many people believe that plain language equals simplifying the language to a very low level. This is untrue. Plain language means using language and formatting that allows the reader to get the message after one read because the document is…

Why not you ask? Because if your wine compliments the meal, it means that your wine is praising your meal!

Be aware of the spelling of these two words: complement and compliment. The meanings of these two words…