by Pernickety Kate | Jan 10, 2022 | Proofreading, Spelling, Words
The most commonly mixed-up words in English, explained (part 1) … Accept / Except These words sound very much alike but they mean different things. Accept is an action word (verb) broadly meaning to take something in. Other AC words meaning to take something on board... 
by Pernickety Kate | Sep 28, 2018 | Editing, Words, Writing skills
Everybody’s different. We can see people’s uniqueness in their clothes, their hairstyle, their accent, their hobbies or pets. And that individuality extends to their writing. I currently have an editing job involving lots of technical documents, destined to be part of... 
by Pernickety Kate | Feb 15, 2018 | Editing, Words, Writing skills
“Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!” Even when not watching Cabaret, we’d all be happy to be greeted with these words, wouldn’t we? Such harmless pleasantry – what could possibly be wrong with treating customers like this? Well, in some contexts, nothing at all. At the... 
by Pernickety Kate | Jan 26, 2018 | Punctuation, Spelling, Words
Some words behave weirdly – and not just the fancy ones that few people understand. Here’s a collection of the first few that sprang to mind (as seen originally on my Facebook page). Weird Word of the Week #1: COMPLIMENT (and related words). Weird... 
by Pernickety Kate | Dec 13, 2017 | Editing, Words, Writing skills
Warning: this blog is interactive. It contains suggestions which some readers may find embarrassing. But to help you to be clear with your message, it’s worth having a go. It’s about the power of short words and phrases – what some call ‘plain English’. In an earlier... 
by Pernickety Kate | Oct 1, 2017 | Editing, Grammar, Proofreading, Words
I first wrote this blog post this time last year, when it seemed only a hop, skip and jump in time since we’d been enthralled by the Olympics and Paralympics in Rio. And it wasn’t just medals that got the media buzzing, but medalling. We all know that a medal is... 