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 | Jul 7, 2018 | Numbers, Proofreading, Writing skills
Many people find numbers confusing. But if numbers are an essential part of your writing, there are ways to avoid bamboozling your readers (because you don’t want that, do you?). By ‘numbers’, I mean prices, percentages, or anything that needs counting, whether...
by Pernickety Kate | Apr 10, 2018 | Editing, Writing skills
At some stage, you may be asked to write a press release for a local newspaper – maybe to promote an event for your organisation. Newspaper editors will usually require a press release to be in the same style as the rest of the paper. Well, it makes sense to keep on...
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 | 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 | Dec 1, 2017 | Editing, Grammar, Punctuation, Writing skills
Hello. We may not have been formally introduced but I’m going to start by making some assumptions. Pigeon-holing you, as it were. If you’ve clicked on this article, it’s a fair bet that you have at least a passing interest in language use. That already sets you apart...
