Have you ever taken notes during a lecture or meeting, looked at them later, and found them useless? We’ve all done it. Even worse is when somebody asks to borrow your notes and quickly hands them back to you, saying, “Never mind, thanks.” It’s ironic that many schools don’t give lessons on how to study …
If you’re a professional writer or a student, you’re likely familiar with English style guides. Although you learned many rights and wrongs in your English classes, not every aspect of the language is black or white. Many style guides exist for English, and each serves a different role. Students may be familiar with APA or …
Aspiring writers often have quite a few questions wondering if they are doing everything correctly. Should they sign up for some sort of class on writing to get experience? Do they need a mentor that will guide them along the way? Is it true they have to starve first by giving up their job so …
Text length has a huge influence on performance of your content. If there are limits, you need to be efficient. If not, you are free to write as much as you want, but in most cases, less is more. Here’s some best practice advice, backed by research.
As writers, we all have that place in our house where we tend to be more creative and the words just come a little easier for us. If you are serious about writing as a career or even a side job, it’s extremely important to find this place. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. …
Song writers spend a lot of time searching for the perfect lyric for their tune. Often they have quite a story on how they came up with the specific words for the song. One of Paul McCartney’s best known tunes, Yesterday, is no different. He always has claimed the tune of it came to him …
As a teacher that has taught writing to students all the way from elementary to college, nothing can give me more fits than apostrophes. Reading a student’s writing and seeing a misplaced apostrophe can get my blood boiling. I guess I get so worked up about it because we cover it quite a bit during …
English is not an easy language to master. There are words that sound alike, are spelled alike, but have totally different meanings. It’s always important to use the correct word since using the incorrect one will have people doubting your intelligence. Teachers can tell you firsthand that anytime they spell a word wrong on the …
Writer’s block hits us all at some point. There are days when we sit in front of our computers and words just start pouring on to the page, but then there are other times when everything is a struggle. We can’t get more than a sentence or two into it without feeling frustrated. Writer’s block …
Very few writers actually make a living at their craft. If you are a writer yourself, you know this already. People will tell you to give it up and get a real job. This is why most writers write only on the side or totally give up the craft after awhile. It can be quite …
