What do editors do, anyway? Authors usually know they need another pair of eyes once they’ve gotten their thoughts together in a draft form. But they can become confused about who they should talk to, especially as there’s no 100%…
Is THIS missing from your articles?
Is THIS missing from your articles? Do you get full value from publishing articles on social media? Or are you among those who seem to get little value from LI or other social media platforms? Are you among those who…
Uncover Your Smothered Verbs!
Uncover your smothered verbs! Why? Because you’ll shorten and sharpen your writing, and your readers will get more out of the experience. So what’s a smothered verb, you ask? It’s a verb that we changed into a noun, a word…
3 Ways to Almost Guarantee Your Writing Will Make a Bad First Impression
I’m a copyeditor, meaning I read and edit others’ words to help them look and sound as smart as they are. Over the last 25 years, I have seen many ways of succeeding and, sadly, a few things that almost…
Thursday Thoughts: Give Your Readers a Break! Please!
Here on LI, I am part of a group / thread that is now talking about how long a blog post “should” be. The range mentioned is from micro (250-500 words) to macro/very long (1,200-5,000+ words), with several weighing in…
5 Ways to Make Your LI Posts Look More Professional
What do readers see when they first look at your posts? Are they drawn in . . . or taken aback? I have been blogging for a little over a year here on LinkedIn, and many readers know that my…
Why Are We on LinkedIn Anyway?
What are we all DOING on LinkedIn? I ask because I had a little extra time this morning, so I thought I’d visit the writing groups I’m in to see who’s posting interesting stuff. I admit I haven’t done that…
How Badly Can Someone Write?
Friends all over the world send me great examples of poor writing, whether it’s using the wrong word altogether, using a homophone because it sounds like the word the writer meant, or just plain writing badly. You saw this one…
Agile Adverbs
In English grammar, parts of speech are grouped by type, and it seems as though adverbs are one of the least understood of them all. (See all eight at the end of this post.) Adverbs are hard-working words that modify…