Happy National Grammar Day!

  In addition to my editing and writing work, I also teach writing skills classes to college students. It’s a pretty basic course, and covers all the things that they learned back in grade school, most of which have been long forgotten, if they were even paid attention to in the first place. A recent…

Just how important are the finer nuances of written English anyway? Why does it matter if something is capitalized or if there is a comma in a certain spot or not? Who really cares? As an adjunct professor of writing skills, I often hear these questions from my students. With the explosion of “text writing”…

You’ve written a book! You’ve spent untold hours doing research, outlining chapters, getting to know your characters, and now, finally, it’s complete and ready to be published. But wait, is it? Have you had it edited?

You use a calendar to keep all of your important appointments, right? Doctors, dentists, date night, kids’ pick-ups? You’d be lost without your calendar. Why not keep a calendar of important events or news in your industry. Then, when it’s time to write your blog or newsletter, you’ll have your ideas all ready to go!…

As an editor, college writing skills teacher, and avid reader, I am constantly bemoaning the demise of the English language, more specifically correct grammar and spelling. When I teach my college students writing skills, we start with the absolute basics, like parts of speech, and go from there. I’m often shocked and dismayed by what…