Word play: imputer or inputter?
WHEN WE WRITE down a word based on how it sounds, there is ample opportunity to make a spelling mistake. In the past I have seen the confusion of imputer with inputter. The verb to impute is to attribute something bad to someone (unjustly), such as a crime. It is also used to mean the […]
Marketing for SMEs part two: master the old-school media
IN MY LAST post, I outlined some of the great free webtools available that small businesses and sole traders can use to help promote their endeavours. For example, social media campaigns are a great way to tap into new markets and share your ideas and expertise with like-minded individuals.But despite the march of the digital, […]
Five embarrassing typos to avoid at all costs
WHEN WE WRITE quickly with the intention of publishing or emailing our work ‘yesterday’, there is a real danger of inserting a mistake that we would not ordinarily make. Consequently, these mistakes have the effect of making us look like we don’t know our stuff. These are generally basic errors that could have been averted […]
Spelling explained: dependant or dependent?
THERE ARE SO many words which sound the same and are spelled differently. To make matters more difficult, a number of these words have related meanings, making it even easier for anyone uncertain to pick the wrong one. Take dependant and dependent – two words that are not interchangeable in UK English. Dependent is an adjective […]
Are we really in the lap of luxury?
AS IS CUSTOMARY for me when making a point about the power of language, I’d like to start with a dictionary definition, paraphrased from the Collins Dictionary of English: “Luxury (noun) – indulgence in and enjoyment of rich, comfortable and sumptuous living; something that is considered an indulgence rather than a necessity. Also a modifier […]
Frankenwords – a guest post for Content Desk
HERE’S A LINK to another guest post I created for Content Desk, the web portal by Progressive that’s linked to their Content Cloud – a system matching up professional writers with blue chip companies in need of content. This post focused on the phenomenon of Frankenwords – those marketing buzzwords where two normal words are […]
Proofreading for business – a guest post
HERE IS A link to my guest post for the Content Desk, a web portal about creating good online content for business. This is a shorter version of my original Word Wizard post about improving your proofreading skills. http://desk.thecontentcloud.net/guides/six-steps-perfect-proof-reading#.VBMMT7Yr6Jg
Word play: continually or continuously?
DO YOU EVER write a sentence and hesitate over a word? It’s a word you know you know, but somehow when it’s written down it doesn’t look quite right. You can’t quite put your finger on what is wrong with your sentence. So you leave it as it is, and move on. Sometimes a word […]
Perfect proofreading: part two
LAST WEEK I uploaded a post containing my first five tips for perfect proofreading. It really is possible to publish and print great content if you take the time to look for the most common errors. Here are my final five tips for achieving this. 6 – Look for inconsistency. Have you used capital letters throughout […]
Perfect proofreading: part one
HAVE YOU EVER looked back at work you’ve done and wondered just how it ended up with so many mistakes in it? Do you always discover these errors when it’s too late, and you’ve already sent out your customer email or sent your leaflet to be printed 5,000 times? If this is the case, then […]