by Zoe M. McCarthy | Aug 20, 2015 | Writing
“Of is a preposition, and although not an inherently evil word, overusing it can make your writing sound passive and fussy.” — Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl)In a recent post, I promoted the word processor Find feature to eliminate weak words and phrases. On...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Aug 13, 2015 | Writing
“The process of critiquing other writers’ work thoughtfully and intelligently will help you strengthen your own writing.” — Melissa DonovanCritiquing is valuable to success…unless you find yourself in the wrong critique group.Use the following...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Aug 6, 2015 | Writing
“One of the standard Words of Advice that writers—new and old—get, is to avoid clichés. The advice itself is rather a cliché but, like all clichés, it is based on truth, and it would be wrong to reflexively ignore it.” — Madeleine RobbinsI like today’s...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Jul 30, 2015 | Writing
“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” — Samuel JohnsonFirst, consider these two cautions in using the find and replace feature of your word processor for editing: Look at each occurrence from the search results to make sure...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Jul 23, 2015 | Writing
“There’s never been a text written that didn’t need editing.” —David KudlerYou’ve finished your manuscript. Wonderful. It needs to be edited. Below are four kinds of edits and what each most commonly accomplishes.Ask prospective editors what they include in...
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