Don’t be negative, be positive. You have probably heard that most of your life. Well, in writing that saying holds true. You shouldn’t be overly negative from a grammar perspective, especially double negative. Avoiding double negatives should be simple, but for some reason it seems to be an ongoing issue with some people. If you put more than one negative in a single clause, you are breaking the...

I read this one all the time. When I see this mistake, it’s like getting gouged in the eye with a needle. There is a time to use the word “then” and a situation to use the word “than.” What do I mean by that? The word “than” is for comparisons. When you are contrasting the attributes that a noun has with those of something else, you will use “than.” For...

Today’s writing tip is critical for the proper flow and pacing of your writing. You should be mindful of the length of your sentences. Short sentences have a purpose, and so do long ones, but too many of either will leave your reader frustrated, whether or not he knows why. The proper flow a reader is used to feeling comes from a combination of short and long sentences. This is a general rule, unless...

Use sounds to help you write Today’s writing tip is a little unusual. I recently read an article somewhere about trying to control the sounds you listen to while you write. While on one hand this concept isn’t new at all. Writers talk about the music they listen to while they write all the time. I have even recently seen some writers post their favorite play lists online. For me, music really can...

Improve your Writing Productivity If you are a writer struggling to write, you will like this writing tip (and, you’re normal). If you are writing you will know that there are days when you write one paragraph, and others when you write ten pages. What’s the difference? How can you create more ten page days? The answer is simple, if you are willing to: Establish a Writing Routine Writing is...

Silent H Today’s Writing tip is one of my favorites, and a pet peeve of mine. There is nothing worse then hearing someone using the word “a” before a word that starts with a vowel, or a vowel sound. The rule is, if a word starts with a vowel sound and you are going to use “a” or “an” in front of it, then you should select “AN.” You would never say, for example,...

Which word is it? Today’s writing tip comes as a result of a reader’s request. English has many words that sound the same, and yet they are spelled differently. This can be very difficult to handle if you are not careful. Today we are talking about the words their, there, and they’re.  These words are often interchanged mistakenly. So how do you remember the difference between these pesky...

This has been one of my favorite writing tips since I was a child. Consider the following sentence, and ask yourself which sentence you would use on a day to day basis: You and me should go to the movie tonight. or You and I should go to the movie tonight. I know this is intense. This is the type of grammar discussion that comes up at the dinner table over Mac & Cheese. Which one of these sentences is written...

To its or not to its, that is the question This is another one of those writing tips that is often ignored. One of the most common grammar mistakes made is that of it’s versus its. Do you put that stinking little apostrophe in there or not? That is the question. How often have you either second-guessed your own writing, or read someone else’s where this error just stuck out painfully? Well, the...

One of the most powerful writing tips you can apply relates to adverbs. Adverbs are the words that you use to describe verbs when the verb itself isn’t descriptive enough for you. You probably know adverbs as the words that end in -ly. When used properly, an adverb adds value to the sentence (specifically to the word it modifies). When it isn’t used properly, it sounds like poor writing. Here is...