In the post Show, Don’t Tell, I mentioned dialogue as one of the ways you can “show” your reader what’s happening in a scene. Effective dialogue is an essential part of both fiction and creative nonfiction writing.
Month: July 2007
Prepositions for the Perplexed
Judging by the comments on the “When to use ‘on’ and when to use ‘in’” post, I wasn’t the only one to get out of school with less than a complete grasp of what a preposition is or does.
Use the Right Number of Periods
After the word itself, the sentence is the most basic unit of communication. So it’s the sentence that your readers will notice first. They may not see your mistakes in spelling, and may not notice your mistakes in grammar, but they are likely to notice when you end your sentences too early or too late.
The Fact-packed Email Subject
For important email messages, try to see how much content you can get into your subject line. I don’t mean you should try to see how long a subject line you can write – 60 or 80 characters should be the maximum. No, but sometimes you want to get your message across through the subject line alone, so the recipient can get the urgent news even before reading the whole message.
When to use “on” and when to use “in”
Nate asks: What are the proper usages of the words “in” and “on” in a sentence? I often confuse the two. Here are some examples: “The boat is in/on the water,” “We are in/on the planet,” “We’re going to the concert in/on July 1st.”