Pretty much every week we receive emails from readers asking when the Freelance Writing Course will take place again. Well, the time has arrived. We’ll be re-opening the doors next Tuesday, September 27. It’s a 6-week program designed to give aspiring freelance writers all the knowledge and tools they need to start making money writing … Read more
Do you need a word for a person who foretells the future? Take care in your selection. There are plenty of synonyms, but most have a unique connotation. Here are 15 mostly distinct terms and their specific meanings: 1. augur: One who predicts events based on omens; the name stems from officials in ancient Rome … Read more
Whether you’re a staff employee at your workplace, or you’re a home-based freelancer, you’ll benefit from a proactive effort to make yourself a part of a professional or interest-based community. Try one or more of these networking options: 1. Join an online writers’ community or social-networking site. (They abound on the Web; I chose this … Read more
Remember when they booed Bob Dylan for going electric at the Newport Folk Festival? And isn’t it disgusting how military personnel returning from serving in the Vietnam War were routinely spat on by antiwar protesters? Those were more or less reprehensible behaviors — or they would have been if they had actually occurred. But these … Read more
In a recent post, I explained the distinction between vocation and avocation among discussions of a group of commonly confused words. Here, I delve into a little more detail about the antonyms (well, usually) and explore their synonyms and the connotations of each. Vocation originally had a religious cast to it; the word means “calling” … Read more
The English language includes an interesting category of words and phrases called contronyms (also spelled contranyms, or referred to as autoantonyms) — terms that, depending on context, can have opposite or contradictory meanings. When you use these words, be sure the context clearly identifies which meaning is intended: 1. Apology: A statement of contrition for … Read more
Multiple variations of past tense that employ regular verbs occur in English. Explanations of the distinctions follow. Note that each section includes examples of positive-declarative, negative-declarative, and interrogative forms. 1. Simple Past A sentence in the simple-past form describes an event that occurred in the past: “They agreed with us.” “They did not agree with … Read more
When it comes to writing, are you the Anglo-Saxon type, or do you go for French flair? You probably realize that Modern English derives from a wide variety of sources, and perhaps are aware that words derived from French are just as common in our language as those that are descended directly from Old English, … Read more
You’ve thought of an interesting angle on a political or social issue you don’t see discussed anywhere else. You have access to an expert who you believe would be a good subject for a timely interview, or you know an up-and-coming entrepreneur you think people will pay attention to. You know what you want to … Read more
A block quotation is a distinct body of type set off from the default text (also called the running text), usually distinguished by insertion of line spaces above and below and formatting of a narrower margin (and sometimes even type of a different point size or a distinct font). When reproducing written text from another … Read more
If you enjoy reading articles about the new words and phrases that make their way into dictionaries each year, you may puzzle sometimes over the selections. Bromance? Crowdsourcing? Robocall? “Boomerang child”? “Fist bump”? “Helicopter parent”? Because you’re likely, like me, a word lover, your perplexity is probably linked not with the question “What do those … Read more
To help keep your writing crisp and precise, observe the distinctions between each pair of similar or closely associated words below: 1. admission/admittance: Admission is the act of being admitted, or allowed to join or enter; admittance is almost identical in meaning but is usually associated with permission (or lack thereof). 2. avocation/vocation: An avocation … Read more