DailyWritingTips

10 Words for Categories of Words

Antonym, homonym, pseudonym. Do nyms make you numb? Here’s a handy guide to words, familiar or unfamiliar, for classes of words: Acronym: An abbreviation, pronounced as a word, consisting of the initial letters of a multiword name or expression. It can consist entirely of uppercase letters (NASA) –thought British English has adopted an initial-cap style, … Read more

7 Common Homonymic Spelling Errors

Homonyms are words that sound like, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Some of the most commonly confused pairs of words are illustrated in the following examples: 1. “The color complimented her unusual skin tone.” Unless the color was personified and therefore had the power of speech as well as discernment, it complemented, … Read more

Find the Right Word for the Job

One of the most effective ways to achieve a rich, expressive writing style is to strive to find the ideal words to express yourself. For example, whether you’re writing a report or a novel, always review your writing to make certain you are using vivid descriptions. Nouns Let’s say you want to describe a box. … Read more

5 Common Errors in Punctuating Appositives

An appositive is a word or phrase that refers to the same idea as another word or phrase in proximity. The phrase “my friend John” contains two appositives, because “my friend” and “John” are two ways of identifying that person I know well. For many writers, how to punctuate appositives is problematic. Here are some … Read more

Avoid Capital Offenses When Using Job Titles

When it comes to mechanical aspects of writing, few details seem to trip writers up as much as capitalization: when to use uppercase letters, and when to use lowercase letters. Specific job titles preceding a person’s name are capitalized, but descriptions are not. For example, “Marketing Director John Doe” is correct, but “Marketing Chief John … Read more

The Problem with Grammar Check

A couple of years ago, a visitor to this site posted a comment asking for help. In a Word document, this person had written the sentence “The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem and without emphasis on them, this poem has little to no meaning.” Word’s grammar check admonished the … Read more

How to Punctuate Quotations

Quotation marks are signposts indicating that spoken or written words are being expressed. They have other purposes, too, but this post confines itself to this role. Despite the ubiquity of quotation marks, some people still err in placement of the closing mark. Generally, a close quotation mark follows rather than precedes a sentence’s terminal punctuation, … Read more

Initialisms and Acronyms

Most people know what an acronym is. But few are as familiar with term initialism, or of an important distinction between the two. An acronym is an initial abbreviation that can be pronounced as a word, such as NASA or WASP. This term is also used to refer to a series of initials pronounced individually, … Read more

7 Rules For Formatting Lists

Conventions for formatting lists are simple and straightforward, but many writers (and their editors) seem not to have gotten the memo. Here’s an outline about how to outline: 1. Numbered and Unnumbered Two basic categories for lists exist: numbered and unnumbered. Many numbered lists that people use online and in print have no need for … Read more

Use Common Sense for Commas

Commas are such cute little things with curly tails that their strength is often overlooked. When used haphazardly, their power can be untapped or misused. Employed correctly, however, they do much to convey a sentence’s meaning. The rules may seem complex, but they are also commonsensical. Many writers believe that commas are necessary in the … Read more

5 Tips to Understand Hyphenated Words

The complexity of rules about those little dashes that separate many words for various reasons causes so much misunderstanding that many writers just leave them out of the recipe or spill them randomly into the mixing bowl. But your compositional cuisine need not be so undisciplined. The rules may seem complicated at first, but soon … Read more

Spelling Isn’t Magic

Perhaps no aspect of written language engenders more consternation or trepidation than spelling. There’s even supposedly a clinical term for the fear of misspelling words: ortographobia. (Wait — isn’t that spelled wrong?) Unless you were a spelling-bee champion — and perhaps in spite of that distinction — you might at least occasionally become flustered at … Read more