DailyWritingTips

5 Reasons to Get a DailyWritingTips Pro Subscription Today

If you are still on the fence about becoming a DailyWritingTips Pro subscriber, here are five reasons that will certainly convince you to join today. 1. 50% discount ($3.99 per month) The regular price of the subscription is $7.99 per month. For a limited time we are offering the subscription with a 50% discount, so … Read more

10+ Tools and Resources to Write the Perfect Resume

If you read my post of resume tips a few weeks ago, you’ll already be familiar with best practice for writing a great resume. While there’s nothing wrong with hand-crafting your resume in Microsoft Word (or your word processor of choice), there are plenty of online tools that can save you lots of time by … Read more

Top 10 Online Tools for Writers

All writers need a helping hand now and again – and having the best tools at your fingertips can make a huge difference. I’ve picked my favourite tools that will work for almost all writers – whether you’re a blogger, a novelist, a freelancer, or (like me) a bit of everything. We’ll take a look … Read more

How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Writing

Will robots eventually have writers out of a job? Are we going to see computers writing the next Great American Novel? Probably not … at least, not any time soon. Over the last decade or so, though, AI (Artificial Intelligence) has become increasingly sophisticated … and it’s influencing the world of writing in a number … Read more

Essential and Nonessential Clauses

Discussions below explain the mistakes in the examples given, which err in mistaking essential and nonessential clauses and vice versa. A revision accompanying each sample sentence demonstrates correct form. An essential (or restrictive) word, phrase, or clause is one that is necessary for conveying the intended meaning of a sentence. When the essential element follows … Read more

Avoid Beginning a Sentence with “With”

Sentences (and clauses) that begin with with are doomed to be weak. The following sentences suffer from this affliction; discussions describe how to improve the sentence, and revisions demonstrate the solutions. 1. With a quarter-billion-dollar industry possible, there is a real possibility of supporting the community with something other than an economy based on a … Read more

Words as Words

Using italics and quotation marks to emphasize words and phrases is a useful technique, but for the sake of clarity, such formatting should be used only in the manner described in this post. Italics help readers understand that a word is being presented as the label for a concept and not as a concept itself, … Read more

Plans, Plains, and Planes

The three words in the headline for this post, and words derived from them—listed and defined below—stem from a common source. Plan, plain, and plane all derive from the Latin adjective planus, meaning “clear,” “even,” “flat, level,” and “plain.” Plan comes from the French word meaning “map”; the English word, originally a technical term in … Read more

The ‘Cross” Family of Words

Cross, a word with a great variety of meanings, is also at the head of an extensive family of words, some of which are listed and defined in this post. Cross made its way into English circuitously from the Latin word crux, with stops in Old Irish and Old Norse. It originally referred to a … Read more

3 Cases of Mixed Metaphors

Efforts to describe something idiomatically with the use of metaphor—a word or phrase that figuratively provides an analogy—more than once in a sentence will likely distractingly interfere with reading comprehension, so avoid using more than one metaphor in a sentence, or at least ensure that they are complementary. Discussions after each example in this post … Read more

More Words Derived from “Pend”

A previous post lists words stemming from the Latin verb pendere, meaning “weigh,” and containing the root pend. This follow-up adds disguised words that have the same derivation. A painter was originally a chain or rope that secures an anchor; the sense shifted to that of a line used to secure or tow a boat. … Read more

Style Quiz #9: Geographical and Geopolitical Names

All but one of the following sentences demonstrate incorrect style for capitalization of place names according to The Chicago Manual of Style and other writing guides; revise as necessary: 1. The Atlantic ocean separates the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. 2. Political tensions have abated around the Gulf. 3. Nashville is a Mecca for aficionados of … Read more