Punctuality Rules!

Baby Talk

So, if people don’t learn grammar in school any more, and they’re not bothering to read the handy usage guides that are in the bookstores, how DO people manage to speak and write correctly? Mostly, it’s in the ear. It’s a fascinating phenomenon, how we humans learn language. Babies begin…

Mozy Rant

We take time away from this friendly little writing blog for a rant…. Have you heard of Mozy? It’s an online backup service for your computer, where you sign up, set up a schedule for backups and … that’s it. Your computer henceforth automatically runs backups to Mozy’s server so…

Purposeful Complexity

Kenneth over at Manage Your Writing spoke the other day about the importance of keeping things simple. He reminds us that, “Some research shows that when readers and listeners can’t understand your sentences, they think of you as less intelligent, not more.” I certainly agree with that. Unnecessarily complex sentence…

In the Beginning

I saw this at Brad‘s. So, there’s a project over at “Get Paid to Write Online,” asking people how they got started with their blogs. Well, my story comes in two parts. First, there was knitting. (Yes, you heard me. Knitting.) In fact, my very first introduction to blogs at…

What Makes a Writer?

Okay, so when you try to identify a “writer,” the first problem is the definition. What is a writer? Someone who makes their living by writing? A novelist? Newspaper journalist? Poet? Advertising Copywriter? Resume-writer? Or someone who writes because they love it, regardless of whether they get paid for it? Because,…