Best

Joanna doesn’t make it easy. She wants me to pick my best post of the year.

Now, I am beyond terrible at picking only one thing whenever anybody asks me to name a favorite–author, song, cookie recipe, spinning fiber, book. About the best I can usually do is narrow it down to a small group. But, just one? There are so many good ones to choose from!

• My tongue-in-cheek look at travel terminology
• My parallels between saving gas and good writing habits
• My exploration of when passive writing is actually the right choice
• My look at how writing ‘what you know’ is actually limiting
• How about my series on Handwriting? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
• My look at simplicity
• Then, my “how-to” about i.e., and e.g. was awfully popular
• I’m still pleased with my post about how to be convincing, too
• Not to mention the discussion about the difference between linguists and grammarians (Part 1, Part 2, and my favorite, Part 3, about what to do when non-writers get upset when you DON’T follow antiquated “rules”)
• My look at how you can only trust your “ear” so far, when judging correct grammar usage
• My review of writing reviews was definitely one of the great ones this year (not to mention being a great tie-in)
• An examination of poverty
• Then, I was pretty pleased with the non-writing-related posts about geneology. Just to explore the terminology between generations in Part 1 and Part 2
• Not to mention the fact that it was fun showing off the Holiday card I designed

But .. which is the BEST?

None of the above. I’ll pick this post, on “Dressing Up Your Casual-Wear Writing” because, like Henry Higgins, I think that sometimes HOW you say something is almost (almost!) more important than what you say–because it’s all about knowing how to talk to your audience.