Okay, Joanna and Brad are asking about “connecting words,” and they don’t mean conjunctions like “and” or “but.” No, what they’re looking for are unique, or treasured words that we’ve found out and about in our daily travels, words that might not be common usage, or often heard, but which…
Writing, in Short
Maybe it’s my own, personal quirk, but I am not a big fan of abbreviations. I can’t really say why. Perhaps there is an affection for formality somewhere in my bone marrow, along with the parts of me that appreciate decent manners and a respect for punctuation. Mind you, I’m…
Respect
Let’s be clear: Civility and Civilization do not depend on knowing when to shake someone’s hand, or which fork to use at dinner. Decisions about whether the short version of “electronic mail” should be spelled with or without a hyphen are not earth-shaking. You don’t have to look down your…
Link Fest
There are lot of other great writing sites out there, you know. Here are just a few for you to look at, in alphabetical order…. Confident Writing E-mail Etiquette Matters! Kate Blogs About Writing Clear and Simple Writing Thoughts
My Two Cents
I’m more a word-person than a number-person, but there are a couple little rules to remember: A percentage is written in hundredths. That is, .25 is the same as 25%. This means that you should never write .25% unless you actually mean to describe .0025 (which is really very, very…
Timely
Since this blog is called “Punctuality Rules!,” let’s talk about punctuality, shall we? To quote myself, “Punctuality is not just about making meetings on time, but about being exact. It’s about doing what needs to be done at exactly the time it should be done. To me, that’s an issue…
Microcosm
I just spent the weekend immersed in the world of knit-bloggers at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY. One of the highlights–other than access to a whole lot of beautiful yarn and spinning fibers–was meeting the other bloggers. Like any community, many of us read one another’s…
We’re All Travelling Together
I have a book called Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy by Stephen L. Carter. It talks about the collapse of basic manners, how they have “become a casualty of our postmodern culture.” You already know that this is one of my favorite themes, and, in fact, I…
Non-Professional Copy-Editing
Dear Bloomsbury USA, I’m just writing to tell you how disappointed I am in your copyediting and cover-design departments. I picked up a copy of your “How I Learned to Cook” by Kimberly Witherspoon and Peter Meehan at the bookstore the other day. The book itself looks interesting, though I…
Genius is in the Details
So, continuing our discussion about the importance of appearance as well as substance, and the hope that we’re not going to let several millennia of civilization collapse in a text-messaging, pictogram-riddled heap at our feet, let’s talk about details, shall we? It is sadly clear that there are a number…
Punctuation Can Save the World?
I talked last time about the importance of style and substance working together to make you look as good as you really are–to back up your knowledge with an assured, confident style in order to be convincing. I’ve also talked rather grandiosely–if not absurdly–about punctuation and punctuality as the basis…
It’s All in the Way You Look at It
Appearance isn’t quite everything.Our modern world may appear to be quite superficial, at a glance. First impressions are key. The old saw, “You only have one chance to make a first impression,” is just as true as it ever was. There are entire industries based on helping people figure out…
Punctually Punctual
This blog is called “Punctuality Rules” for a couple of reasons. One, the name is a play on the word “punctuation.” Originally I had thought to just write about writing, grammar and spelling . . . to address that “its/it’s” and “there/their/they’re” issues once and for all, if only for…