5 Tricks That Will Improve Your Everyday Writing

You don’t have to overhaul your style and approach to improve your daily writing tricks; there are actually lots of little things you can do to advance your writing and see a difference immediately. These five tips are easy to implement and maintain, but can have a profound impact on …

Is It Okay to Use the Singular They?

What is the singular they? You may have learned in English classes that pronouns need to match the nouns they refer to. So, for instance, you use she to refer to an individual girl or woman, he to refer to an individual boy or man, and it to refer to …

How to Start Writing Something

Start Writing: Begin With First Drafts “I have rewritten – often several times – every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.” – Vladimir Nabokov As any seventh-grader should be able to tell you, the first stage of the writing process is prewriting – planning out what …

Is “Different Than” Proper English?

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’re probably aware that using proper English is governed by rules and restrictions that are largely unconscious within the minds of native speakers. You probably realize that these rules do not completely overlap with the rules of “proper English”. Which are …

The Surprising History of the Slash

Chances are you give little thought to the slash mark (/), but as it turns out, this little piece of punctuation has an interesting history. Origins of the Slash Mark The slash was invented, according to reporter Keith Houston, by a twelfth-century Italian scholar named Buoncampagno da Signa. He intended …