by Nancy Tuten | Mar 14, 2021
A faulty comparison is among a host of other issues that can affect the clarity of our writing: elsewhere in this archive, for example, we talk about avoiding vague pronoun references (in particular the vague which) and about using transitions effectively to improve...
by Nancy Tuten | Jun 30, 2020
The corona-virus disease pandemic, which started late in 2019 (thus the name COVID-19), has given rise to increased use of a few confusing phrases and grammatical constructions. Do we have, for example, less cases than yesterday or fewer? Do we say that the number of...
by Nancy Tuten | Apr 28, 2020
In our educational journey, we likely learned some myths about writing. One pernicious myth is the bane of many college English professors’ existence: the belief that writers should always employ the five-paragraph essay template—a rigid model compelling the...
by Nancy Tuten | Nov 16, 2019
Precision in language is critical. If we misplace even a single word or phrase, we risk changing the meaning of our sentence significantly. Such is the case with the difference between the phrases “not all are” and “all are not.” Often we hear...
by Nancy Tuten | Oct 18, 2019
Web content, emails, newsletters, and social media posts require us to write well. Small business owners often can’t afford to hire professional writers and editors, yet we know that our words matter. Here are a few pro tips for professional writing. First, tackle the...
