by Pat Iyer | Jan 9, 2020 | Blog, Writing Skills
You may be thinking that direct quotes belong exclusively in fiction. The truth is that you read either dialogue or direct quotes in non-fiction all the time—from news articles to blogs to books. Here’s an example from the CNN website. South Bend mayor and...
by Pat Iyer | Dec 12, 2019 | Blog, Writing Skills
Is there fat you can trim from your writing? Is it time to put your writing on a diet? Deleting redundant phrases makes your writing more professional. I wish I could say that one of the most dramatic signs of amateurish writing is using redundant phrases....
by Pat Iyer | Oct 30, 2019 | Blog, Writing Skills
As any driver knows, when you change lanes, you’re supposed to signal your intention to do so in order to warn drivers behind you. This helps to prevent accidents. Do you signal your intentions when you use we versus you? I’ve noticed that speakers and writers often...
by Pat Iyer | Sep 12, 2019 | Blog, Video, Writing Skills
Many features can make or break the power of headlines to draw in a reader. Length Matters Google usually displays 50-60 characters of a headline, so, regardless of a headline’s length, the beginning needs to be compelling. In general, for English-language headlines,...
by Pat Iyer | Aug 23, 2019 | Blog, Grammar, Writing Skills
She Lost a Job Opportunity Because of Punctuation Errors I know this because she lost a job with me. I looked at countless resumes when I had my own business. The moment I saw a typographical error, grammatical mistake, or punctuation error, I stopped reading. Do you...
by Pat Iyer | Jul 10, 2019 | Blog, Editing, Video, Writing Skills
Talk about concise writing – it does not get any briefer. Today I saw an ad that popped up to the right of a YouTube video I was watching. It caught my eye because it was so concise. It read: New Need Now And the name of the product. In the world of writing,...