So I lie. Sometimes, it’s very easy to say good-bye, like when you have to break it off with a client where the relationship just wasn’t working or the material was driving you batty. As many times as I’ve fallen…

I’d like to take a few paragraphs to vent, if you don’t mind. If you read this column regularly, you know I typically follow AP style — and so do most of my clients. In AP Style, when you’re writing…

Hi, Dawn! Hope all goes well. I have two words that really bother me, and are changed [in my publication] whenever possible: “utilize” vs. “use:” Why not use the shorter term almost all the time; is there really a difference …

The marketing copy on the side of my hair gel this morning prompted this column. The container of gel promised to leave my hair “virtually frizz-free.” If you’ve seen pictures of me on my website or on Facebook, you know…

Memorial Day marked the unofficial start of summer. (The summer solstice begins June 21 this year.) Beach season is upon us. Coconut-scented sunscreen, captivating chick-lit books, Coronas, bikinis, and — for the parents who are reading this — swim diapers…

I was doing research for some parenting articles yesterday, and linked back to one of my earlier blog posts about baby crib mattresses. (Captivating topic, no?) I began skimming the article for a good sentence to use as a link…

My headline isn’t a shining example of good grammar. 1). I’m ending a sentence with a preposition 2). The sentence is in passive voice 3). I’m not sharing a benefit with you, my beloved readers. Let’s start with number three…

As I am writing at work (and I do a lot of writing!), I wasn’t sure about when to use who vs. whom. I thought of your grammar blog again. Maybe you can help? Ms. B Ms. B, Thanks for…

When my declared atheist friend announced he was becoming Christian and would use a version of the King James Bible printed in 1631 as his canon, several other friends speculated on the end of the world. The apocalypse must be…

I will probably get some heat over validating the use of “as per” in business correspondence, but it truly doesn’t bother me. There are, however, some words that make writing sound dated (and I don’t mean “so last week.”) Using…

Is the phrase “as per” (as in “As per my phone call, …”) grammatically correct and what alternatives are there to this phrase? I use this a lot when writing and not sure if it is acceptable! Just a thought …

Devastational is not (yet) a word. I’m glad the spellchecker is with me on this one. I repeat: “Devastational” is NOT a word. The proper word is “devastating.” There are some very good reasons to create new words. But there’s…

I’m sorry to mislead you with this blog post title. You’re not going to find business tips and marketing advice here. (If you’re truly disappointed, check out the invaluable Business Tips for Writers section, but make sure you come back…

How old does something have to be before it can be described as a classic? The marketing world has its own language. Only in business and marketing do you hear terms like “ROI” and “conversions” bandied about as commonly as…

A reader pointed out a grammatical error I made in a previous post (Are You Really Writing a Blog?) that made me blush. I’ve already resigned myself to “Muphry’s Law.” Popularized by Grammar Girl, Muphry’s Law states that whenever you…

If this isn’t a case of attracting what you want to avoid, I don’t know what is. Since I wrote about avoiding the word “And” to begin sentences, I’ve been finding places in my articles where it’s the best transition.…

I sat down to write a post on the rampant misuse of the word “nauseous,” a pet peeve of a close friend of mine. Using the word to mean “nauseated” doesn’t bother me, but we all have our language quirks.…

I’m on a kick of talking about social media and Internet buzzwords. I’ve admitted it doesn’t bother me if people treat social media as singular, even if it’s really a plural noun. But I want to bring up a social…

“Is social media singular or plural?” This question came to me from a regular reader by means of Twitter. Reader questions are rarely easy, but I like a challenge. (So keep them coming!) First, let me say this. Social media…

We look at the header for this blog every day and never think twice about it. It’s the Freelance Writing Jobs Network, a blog network and community for freelance writers. But are we all really “freelance writers?” Or “free…

Virtual Assistant Tracey Tarrant of TCT Business Solutions writes in with a punctuation/style question. She asks: What is proper when starting a new sentence… one space after the period (or question mark, etc.) or two? For example: I went to …

Now that we’ve established how important it is to spell people’s names correctly, I’d like to cover another important fact it’s important to get right: people’s titles. Titles are extremely important to some people. Other people couldn’t care less if…

A sentence in my previous post sent me rushing to several different grammar resources for the correct capitalization rules. It’s a small point, but I often wonder about it, so I thought you might, too. Do you capitalize the names …

I remember the first time I saw my byline in a national publication. And I remember the feeling of my heart sinking when I saw my name misspelled. Fortunately, the first time I saw my name laid out in a…

Last year, on this day, I received a lecture from a friend of Irish heritage. I made the mistake of wishing him a “Happy St. Patty’s Day.” I know I can be a stickler for certain things related to spelling…

As with so many other grammar and style rules and conventions, the way we write numbers has changed as blogging has grown. More and more writers now use numerals in all instances rather than spelling out numbers below 10. It…

The rule that you can’t begin a sentence with the word “And” was drummed into my head by elementary school teachers and my mother from the time I could write. “Everyone” knew that was wrong, wrong, wrong. For years, I…

Part 2 of “Words Our Writing Can Do Without” My business development coach (who is neither green nor hundreds of years old, but is at least as wise as the Star Wars character) likes to say, “There is no try.”…

I recently faced a situation where I had to choose between using “might” or “may” in a sentence. Usually, I intuitively pick the right word (as I do with so much of my writing), so I never considered the rules…

When a new writer comes to me for advice, I typically recommend they begin their career by stocking their bookshelf with several must-read titles. Some cover the craft of writing, and others, the business. Of course, I always recommend they…

My friend and fellow writer, Rebecca Laffar-Smith came to me this morning with a sticky grammar and usage question. I knew the answer intuitively — that I would write the words to-do list with a hyphen. So I sipped my…