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Daily Writing Tips

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Note 217 – Is it spelt descendent or descendant?

I saw this word written down today and had to look it up to see if there was also a spelling of descendent.  According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, descendant is a word that is frequently looked up; however, from my research today, it appears that no one has provided a comparison of these two spellings before. … Continue reading

Note 216 – How to create a custom link for your LinkedIn profile in 5 easy steps

As a writer, my name is important to me so I wanted my LinkedIn profile to reflect my name and be able to add it to my websites and emails.  I posed the question to LinkedIn this morning using their ‘Ask a Questions’ function (did you know that you can only ask 10 questions a month?).  Anyway, the question … Continue reading

Note 215 – A little bit of history about British and American English

The different dialects used in America and and United Kingdom are sometimes known American English and British English.  Peter Strevens, professor of phonetics since 1949 and author of British and American English, wrote: “British and American are seen as ‘families’ of varieties of common language, different, yet having equal merit”. A few examples of differences include: punctuation … Continue reading

Note 214 – How the YouTube tool can help writers

YouTube is a video-sharing website bought by Google in November 2006 and according to Wikipedia “each YouTube video is accompanied by a piece of HTML, which can be used to embed it on a page outside the YouTube website”.  This means it can be added to blogs and websites. I hadn’t realised until recently that this networking tool could benefit me as a freelance … Continue reading

Note 213 – The latin term bona fide

The first known use of the Latin term bona fide was in 1632 (source Merriam Webster online dictionary).  Below are some definitions followed by the use of bona fide in sentences. Definitions The definition of bona fide is ‘good faith’. Daily Writing Tips explain that in contract law, “parties must always act in good faith if … Continue reading

Note 212 – Comparing speciality and specialty

What is the true difference between speciality and specialty?  Is it because the former is British English and the latter is American English? I decided to trawl the internet and a few books in the library today to find out some more, but the answer is not that straighforward.  First I’ll start with some definitions. Definition (as … Continue reading

Note 211 – How do you set up ‘no follow’ attributes within WordPress comments?

Occasionally readers may include a link to another site within the comment they leave on your blog.  This might be for a number of reasons, for example: They would genuinely like you to visit their site. You are an authoritative website and in order for them to obtain a search ranking benefit, they want a connection with your site.  I’ve … Continue reading

Note 210 – You can’t put a price on a writer’s notebook

I don’t go anywhere without my moleskin notebook, although I have recently bought a few of paperblanks ones as I’m drawn to their great designs and magnetised closures.  With their acid-free pages (doing the job of preserving) your writing won’t disappear gradually over the years. My very first A4 lined notebook that I began when I was four years old was not of the … Continue reading

Note 209 – The Latin term ‘status quo’

Wiktionary shows this Latin term in two parts: status meaning ‘state’ and quo meaning ‘in which’.  According to Wikipedia, the definition of status quo is ‘current or existing state of affairs’. The status quo is how things are right now, rather than how things could be. Example sentences Fire swept through the town destroying many buildings. … Continue reading

Note 208 – The Latin expression ‘per se’

According to Wikipedia, per se is a Latin phrase meaning ‘in itself’, although the individual Latin words can be defined as: per = by or through se = itself, himself, herself or themselves The Merriam Webster dictionary explains that per se can be used as an adverb or an adjective as follows: Definition of per se as an adverb (source: … Continue reading

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