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This point came up in an email conversation today with a friend and I would like to thank him for the inspiration for today’s blog. I had previously told him that you shouldn’t put commas either side of bracketing commas (for more on this, see Note 3: The use of brackets and bracketing commas), or … Continue reading
Yesterday, someone asked me why publishers only put quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph when the speech goes on for more than one. I’ve been researching this today. According to Bernard C Lamb in his book The Queen’s English, he explains that “in quoted speech lasting more than one paragraph, there is an … Continue reading
Did you know that another name for a question mark is “an interrogative point” and another name for an exclamation mark is “bang” in printer’s jargon (as cited in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang)? When used together they are known as an interrobang and can look like either the attached image or ?! or !? The history of the interrobang … Continue reading
It is unnecessary to add multiple exclamation marks (!!!!) or question marks (????) at the end of sentences. Daniel Scocco at Daily Writing Tips has written an article called ‘Punctuation Errors: Multiple Punctuation Marks’ and makes a very good point that we should trust the emphasis of the punctuation mark and not increase the number of them that we … Continue reading
During my research today, I found many definitions and explanations of the words efficiency and effectiveness, but my favourites are Peter F. Drucker’s and the Cambridge Dictionaries online: Definitions from Cambridge Dictionaries Online Efficiency When someone or something uses time and energy well, without wasting any http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/efficiency?q=efficiency Effectiveness Successful or achieving the results that you want http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/effective_1?q=effectiveness … Continue reading
Yesterday I blogged about creating a writing plan that works. Today I have not only tested out the plan, but also discussed it with the family which includes my two young children. They seemed to like the idea that if mummy starts to make more money in her new freelance writing career, she will be able to … Continue reading
This week I began a six week freelance writing course with Daily Writing Tips http://www.dailywritingtips.com/ and one of the first tasks was to create a writing plan. This couldn’t have come at a better time as I have been struggling to fit everything in. Today I have been busy adding up the hours I spend on the different areas of my life, … Continue reading
Today I am comparing ‘a lot’, ‘alot’ and ‘allot’; however one of them doesn’t exist in the English language. http://oxforddictionaries.com defines the words as follows: A LOT means “a large number or amount” ALOT is sometimes used, but is not a word in the English language. ALLOT is a verb meaning “given or apportion (something) to someone” Here are some examples in sentences: … Continue reading
Today I am comparing three very different words which are all pronounced the same – weather, whether and wether. Collins English Dictionary & Thesaurus defines the words as follows: WEATHER is a noun meaning “day to day meterorological conditions” WHETHER is a conjunction “used to introduce an indirect question or a clause after a verb expressing or … Continue reading
The words avenge and revenge have different meanings. This blog shows the definitions of the two words as well as some examples of their use in sentences. AVENGE According to the Collins English Dictionary & Thesaurus, the verb avenge means “get revenge for” and “to inflict a punishment in retaliation for (harm, injury etc) done to (a person … Continue reading
My Writing Notebook 