Last week, the Alliance for Workplace Excellence held its 15th annual Workplace Excellence Awards celebration and lunch. I was delighted to be asked to be asked to contribute an article to the program for the day, and thought I’d share what I wrote with my blog readers, as well: Want to create an excellent workplace? Take a […]
good writing
Working Mother Essay: Winning the Word Count War (Reprise)
Around about now, some of my readers are just starting to panic about getting their application for the Working Mother or NAFE “Best Companies” lists in on time. They’re hunched over the essay, despairing of ever cramming everything they want to say into 2,500 words. If you recognize yourself in this scenario, don’t despair. I’ve pulled out […]
Punctuation (and Other) Pitfalls, Part 2
A couple weeks ago I blogged about common punctuation pitfalls. Since I knew I hadn’t finished the list, I promised a “Part 2.” The only problem is, when I sat down to write it, I realized that a number of common questions and errors that popped into my head were not, strictly speaking, about punctuation. […]
Punctuation Pitfalls, Part 1
A confession: I’ve been a professional writer for more years than I now care to admit, and I still have to pause sometimes and think through some basic rules of punctuation. Since I figure I can’t be alone in this, I decided to bring a few of them together in this post to help us […]
The
Warning: today’s post may seem a bit esoteric. I think it’s pretty darn interesting, and I know it has real-world implications for anyone trying to communicate anything, but if you want to cut to the chase you can always scroll down to the end. What a difference a word makes! I’m reading Wolf Hall, by […]
The Pronoun Problem
What to do about gender neutrality? It was so easy when I was growing up. We were taught that “he” referred to all humans, of either sex, and we believed it. In fact it didn’t and, as an excellent analysis I just came across points out, throughout history it hardly ever has. (Carolyn Jacobson, the University […]
