It’s a tired truism that language changes all the time. Meanings change—sometimes, I think, for the worse: not that long ago, “disinterested” meant something completely different from “uninterested” (look it up!)—and I think English has suffered a loss with the melding of the two. But pedantic arguments aside, words do matter in the real world. […]
writing
The Secret to Organizational Excellence
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 […]
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 […]