Edit Nation Blog

Hi all! This is mostly real estate-related material today. What's wrong with these sentences? (Could be more than one thing!) Relax and enjoy Florida at it's finest in this one-of-a kind amazing home. Its a combination of hardware and software. Clark Construction...

Is leadership a top-down or bottom-up process? I've thought a lot about this question since the '80s, when I was dating a musician whose music was amazing. I'd watch him playing and think: Is he reaching up to God, or is God reaching down to him? When we attempt...

A very basic rule. Let's look at this sentence. Father Andres Simpkinson, will tell us about his missionary work. No! What's that comma doing there? Here's another sentence. The sisters, neither of whom liked their eldest sister, drained their mother's estate while...

Hi all! I hope we all know that punctuation with quotation marks is very straightforward in American English. There are very straightforward rules, which always include the word always. You always lead with double quotes. If there is quoted material inside the double...

I am always interested in hyphens. It's not stretching the truth to say that I actually love hyphens. A hyphen is always worth looking at—even though what should be a hyphen often turns out to be a dash—because a hyphen generally indicates a word in a state of flux....

I've been on a creative tear recently, buying domain names left and right, which means I'm getting all sorts of spam from companies that say they'll write my content (cheap!) or design my new logo (cheap!), but this is the first resume-writing spam I've gotten. Could...

Unbelievable. No wonder the email that introduced me to this website landed in my spam box. At first I thought they were poor, uneducated people from a third-world country, but it turns out that "Whois" says the site is registered in Louisiana. Ahem. The site is...

When you are an online "newspaper" that is dependent partially on contributions from your readership, it behooves you to establish editorial guidelines with respect to "style": spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. Publicly declaring editorial standards sets the tone,...

"Blessed" and "blest" are homonyms, though, I must say, when I'm in church I hear "bless-ed'" spoken as two syllables, with the emphasis on the -ed, like in "the blessed Virgin Mary." However, what's the difference between "blessed" and "blest"? Is there a difference?...

You know what they say about "assume," don't you? Most people who have websites use a hosting company. Oftentimes, that hosting company writes the content for the website. The hosting company's clients assume that they are getting solid, knowledgeable writing, with...

One of the easiest traps to fall into as a writer is using repetitive words and phrases. Fortunately, this is a trap that you can see and correct before you publish or print. It's tricky, though, because sometimes it takes a couple of "go-overs" to really see (and...

Good writing is all about word choice in a specific situation. Some words you'd use in formal writing would not be (emphatically not be) what you'd use when writing, for example, colloquial conversation. Here are three words that people seem to use interchangeably,...

Well, if I'm going to blog about it, I guess I'd better get started doing it myself! Look for a "Testimonials" tab coming soon! Overview: Why have testimonials? Testimonials should be a part of every website. The purpose of a testimonial is a public demonstration of...

Hey, I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted a quiz. I had one of those life-changing, pivotal moments last month that was such a, well, it changed everything. One of those. A reset moment for sure. At any rate, life is good, and here's a very interesting quiz. The...

When you are trying to generate business, this is exactly the kind of email that you don't want to send out. How many misspelled words can you find? Take a look! Sarasota Bradenton Home Show Robarts Arena at the Sarasota Fairgrounds Sarasota, FL January 20, 21, 22,...

This is why it is imperative to read your content one more time BEFORE you post it! Take a look. Plus, looking at it again, the "but striking" phrase is surely parenthetical information, and so needs to be enclosed with commas. Sloppy all around. KOHLER Devonshire™...

Here we have a perfect storm of mistakes involving the use of quotation marks. This writer must have taken a page out of Grammarly.com's playbook, since Grammarly claims that it doesn't matter whether you use single or double quotes, but, of course, this being The...

Just when you think you've seen the worst editing ever, someone digs the hole just a little bit deeper. (Actually, this person took things to a whole 'nuther level.) Take a look. How many misspelled words can you find? How many other—basic—punctuation and grammar...

As I've often remarked, when a writer doesn't know a rule, he or she will make the same mistake, over and over and over again. Interestingly—but not surprisingly—the first sentence in this quiz is from one of my all-time best contributors, and he gave me the link to...

This is a grab bag of two lessons from three sources. The first lesson is about commas. Great comma lesson from Michael Hyatt: I created my online course, Free to Focus, so that you can forget about “doing it all” and do what matters instead. The online course title...

If you're like me, you do look to The New York Times for punctuation guidance, even if it does seem like "newspaper style" has taken on a life of its own (which frankly I'm sorry to see). I just read a story and here's how The New York Times puts together a plural...

Hello? I rarely get too upset when I read bad content anymore. It seemed as though I'd plumbed the depths. But, no! Just when I think I've seen the worst, the depths get a little deeper! Here's a new low! Steady yourself! Montana Directory Your one-stop destination...

Gee, it's so simple: put your content into spellcheck. Last week I got three emails (the same email, three times) from an organization that is trying to get me to attend one of its events. The keynote speaker is from Australia. The word "Australia" was misspelled...

It might seem like I'm poking fun at this publisher (poor publisher!) or being mean, but the fact of the matter is that sloppy writing from a publisher is inexcusable. If you aren't at least competent in your profession, you've got no business hanging out your...

There's one particular fellow who is pretty well known (to hear him tell it, he's a world famous, best-selling author) and I just love him. Every email I get from him is rife with basic punctuation and grammar mistakes, and many an EditNATION.com quiz has been drawn...

I get the fact that lots of people have content thrust upon them from their Mother Ship. Yup, I get it. However, just because content has been thrust upon you doesn't relieve you of the responsibility of looking it over, popping it into spellcheck, and making...

From time to time I look around publishers' websites, just to see what standards the company sets. I feel that a publisher's content should be flawless, period.  Now, it's true that some publishers will use a serial comma and others won't—just as long as there is...

Should you wish to learn more about us and our services, feel free to contact us or sent us a message. “Sent” us a message? Setup your website fast and easy and without any coding, we provide you with easy options panel to make whit task simple. “Setup” is a noun: The...

This material is mostly from one site, but there is a good variety today. Have fun!  Should you wish to learn more about us and our services, feel free to contact us or sent us a message.  Setup your website fast and easy and without any coding, we provide you with...

1.    I enjoyed the class last night and I am looking forward to tonights’ class. Ooh, a little run-on sentence. You need a comma after “night.” Plus, there’s the matter of the misspelling of “tonight’s.” 2.    For a discussion about “girl friend”: one word or two,...