EditNATION.com Quiz: October 7, 2016

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...

On Parenthetical Information and Compound Phrases.

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...

The New York Times SPEAKS!

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...

Red-Line Editing: Worst Offender of the Month

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...

The NUMBER ONE RULE when writing content.

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”...