Having been a teacher for nearly a decade now, I value continuous professional development highly. I need those pockets of quietly sitting down and listening to other professionals speak about new work techniques, ways of dealing with troublesome software, clients, or grammar, and methods for getting through the work week […]
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Book review: The Subversive Copy Editor
Carol Fisher Saller is one of the biggest names in copyediting. Her experience as a senior manuscript editor at the University of Chicago Press, chief copyeditor of the sixteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, and editor of the CMOS Online Q&A makes her one ridiculously knowledgeable and skilled […]
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The Importance of Not Specialising
You have a career. You went to university for it. Chances are, you were streamed into your field from the age of 12 or so. You are highly knowledgeable in your specific field. You hate it. After spending over a decade of your life, and endless energy and resources, specializing […]
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Book review: Confessions of an Advertising Man
David Ogilvy, hailed as the “Father of Advertising”, was a Scotsman who worked as a farmer and a French chef before moving to New York to open an advertising agency. He was an advertising pioneer and his advice still rings true today, 70 years after his book Confessions of an […]
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What is proofreading?
The proof is the finalized draft of a text. After you have written and edited your text for factual correctness, structural integrity, grammatical accuracy and getting the correct message across, there is one last step before sharing it with an audience: proofreading. Proofreading is the minute examination and correction […]
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Dissecting the Frog: How to Make Your Writing Funnier
Everyone enjoys a little humour sometimes. We judge the interest level of seminars, books, and even news articles by whether they can make us smile. Smiling is a good sign that we are engaged and paying attention. As the saying goes, time flies when you’re having fun. But what makes […]
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Janus Words: The Two-Faced Words of English
What comes to mind when you read the verb ‘to dust’? If it is something along the lines of ‘I hate dusting the cupboards – it’s a thankless chore!’ I wholeheartedly agree with you. Or maybe you thought of ‘Dust the cake with powdered sugar before serving’? If you look […]
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Using the Present Perfect: Why Would You?
One thing that I always notice when reading British and American novels one after the other is the difference in their use of the Present Perfect tense. As any fellow English language teacher would be able to corroborate, teaching the Present Perfect is the bane of the English as a […]
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Using Clichés: Should You and When?
A widely debated point in writing both fiction and non-fiction is the use of clichés: phrases or expressions that are overused; so commonplace that they are boring and predictable. Let’s take a look at why it’s not advisable to use them, especially in writing: But does that mean you shouldn’t […]
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Weasel Words: What Are They? How Should You Use Them?
What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word ‘weasel’? Fast, sleek, always able to escape? Weasel words fit two of those three adjectives – their speakers use ambiguous words that make them sleek and able to escape responsibility for their statements. Who can you think […]
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