Using the colon correctly will amaze your friends and impress your colleagues. Hey, it may even get you a promotion. The colon has two main uses: 1. It lets you know that what follows is an explanation or an elaboration of what came before You need to know one thing about English cricket: we can't bat to save our lives. I'll tell you...
The good old fashioned sales letter is often the first contact a prospective customer has with your company. Get it right and it could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Get it wrong and your letter will be filed under B for bin. 1. Woo-hoo I'm here! You must grab the attention of the letter opener within about 4-8 seconds,...
I love the expression dangling modifier. But what is it? And is it catching? A dangling modifier refers to a phrase which doesn't have a grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence. This can have hilarious consequences. Ok, it can be vaguely amusing: Having been kicked in the air, the baby caught the ball. What was kicked? The ball or the...
Not sure when to use a question mark? Confused as to where it should go? Probably not as it's one of the easiest bits of punctuation to get right. But here's a quick recap. Do use a question mark At the end of a sentence with a direct question: 'is kick-off at 7.45pm tonight?' In brackets when you're not sure of a...
Ok, you’ve decided you need a copywriter. And that’s a good thing. Because now you can get on with doing your proper work and leave all the word stuff to a professional. But how do you hire a copywriter? Where do you start? The good news is there are lots of good copywriters around. The bad news. Yep, you guessed it. There...
Anyone who knows me, will know how much I love a great speech. None more so than Lincoln's Gettysburg address. (And yes, I really do own a copy of Lincoln's speeches; it sits on my bookshelf next to Bart Simpson's Guide To Life.) On November 19th 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Edward Barrett gave a...
When you're trying to optimise your website and get it to appear higher up the search engine rankings, it's tempting to stuff your site with lots of juicy keywords and search terms. But be careful. If you overdo it you'll have the search engines scoffing at your attempt to outsmart them, and your readers saying eh? I found this last...
'To boldly go' says Captain Kirk. But I wonder if he ever worried about splitting the infinitive. Probably not. Not with all those aliens around to keep him occupied. The infinitive of a verb is made by adding to. So, to go, to pay, to eat. And splitting the infinitive is when a word (normally an adverb) is plonked between the...
So what's the rule with quotation marks aka inverted commas? Single or double? Well, the good news is: there is no rule. Hooray. If you're quoting direct speech, just pick one or the other and be consistent. If you quote within a quote use the inverted commas that you haven't already used. He said "we deserved to win the game although Ferguson told...
Business bull, buzzword bingo, biz speak and jargonese. Consultants and senior management love them. Copywriters hate them. Here are some overused phrases currently being banded about the boardroom (and a light-hearted look at what they really mean!) 1. Blue Sky thinking: You have our permission to come up with something really craaaaaazy. We will probably ignore you anyway. 2. Going forward: Let...
