I’ve been a member of a business networking group for a year now. It’s been a roller-coaster journey. (I love roller-coasters by the way.) So, what happened to get me there? And what benefits have there been? A little over a year ago, I think it was March 2019, I did three things in quick … Read more
Picture books have terrible PR. Ask any librarian: after a certain age, children just aren’t interested in the picture book section anymore. ~ Rebecca Serle ~ Close your eyes for a sec and conjure up an image of a person reading a picture book. What age is this person? Alternatively, if you’re a teacher, visualise … Read more
Why can’t we use enormous, whopping, super colossal, monster, humongous, big words in our writing? I will happily admit that title was much too long. In fact, if I was editing this for a client, I’d advocate against strings of adjectives and recommend using one well-chosen word. Depending on the purpose of the writing, I … Read more
We can teach our children to flap their wings, but conditions have to be just right for them to fly. — Annie Campbell One of my enduring memories from my primary school years is standing up in front of the whole school to proudly read yet another of my long, long, long stories. I loved … Read more
Recently, I’ve had more than a few friends tell me they get nervous when sending me a text message. Why would this be? I’m fairly direct, somewhat blunt and occasionally prickly—okay, I’m frequently prickly. But surely I’m not that bad? Am I? After some not so subtle probing, it transpires they’re worried I’ll pick them … Read more
Writing in Australian English is, at best, a chore and at worst, a complete nightmare from which we feel we will never wake. Our rules are inconsistent, frequently incomprehensible and often downright frustrating. We have multiple spellings and meanings for words. We can’t decide if we want the Oxford comma or not. Capital letters appear … Read more
When I was a student, learning the ‘rules of punctuation’, I would never have dreamt a tiny mark on my page would be the subject of such contention—even among professional editors. The culprit in question, the comma, is of extreme importance when it comes to ensuring clarity in your writing. It has many uses and … Read more
You believe you’ve written strong, clear words. You think you’ve spelled and punctuated it all correctly. You’re pretty sure you’ve said what you meant. You’ve had someone check it. You’re ready to publish it. Or are you? Before you go ahead and put your writing out there for the world to see, ask yourself if you are sure about the following things: Was … Read more
In a previous post, Surely We Can Edit Our Own Writing, I talked about why it is well-nigh impossible to edit your own work perfectly. However, what if you don’t have the time (or the money) to employ a professional proofreader to do it for you? Below are six hot tips for proofreading words you have … Read more
Why would you pay for professional editing and proofreading?
As brilliant as our brains are – they cannot focus on meaning as well as secretarial aspects.
Keep reading to find out why …