After “Bitter Waitress” posted a comment on my rant about a restaurant not taking reservations, I asked her how she found her way to my blog. Her reply indicates, as if you didn’t already know this, that you just never know who is going to find you and why. My commenter (who confesses she’s not [...]
Monthly Archives: April 2008
Dog with a rap sheet update
You may be wondering how Jake, the dog known to police, is doing these days. I’m happy to say he is not looking mournfully out from behind bars. After our call from the Humane Society officer, I did indeed take steps that will weigh in his favour should someone need to lodge another complaint. I [...]
More on lengthy sentences
After posting yesterday about a 66-word sentence, I came across Grammar Girl‘s column on the same topic. Quoting Bonnie Trenga of Sentence Sleuth, she says about why you should keep it brief: “Your readers are following a path you’ve laid out for them. Don’t try to be a turbo guide and make them traipse along [...]
The long sentence award
A colleague asked my opinion on a line in a client’s article this week. The colleague thought the line ungrammatical but the client insisted it was right. In the interests of privacy, I won’t show you the line here. However, I can tell you that technically, the client was right; what he said wasn’t wrong. [...]
Attention to detail
As confessed here before, I am certainly not perfect. But a flurry of errors in ads, newspapers, a concert program and a sign makes me wonder if anyone cares/notices any more. Spotted recently: Diamond in the ruff (rough) Patsy Klein (Cline) Gift’s with purchase (gifts) Anicdotes (anecdotes) Book reccomendation (recommendation) The Shopppes at Dundas (Shoppes, [...]
Leverage this
This week, a client sent me two tapes to listen to and turn into an engaging newsletter article. The tapes contained two different interviews with executives. One took the time to explain acronyms and seemed human, by oh my! The other! I can’t tell you how many times he talked about “leveraging” something or other, [...]
Silly trivia
From Encarta: “The total cost of buying, feeding and maintaining a dog the size of a Labrador retriever is, on average, equal to the cost of one Starbucks Espresso Frappuccino a day.” Lucky for Jake that I don’t spend much time at Starbucks!
It’s all about the relationships
Things are continuing busy here at Get It Write world headquarters, which may offer an explanation for the scarce posting. But I have to take a minute to share that two new pieces of business arrived this week, both “warm” referrals from people I know through networking. I am a big believer in building relationships [...]
Needing inspiration
It’s a dull, rainy, cold, miserable day in Toronto and I am spinning my wheels. I’ve got several articles to write, having done the interviews and research required to get going. But I just can’t get started. I’ve read some of the blogs I follow for inspiration, but that’s not working. I have already procrastinated [...]
Humble pie
When proofreading, you have to pay special attention to things like headlines or common words that your eye skims. I know this, I do, but… Yesterday a client asked me to proofread an e-mail he was sending out. He confessed he had almost sent it out with a glaring typo and wanted me to give [...]