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Legal Writing

Daily Writing Tips

Are you trying to improve your writing skills? If so Daily Writing Tips is the right place for you. Featuring daily tips about grammar, spelling, punctuation, copywriting and more!

Post Frequency: 3.6/day

Last Entry: November 02, 2020 at 06:34:48

Deep POV

Posted on March 18, 2009
One of the advantages of belonging to a writers' group is that every member has different strengths and areas of expertise. As a result, we are continually learning from one another. For example, I learned about Deep POV from one of my colleagues.

Modernizing Liturgical English

Posted on March 17, 2009
A reader writes: In church, our liturgy has traditionally used a phrase such as "Thou Who sittest at the right hand of God the Father" to refer to Jesus, singular. As we have changed over from using the King James Bible translation, we have also gradually changed from use of "thee" and "thou" and the "est" forms of the verbs in the liturgy...

Short Story Competition 2: Tenth Round is Open for Voting

Posted on March 17, 2009
All right folks, the last round is live. We have 7 stories competing on this one, for a total of 97 stories and over two months of competition. Phew! If you sent a story to us and it was not published in any of the previous rounds, let us know as soon as possible and we will look in the hundreds of emails that we received trying to find it...

Running ?Toward? the House, or ?Towards? the House?

Posted on March 16, 2009
As prepositions, the words toward and towards both have the following meanings: in the direction of facing with regard to as a help to

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In the Long Tail

Posted on March 15, 2009
You experts in SEO out there will laugh, but I had never heard the expression "in the long tail" until I came across this sentence on a site devoted to that subject: Fresh and relevant content is becoming more and more important to SEO and establishing rankings, both for money terms and in the long tail.

How ?Fancy? Should Your Manuscript Be?

Posted on March 12, 2009
A reader asks: When sending in a manuscript, how much fancy things do you do? I mean the creative font of the, "Chapter 1," or the swirly design that is sometimes in between paragraphs to demonstrate a lot of time has passed, or its a new scene. Does the publisher just decide it all?

Participles Fused and Otherwise

Posted on March 11, 2009
If you don't know what a fused participle is, read on. The present participle is the form of the English verb that ends in -ing: walk walked walking To function as a verb, the present participle must be used with an auxiliary verb:

Pangrams and Lipograms

Posted on March 10, 2009
I've long known that the sentence The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog contains every letter of the alphabet. What I didn't know is that such a sentence has a special name.

Short Story Competition 2: Ninth Round is Open for Voting

Posted on March 10, 2009
We are getting close to the end of the second Short Story Competition. Today's round has some interesting stories as usual, so make sure to read them and cast a vote for your favorite one. Every week only one story passes the round and gets promoted to the grand finale, where we will declare the overall winner and the three writers who will receive the prizes from WhiteSmoke.

More Than One Meaning for ?Poke?

Posted on March 09, 2009
One of my favorite country expressions is "pig in a poke." For those unfamiliar with the expression, a "poke" is a sack. To buy something without first looking at it is to buy a pig in a poke. (As we do when we buy things online.) I once used the word with a group of eighth-graders and discovered that poke can be used with a sexual connotation...

Can ?Enclosure? go at the top of a letter?

Posted on March 09, 2009
A reader inquires: Is it permissible to list Enclosures at the top of a letter right after Subject and/or References or should they always be listed at the bottom of the letter after your closing? I suppose that anything is "permissible," but some things are not advisable...

?Yours faithfully? or ?Yours sincerely??

Posted on March 05, 2009

An Unexpected Question About ?You?

Posted on March 04, 2009

Sample Query Letters

Posted on March 03, 2009

Short Story Competition 2: Eighth Round is Open for Voting

Posted on March 03, 2009

30 Words Inspired by 29 People and An Elephant

Posted on March 02, 2009

This Charette is Not A Tumbril

Posted on March 02, 2009

The Changing Faces of ?Present? and ?Presentation?

Posted on March 01, 2009

Flautist or Flutist?

Posted on February 26, 2009

3 Reasons to Ditch Your Novel?s Prologue

Posted on February 25, 2009
The prologue is a legitimate story-telling device, but many readers admit that when they see the word "Prologue," they skip at once to the page that begins with the words "Chapter One."

Short Story Competition 2: Seventh Round is Open for Voting

Posted on February 24, 2009
Welcome to the seventh round of the second Short Story Competition. Apparently we are going to have a total of 12 rounds. Whew, that is three months qualifying stories to the grand finale! The poll is going to remain open until the midnight of the upcoming Sunday...

O Captain, My Captain!

Posted on February 24, 2009
Reader Cathy poses this question: Is the proper use of helm "at the helm" or "under the helm?"

The Difference Between ?While? and ?Whilst?

Posted on February 23, 2009
A reader asks: what is the difference between while and whilst? Both while and whilst have been in the language for a very long time. While was in use in Old English; whilst is a Middle English development of while. As conjunctions they are interchangeable in meaning, but whilst has not survived in standard American English...

4 Exasperating Malapropisms

Posted on February 22, 2009
Malapropisms can be funny, but only if one understands both the misused word and the word appropriate in the context. Here are four malapropisms that left one reader scratching his head: 1.The butler entered the drawing room bearing the visitor’s name card on a silver sliver...

I wish I were?

Posted on February 19, 2009
A reader wonders whether to use was or were in the following examples: I wish I were…or…I wish I was… If only it was…or… If only it were… What is the rule?� With these examples, the choice is obvous because the words wish and if only make it clear that the speaker is talking about something that is [...

Tastes Good Like/As If??

Posted on February 18, 2009
I belong to a generation that remembers the Winston television ad: Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. English teachers everywhere in the United States had fits over that ad, but evidence was mustered that plenty of precedence existed for the use of like as a conjunction by recognized masters of English prose, including another “Winston” We are [...

Not All Epithets are Insults

Posted on February 17, 2009
Judging by the word's common use in today's media, one might imagine epithet to be no more than a synonym for insult. Some epithets are insults, but the word has a wider application.

When -OT is [?t]

Posted on February 16, 2009
In reading some instructions for building a 3-tier strawberry bed, I came across the word spiget. At first I thought it was some specialized gardening term. Then I figured out that the writer was referring to a spigot. Spigot is one of four English words in which the final -ot is pronounced [it].

Short Story Competition 2: Sixth Round is Open for Voting

Posted on February 16, 2009
Alright folks, it is time for another round or short stories. If you haven't read last week's round, check it out. The winning story was hilarious, titled Orange Bubble Power. You have until the midnight of next Sunday to vote on today's stories. One story wins each individual round, and at the end we make a grand finale with the round winners, declaring the overall winner and awarding the prizes.

What?s a Retronym?

Posted on February 15, 2009
When my children were infants, they wore diapers. Every so often I would splurge on a box of the newfangled, expensive, disposable kind. Now when people say "diaper," they mean the disposable kind and would call the kind I used "cloth diapers." Earlier than that, back when he mowed the grass, my big brother longed for an "electric mower...

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