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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

Poring over ?Pore? and ?Pour?

Posted on April 14, 2008
Some confusion appears to exist regarding the use of pour and pore. Charlie complains that he has to pour through stacks of badly-written letters to the editor every day.

Posted on April 12, 2008
It's easy to trip up when speaking or writing, but what do you call the results when you do? A few weeks ago, I wrote about eggcorns. These are errors in which people guess wrongly the meaning, origin and spelling of certain expressions. An example would be writing or saying 'flaw in the ointment' instead of 'fly in the ointment'.

A Writer?s Bookshelf

Posted on April 11, 2008
No-one knows it all, and as a writer I use several sources of research for my articles and ebooks. Aside from the resources I use to research particular topics, there are also several essential books I need related to the craft of writing. Here are the books on my bookshelf which I couldn't do without...

That vs. Which

Posted on April 10, 2008
One of our readers, Justin, recently wrote to ask: When proofreading a peer's article on the solar system, I realized that she, and I, are unsure of the proper use of "that" and "which" in a sentence. Below is two examples of the same sentence, one using "that" and the other "which...

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Top Tools To Get Started In Freelance Writing

Posted on April 09, 2008
Any freelance writer starting out these days could be forgiven for thinking all that?s required is a laptop with Internet access, and a telephone. But there?s more to think of; hidden extras which will be needed somewhere along the line if a serious attempt is to be made...

Reader Piqued By French Mutilations

Posted on April 08, 2008
Mari, one of our readers, writes: Perhaps...you could address a problem that seems to have reached epidemic proportions: the difference between pique, peek and peak. Recently I have been inundated with people giving 'sneak peaks' and having their curiosity 'peeked'...

Five Words You Can Cut

Posted on April 08, 2008
One of the best ways to make your writing stronger is to cut unnecessary words. Many people tend to over-write, often in a similar way to how they?d speak. Words creep in that add no meaning and can make a piece of writing sound vague and woolly rather than confidence and precise.

Funny Images Conjured up by Web Comments

Posted on April 07, 2008
Sometimes I'm more amused than annoyed by spelling errors and incorrect word choices that I see in blogs and comments. Here are a few. Let your imagination soar!

Misfeasance or Malfeasance?

Posted on April 05, 2008
I just heard James Oberstar (D-Minn.) chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee spokesman accuse the Federal Aviation Agency of both misfeasance and malfeasance. Here's the comment as reported in the Los Angeles Times: "The FAA would have us believe this was an isolated incident and that the damage is contained, that it was attributable to a rogue individual," Oberstar said...

Keeping a Writers? Notebook

Posted on April 04, 2008
If you?ve ever had aspirations towards fiction-writing, you?ve doubtlessly heard the advice to keep a notebook on you at all times, to jot down those elusive flashes of brilliance that come at the most inopportune moments. It?s definitely a good idea to have pen and paper to hand as much as possible ? however, the discipline of keeping a writers? notebook means more than just scribbling a few words when inspiration strikes.

7 Tips To Bag Your Dream Writing Gig

Posted on April 03, 2008
It?s an average morning in freelance writing land. You?re dressed and fed (maybe), you?ve checked your inbox, and now you?re sipping on a fresh cup of coffee while scanning the Internet job boards for writing gigs of interest. Then you see it. A job that is so suited for you and your writing style, you may as well have written the advert yourself...

Program vs. Programme

Posted on April 03, 2008
One of our readers wrote to ask if we could clarify the difference between program and programme.

Let?s Keep Some of the Old Verb Forms

Posted on April 02, 2008
When it comes to some irregular verbs, I really hate to see the old past participle forms "regularized" to the dominant "-ed" ending. Here's an odd "regularization" of split:

Word of the Day: Zeitgeist

Posted on April 02, 2008
Zeitgeist is a German term that means "spirit of the time." It is commonly used to illustrate the trends and characteristics of a period or generation. Google, for instance, releases monthly and annual reports with the most popular search queries, and they call those reports Google Zeitgeist.

English to Become the Official and Obligatory Language of the Internet

Posted on April 01, 2008
The Central Authority for Internet Control (CAIC) announced today that they plan to make English the official and obligatory language of the Internet, and that by 2010 all the web pages should already be using English exclusively. The objective of this regulation is to make the access to information universal and convergent...

Used Transitively, ?Avail? Is a Reflexive Verb

Posted on April 01, 2008
I noticed the following sentence in a travel blog. It refers to the availability of rental lockers in French railway stations: [Travelers] can therefore once again avail of these services particularly in main train stations in France.

Systematic and Systemic

Posted on March 31, 2008
Mark, one of our readers, requests a discussion of the difference between systematic and systemic. Both adjectives derive from the noun system which, in late Latin, meant a musical interval, that is, a difference in pitch between two notes.

Most Popular Articles March 2008

Posted on March 31, 2008
Below you will find the most popular articles of the past month. Check them out to make sure you have not missed any. A Writer Can be Anyone or Anything: I attended a writers? workshop session at which a minor, but much-published author warned participants against creating POV (point of view) characters of the opposite sex.

Knickerbocker Story

Posted on March 29, 2008
The Oxford Dictionary of Etymology tells an interesting story of the origin of the word knickerbockers.

Starting A Copywriting Business

Posted on March 28, 2008
This is a guest article by Andy MacDonald. Today companies are realizing that cleverly written copy can seriously affect the responsiveness to their ads and marketing collateral. Online and offline content has to be designed in a cleverly written manner to induce the reader to purchase the business?s products or services, or otherwise do what the advertiser wants them to do...

?Wreck,? ?Wreak,? and Other [rek] Words

Posted on March 27, 2008
I saw this in an article about caring for a laptop: If you store your laptop in the vehicle for any period of time, keep in mind that the extreme temperature ranges within the vehicle could wreck havoc with your laptop.

How to Write an SEO Article - Part 2

Posted on March 26, 2008
In part one of How To Write An SEO Article, we looked at how important it is to get the basics of an SEO article correct from the start. We looked at the importance of writing relevant content to the user and not the search engine, and we also looked at the research that goes into keywords and keyphrases that are to be integrated into the article...

Should Web Editors Correct Customers? Grammar?

Posted on March 25, 2008
One of our readers who works as a Web Content Editor raises an interesting question concerning the handling of customer comments on a product web site: Should comments posted by customers be edited for glaring errors of spelling and grammar?

Using Writing Bursts to Generate Ideas and Enthusiasm

Posted on March 25, 2008
Many of us want to write fiction but rarely manage to get round to it. We struggle to find a free hour to write in ? or the energy to write. Doing writing bursts is a great way to get going when time is short and motivation flagging.

Tibetan Situation Getting Sticky

Posted on March 24, 2008
I was startled to read the following in an article by Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen: But China has angrily rejected all calls for dialogue, and Tibet's hardline Communist Party chief [Zhang Qingli ] was quoted Wednesday in a particularly viscous attack on the Dalai Lama

The Silent K

Posted on March 22, 2008
One common spelling error is omitting the K at the beginning of words where it is silent (example: nick-nack instead of knick-knack). The origins of silent K are difficult to pin down. What we do know is that the k wasn't always silent, especially in words of Germanic origin...

The Difference Between ?will? and ?shall?

Posted on March 21, 2008
Reader Eric wonders about the uses of will and shall. When do you use "will" and "shall?" I know that [they] mean the same thing, but I would like to know when to use them in the correct grammatical sense. In modern English will and shall are helping verbs...

How to Send Tactful Emails from a Technical Support Desk

Posted on March 20, 2008
I work in technical support, which has given me many opportunities to develop the skill of phrasing things carefully. If you?re in an IT department or technology company, you doubtlessly have to deal with emails from irate people who?ve just spent hours struggling with a piece of unhelpful software...

How to Write an SEO Article - Part 1

Posted on March 19, 2008
In a recent article, A Freelance Writer's Basic Guide to SEO, we had several requests asking how SEO knowledge can be used in practice, when writing articles. Naturally, we are only too happy to oblige. The methods I am going to talk about in this article have not been learnt in online courses, nor have they been taken from theory manuals you can download for a price on the Internet...

DWT Featured on Reader?s Digest

Posted on March 19, 2008
I remember that my grandfather used to read all those small Reader's Digest magazines. He had a huge pile of them. Time has passed and now Reader's Digest is embracing the Internet. They managed to create a really useful website on www.rd.com.

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