Home › Archive for Grammar › Page 2 Every now and then I undertake a large proofreading job, such as a manual or an annual report. The most recent was a meaty 90,000-word operations manual. What I’ve noticed is that the same writing mistakes crop up time and… A recent query from a client reminded […]
Having previously written posts about baking, cooking and dancing related idioms to tie in with popular TV shows, it seems only right to turn to pottery as we approach the final of this year’s The Great Pottery Throw Down. So,… Inspired by the OVO Energy Tour of Britain 2018 cycle race, which whizzed through leafy […]
Home › Posts tagged phrases › Page 2 Numerous Latin phrases and abbreviations have endured the test of time to still feature in English today, especially in the field of business and law. Yet many of them are incorrectly used, largely because people don’t always understand their specific purpose and… If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll […]
To coincide with the latest series of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, I thought it would be fun to compare life as a copywriter to that of a participant on this popular reality TV show. Drawing on my 18… A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence […]
This time last week I joined some 200 of my peers at Copy Cabana 2017 – the 2nd copywriters’ conference to be held in (not quite so sunny) Bournemouth. The event’s tagline is “Prepare to celebrate the life linguistic”. It certainly delivered on its… The inaugural Copy Cabana copywriting conference held yesterday at Silicon Beach in Bournemouth exceeded all my expectations. […]
TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged. Today it covers a diverse range of topics in more than 100 languages. Not only are TED Talks videos entertaining, informative and thought provoking, but they’re also…
Home › Posts tagged language As the final of this year’s Eurovision hits our screens tonight, I thought it would be apt to focus attention on English sayings that include a reference to a European country, city, nationality or language. So let’s kick off this post… As any non-native speakers learning English as a second language […]
Home › Posts tagged lingo Losing the hammer. Blanking an end. Staying in the house. What on earth does it all mean? It can only be one thing… curling lingo. If, like me, you’ve been enjoying watching the British curling teams in action at the… My recent adventure on the high seas (well, the North […]
Home › Archive for Lists › Page 2 As yet another fabulous series of Strictly Comes Dancing nears its conclusion (I’m a bit of a fan, in case you were wondering) it seems apt to focus on dancing idioms for the next post in my series. So, without further… TED began in 1984 as a conference […]
Numerous Latin phrases and abbreviations have endured the test of time to still feature in English today, especially in the field of business and law. Yet many of them are incorrectly used, largely because people don’t always understand their specific purpose and… Since writing my previous blog post containing 20 titbits of word trivia I’ve been on […]
Home › Archive for Language It’s no secret that I love discovering and collecting new words. And I find it much easier to remember them if I group them into themes. I recently came across two new words about senses that complemented a few I… Having previously written posts about baking, cooking and dancing related […]
Home › Archive for Blogging Go on any marketing for small businesses course and you’ll no doubt be told that building up an email list is an essential step to growing your business. So why have I recently deleted my blog subscribers from my website… One of the questions I’m often asked when I tell […]
Home › Posts tagged terminology Losing the hammer. Blanking an end. Staying in the house. What on earth does it all mean? It can only be one thing… curling lingo. If, like me, you’ve been enjoying watching the British curling teams in action at the… Following the historic EU referendum result, I keep hearing – […]
Home › Posts tagged copywriting Like many others, I turned to various creative pursuits for a welcome distraction during lockdown. One of these was rediscovering a favourite childhood pastime: jigsaws. Not only has this helped take my mind off other things these past few months,… One of the questions I’m often asked when I tell […]