Since writing my previous blog post containing 20 titbits of word trivia I’ve been on the hunt for more weird and wonderful word facts to share with you. All of these facts are about words in the English language, so I’ve deliberately not repeated that each time. Here goes… 1. Alphabet comes from the first two […]
What are your pet grammar peeves? Which grammar mistakes set your teeth on edge? Is it the misuse of apostrophes for plurals? Perhaps the incorrect your/you’re or their/there/they’re? Maybe it’s dangling modifiers or stray semicolons that get your goat. Top of my list has to be when people mix up it’s with its. NB: This is only an issue in written […]
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, let’s crack on to discover which well-known pottery phrases I unearthed… What a lot of […]
Whilst proofreading several websites and documents recently, one of the common mistakes I came across involved conjunctions. Seeing as I haven’t written a grammar-related blog post for a while, I thought it would make a good topic for this week’s article. What is a conjunction? The word conjunction derives from the Latin verb coniungere, meaning […]
Following on from my previous post on names for plimsolls, attention now turns to what we Brits call the humble bread roll. As I suspected, there’s a far greater variety of names for bread rolls than there is for elasticated footwear. But I wasn’t prepared for quite how many… Origin of the bread roll A […]
As the manager or owner of a technology business you may be wondering how a freelance copywriter could write effectively about your ‘baby’. After all, I can’t possibly share the in-depth knowledge and industry insights you’ve acquired over the years. However, it’s often beneficial to get a non-specialist to write content about technical products or services. I’m far less likely to use […]
A self-confessed word nerd and grammar geek, I’ve been fascinated by words and language for as long as I can remember. Add being half German into the mix, and a Modern Languages degree was an obvious choice. This led to a short conversion course in Export Marketing. But after graduating I didn’t set up my stall as a […]
Most people will be familiar with the terms gaggle of geese, litter of puppies, pride of lions and school of dolphins. Yet there are many other collective nouns for animals – known as “terms of venery” – that are less well known but equally worthy. Origins of collective nouns As with most words in the […]
The majority of my clients are based in Warwickshire or the Midlands, but I regularly work with businesses across the UK and occasionally in Europe. I’m equally happy working with companies/business owners direct or as a flexible ‘white label’ resource for digital/PR/marketing agencies looking to outsource their content writing or other editorial services. Confidentiality agreements […]
I’m not a technical writer per se, but I have a proven track record of producing intelligible web content and marketing material for technology clients. Find out more ↦ Organisations offering professional or financial services require a wealth of content that is factually correct, well written and easily understood. Find out more ↦ Companies operating […]
However many times you reread your own words, the chances are that you’ll still see what you wanted to write rather than what you actually wrote. Whether yours is a multinational company or a micro business, first impressions really do count. So it pays to employ the services of a professional proofreader. For a small outlay, using […]
Home › Archive for Freelancing › Page 2 Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve probably noticed that The X Factor is back on our screens for its 12th series. Love it or hate it – I’m a fan but not an addict – the show still… This week’s blog post was inspired by an […]
Home › Posts tagged marketing Would you believe it, but it’s been 21 years since I decided back in October 1996 to set up my stall as a freelancer? After initially offering four services – copywriting, editing, proofreading and translation – I soon dropped the latter to… Do you ever wonder what job or profession you might […]
Home › Posts tagged write As a standalone word, a graph is a diagram showing the relation between variable quantities – usually measured along a pair of axes at right angles. In Linguistics, it refers to a visual symbol representing a unit of sound or… I’ve a confession: this is my first blog post in […]