Home › Posts tagged clauses 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… Am I just becoming more pedantic as I get older? Or […]

Thanks again, you’ve made a difficult process much easier and saved hours of my life from me deliberating over commas! Steph Madden, Owner, Testing Times Maths I’ve known Geraldine for years and she really knows her stuff. Have been using her for some new projects recently and as well as great copywriting, she’s extremely easy […]

Home › Posts tagged gardening Like many of you, the recent spate of spring sunshine has enticed me out into the garden to do some much-needed tidying and cutting back in the borders. While snipping away with my secateurs, it occurred to me that copy-editing… Most people are familiar with acronyms, homonyms, pseudonyms and synonyms. But […]

Home › Posts tagged blog 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 […]

I’ve recently noticed a growing trend of people misusing – or, to be precise, failing to use – apostrophes in expressions of time. It seems to be fairly widespread, ranging from emails and newsletter content to blog posts and social… Introducing the first in a new series of mini blog posts about common writing mistakes. […]

The English language is positively brimming with acronyms, such as ASAP, B2B, FAQ and TLC. And OMG, don’t even get me started on text speak, like BRB, LOL, ROFL et al! But did you know that what many people refer… Following hot on the heels of National Freelancers’ Day here in the UK, this week’s post aims […]

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,… You know that idiom that refers to comparing yourself to your neighbours as a benchmark […]

I recently overheard a radio news presenter refer to “less people” at a particular event. The issue of whether to use less or fewer in a sentence is one that catches many people out. This is confirmed by Oxford Dictionaries,… The humble apostrophe may be small and trivial to some, but its correct usage brings […]

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 other feature of speech. But it also appears in a combined form as a root […]

Like many of you, the recent spate of spring sunshine has enticed me out into the garden to do some much-needed tidying and cutting back in the borders. While snipping away with my secateurs, it occurred to me that copy-editing…

Hot on the tails of my recent post on idioms about mums for Mother’s Day, this week’s blog takes a look at popular phrases and sayings related to Easter. Not surprisingly, most Easter idioms in English are associated with rabbits, chickens, eggs and lambs – but I thought I’d sneak in a couple of chocolate-based expressions for good measure! […]

Now that the clocks have gone forward, I think it’s safe to say that spring has well and truly arrived. Even if the weather here in the UK doesn’t appear to have received the memo! Not surprisingly, a blog post about spring idioms and sayings ‘sprung to mind’ as an obvious addition to my idioms series. […]

Well, it’s certainly all hotting up in the GBBO* tent ahead of this year’s final… Hopefully there won’t be a soggy bottom in sight! The art of baking covers a wide range of culinary delights, from bread, cakes and biscuits to pies, tarts and puds. And like many popular pastimes, it’s produced an abundance of […]

Home › Posts tagged etymology 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… After visiting an eye-popping Op Art exhibition on the weekend, […]