I often decry the misuse and slow disappearance of the comma (,) because it is probably the most handy punctuation device in a writer’s artillery. This tiny mark plays a […]

Everybody deserves to have their name spelled or spoken correctly. To see or hear your name, even your nickname, misspelled in writing, or mispronounced on air, is a personal affront […]

While we are less economical with language in conversation than when we write, tight writing is an artform well mastered by those who write successfully for a living. And, with […]

Experienced writers sometimes use two compositional techniques, inversion and transposition, to bring clarity, emphasis or even variety to their prose. Yet too much of either is both irritating for readers […]

One of the habits all writers need to be conscious of is the tendency to slip into passive voice which erodes the action, immediacy and urgency of their prose. It […]

One of the guidelines for good writing is to ensure tenses are consistent throughout a sentence and, usually, throughout a paragraph or section of a story as well. In rare […]

There are a couple of words that writers and broadcasters are inclined to embellish unnecessarily. The first of these is one used when reporting serious violence, grievous, as in ‘grievous […]

Use of the indefinite article (a or an) has been known to trip up even experienced writers. Which option to use in front of a particular word, especially a word […]

What is it with newsreaders pronouncing words such as Olympics or illegal as if they started with the letter “a”? The last time I checked, the great contest that rolls […]

Having quite an interest in breaking and traumatic news reporting, I’m rather fascinated by a term that’s coming into common usage when describing people fleeing an area under threat from […]