That has to be the best email subject line I’ve seen in ages. Sounds almost like a Zen koan, doesn’t it?
The email came from writer and friend Elizabeth Clarke. She went on to explain, “I got a puppy…” and it seems the lively little guy is getting in the way of her good intentions to [...]

Over the past year, many of you have been following my news about my client and friend Marc Warnke, who has had the vision and commitment to make the journey from hatching an idea, to creating a manuscript, to becoming a published author. The journey reaches its culmination today, folks – the book is now [...]

I got to hear Greg Mortensen speak at the Morrison Center last night. One of the many amazing stories from his amazing journey was about the struggle with his publishers at Penguin over the exact wording of the subtitle for his book, Three Cups of Tea.
The publishers insisted on “One man’s mission to fight terrorism [...]

I’m finally reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. For somebody who makes her living keeping sentences short and cutting out the big words, this is a real feast. His writing is graceful, eloquent, full of meaning and literary allusions, and full of words that send me to the dictionary. With long, loping, looping sentences.
I’m [...]

Nothing makes an English major’s day like seeing the word “grammar” in a news headline. Apparently, the lack of a gender-neutral plural pronoun in the English language is causing confusion on social networking sites: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080627/ap_on_hi_te/tec_facebook_genders
All writers struggle with this one. For example, take a sentence like “Every writer has ______ own unique style.”
Should one use [...]

I’ve been working on new content for Dr. Jennifer Anacker’s website this week and needed to learn more about chiropractic treatment and subluxation so I could describe them briefly and clearly for her readers. That meant starting with research and taking lots of notes. And thanks to a lucky accident — running out of graph [...]

I was the guest speaker for a lively group of business analysts at the Treasure Valley IIBA lunch meeting today. During the Q&A they gave me some wonderful examples of miscommunication. (For those of you who don’t already know this, I’ll explain here that I collect such examples to use for trainings, workshops, and just [...]

Here is the corrected link to the freerice.com site.
Many thanks to the alert subscriber who pointed out that the link in my earlier post wasn’t working! I fixed it there, too.
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Language mavens take heed: you can feed the hungry and build your vocabulary at the same time, while slacking off online, by visiting www.freerice.com. The home page is built around an interactive vocabulary quiz, and for every word you guess correctly, the site’s sponsors donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations’ World [...]

Next Tuesday, April 8th, I’m presenting a luncheon seminar for the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce called “Words That Work: Business Writing Basics.” Can’t wait. It’s always a treat to get a chance to share useful, practical information that makes life and work easier for people. There’s nothing like witnessing those “aha” moments when something [...]