Writers Blog

“I’m a good writer; I don’t need anyone else to read my stuff. Why should I use a professional editor?” Ever said or thought that? Well, maybe it’s true that you’ve committed Strunk & White to memory. Your work is polished, professional, and print-ready, and publishers are scrambling to be the first...

One thing every professional editor must be very clear about is the variant spellings and meanings of words known as homophones. According to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, homophones can serve as “one of two or more words pronounced alike but different in meaning or derivation or spelling (such as...

Accepting or giving critiques is part of the writing process; either as an author or an editor. As an author, you will, at some point, have someone critique your writing. That is, if you plan on having it published in some way. Someone’s going to read it and give their opinion about your writing. Most...

Hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes have their places in a sentence. Often, they are used interchangeably, and they are not intended to be used that way. They each have a particular purpose. The use of hyphens and dashes can be somewhat confusing. Most writers are very familiar with using hyphens, since...

I am always checking my style and grammar books to ensure that I am capitalizing words correctly. It is not easy to remember all of the rules and regulations regarding capitalization. A helpful way to remember when to capitalize (in most cases) is to use this phrase: Proper nouns and words derived from...