More about writing and grammar

Capitalisation guidelines for business writing One of my pet hates is the overuse and inconsistent use of initial capitals. I think many people were taught that all important words deserved to be capitalised and old habits die hard. The modern trend is for more minimal capitalisation. There are some specific rules, but the basic rules […]

Online Writing Training It’s a fact: online course completion rates are low. If you manage self-paced online courses in an organisation, this blog is for you: Seven ways to encourage users to complete online courses. Write your own copy If you have your own business, this blog is for you. I was at a networking […]

A monthly e-newsletter about writing and grammar Online learning I have written a blog on how I see online learning has changed over the last 10 years. Read more if you’re interested in online learning. I offer the following courses for individuals and organisations: Grammar, Punctuation and Usage Grammar Basics (for non-native English speakers) Write to […]

Turning verbs into nouns (nominalisation) Last month I wrote about verbing (turning nouns into verbs) and an e-newsletter reader pointed out that we also turn verbs and adjectives into nouns. The process of turning verbs and adjectives into nouns is known as nominalisation (nominalization if you use American spelling!). It’s also sometimes called ‘nouning’. There […]

Verbing: turning nouns into verbs When we add endings to nouns to turn them into verbs, it’s known as ‘verbing’, ‘verbification’, ‘denomilisation’ or ‘verbifying’ – ugly words to describe a common process! For example: She eyed an opportunity. He tabled a proposal. She authored a book. They accessed a lift. You can friend and unfriend people on Facebook. She messaged someone on her phone. Some of these verbs even […]

Improve your writing with an online class My latest online courses are now available I’ve finally finished rewriting all my online courses. I thought this would take a month or so and it took seven months! My latest two are: Business Writing Grammar Basics The others are: Grammar, Punctuation and Usage Write to Govern emails@work […]

How do you follow up unanswered emails? I was talking to a friend about following up unanswered emails and she sometimes resorts to forwarding the previous email she’s sent with a new message at the top. How do you follow up unanswered emails? Online email course If you want to improve your email-writing skills, sign […]

Most popular searches on Online Writing Training I occasionally look at what terms people search for on my website. The top items are always: Plural of status Staff of staffs At the time of writing this, ‘prepositions in and at‘ was in third place, followed by ‘disorganised vs unorganised‘. Eggcorns The term ‘eggcorn’ was coined by […]

Word choice The English language has a wealth of words to choose from, yet sometimes we struggle to find the ‘right’ word. As Mark Twain said: ‘The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – ’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.’ The English language has […]

All about Words is back. During my break from this newsletter, I continued with my board-paper work, took an overseas trip and revamped my online courses. I will tell you more about the courses in the coming months. Parallelism Parallelism, often called parallel structure, refers to matching structures in a pair or series of related words, phrases or […]