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Research shows that written communications full of typos, misspellings, and usage errors leave readers with a poor impression of the writer and the organization. But proofreading well is challenging. Before you begin proofreading, make sure your document is reader-focused—with a clearly stated main point, clear organization, easy-to-read formatting, and concise language. Then follow these guidelines …

This is from Dan, who offers us a new word and an idea worth understanding and enjoying. He suggests looking at Wikipedia's link for more paraprosdokians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraprosdokian A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader …

Do you use a singular or plural verb to match a collective noun such as team or staff? The answer is, It depends. If these nouns are acting as a unit, use a singular verb. Example: The team is heading for practice this afternoon. If the sentence indicates more individuality, use a plural verb. Example: …

We tend to speak plainly and succinctly but for some reason, when we write, we stuff our sentences with extra verbiage, turning streamlined ideas into confusing, out-of-shape messes. Here is a good example of a sentence that needs a workout: The network that this computer is able to connect to contains information that is privileged …

Twitter's limit of 140 characters creates some risks. Here are some guidelines for maintaining a professional tone for your tweets: 1. Ask if a tweet is the right format for your message. Step back if you find yourself struggling too hard to fit your message into the site's character limit. Instead, try turning your message …

Thanks to Lawrence K., who responded to my tip on forming plurals of symbols by pointing out that the plurals of some abbreviations are formed in ways other than by adding an s. Example: pp. = pages Example: sp. = species (singular); spp. = species (plural) Example: cc., c.c., C.C., Cc, or cc = copy/copies …

Do you get confused about the proper way to use a semicolon? Semicolons do not represent a full stop at the end of a sentence, as periods do; rather, they're like the "yellow light" of punctuation marks: they signal a pause between one sentence and the next. You slow down, then stop at the end …

Sometimes it can be easy to confuse dashes with hyphens when writing or editing content. For example, you might see text such as 9am-5pm in one reference and 9am–5pm in another. Which is correct? The two different marks do not interfere with our understanding of the intended information; however, one mark is more precise than the other. …

In this blog, I'd like to help you with other uses of the colon. Rule 4: It's often useful to use a colon instead of a semicolon between two sentences when the second sentence explains or illustrates the first sentence and no coordinating conjunction is being used to connect the sentences. If only one sentence …

This is a Q & A with Wendy Burt-Thomas, a full-time freelance writer, editor, and copywriter with more than 1,000 published pieces. Her third book, The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters hit stores in December 2008. Q: Can you tell us about your book? The book was a great fit for me because I'd …