Running Text
A blog about editing & writing
Creating Reports That Get Results
An effective report is structured, written, and designed with a particular audience in mind. And, equally important, it has a specific purpose: its creators know exactly what they want that audience to do after reading it. In creating any document, you should identify its likely readers—the audience. What do they already know about the subject? […]
Stylistic Polish: Sentence Rhythm
Good writing is not only grammatical and clear; each sentence has a lively rhythm that draws readers along and keeps them interested. We saw in a previous post how to fix a common problem of parallelism in a series. The original, incorrect sentence was Thyme is low growing, fragrant, and has small purple-pink flowers. This […]
Punctuation Quick Tips: The Semicolon
The semicolon (;) is to many writers a mysterious squiggle. Some avoid it entirely for fear of using it incorrectly, while others tentatively try it out without really understanding its purpose. Writers and editors talking about the semicolon use words like rhythmic, elegant, lyrical, and subtle. It’s powerful punctuation, to be sure, but what’s […]
Punctuation Quick Tips: The Colon
The colon (:) is one of the trickier punctuation marks. You can think of the colon in a sentence as similar to an equal sign: what follows the colon defines, explains, or expands on what came before. One flower stands above all others in poetry, prose, and legend: the rose. Some seed-starting mixes contain coir […]
Grammar Quick Tips: Parallel Series
Thyme is low growing, fragrant, and has small purple-pink flowers. Did you spot the error? The three items in the series aren’t parallel. We can test this by reading the sentence with each item alone. Thyme is | low growing Thyme is | fragrant Thyme is | has small purple-pink flowers This is a common […]
