Even though my bread and butter is copyediting, I have a side job at the local university as an academic writing tutor in the Writing Centre. I had a student come in with a paper today. There were quite a few spelling, grammatical, punctuation, and clarity issues. Because she had used Grammarly, which her instructor… Continue reading Why you should ditch Grammarly and hire a professional
Author: Kim Siever
I am a copywriter and copyeditor. I blog on writing and social media tips mostly, but I sometimes throw in my thoughts about running a small business.
Follow me on Twitter at @hotpepper.
Jesus is afraid of the mall, or why punctuation matters
Recently, an incident occurred at one of the local malls (the largest mall locally, in fact) that prompted an armed police presence. People were, of course, commenting on news stories that local media were publishing on their social media accounts. Take a look at the first comment below taken from a Facebook post: Here, the… Continue reading Jesus is afraid of the mall, or why punctuation matters
Difference between humorous and humourous
This is part of the difference between series. While editing something for a client recently, I noticed their use of humourous. Normally, at this point of the blog post, I would explain the difference between humorous and humourous, but in this case, humourous is a misspelling.
One thing not to do when cold calling through LinkedIn
I want to talk about cold calling today. Particularly, I want to talk about cold calling on LinkedIn and one thing to avoid when doing it.
I say voilà. You say walla. But who cares?
About a decade ago, I wrote a small rant about people using walla instead of voilà. I even called such people lazy. I apologize.
Shouldn’t you capitalize “husband”?
The following is a reader submission. Wouldn’t you capitalize husband if in fact you were writing and referenced your Husband? Using the word husband in place of his name. Just like when you would reference your Mom or Dad. I thought personal reference should be added as the 4th reason to capitalize husband from your… Continue reading Shouldn’t you capitalize “husband”?
How to write a proper apology (2 things to remember)
I recently offended a friend of mine through a conversation I was having with another friend on Facebook. I saw how my other friend was being offensive, but I didn’t think I was. I thought I was on the side of my first friend. So, I took it personally. Luckily, I didn’t get defensive, and… Continue reading How to write a proper apology (2 things to remember)
Why your nouns should agree with your adjectives and verbs
Last week, a local media outlet reported on a crime story. In their story, they had the following sentence: A male and female suspect left the home before police arrived but were found at a residence on Stafford Drive North later in the morning. This sentence confuses the reader, making it unclear how many subjects… Continue reading Why your nouns should agree with your adjectives and verbs
The rise of social media customer care
Customer care is an integral part of every business’s success. Customer service is a way of building a better relationship with your customers, thus increasing the opportunities for a positive impact on sales and customer loyalty. Social media has not only emerged as a platform for marketing and advertising, but it is also a great… Continue reading The rise of social media customer care
What is the plural of scissors?
In short, the plural of scissors is, well, scissors. It’s already in the plural form. The word is descended from the Latin cīsōria, which actually did have a singular form: cīsōrium. This evolved into cisoires in Old French, then sisoures in Middle English. And then about a century after it became sisoures, it further evolved to become scissors, influenced by the Medieval… Continue reading What is the plural of scissors?