Questions that bug newbie writers may seem so trivial, but the truth is that we’ve all asked ourselves or others these same questions. For example, we’ve all—at an early point in our writing career or school days—had questions like, what is a story? What is a plot? Are they the same things? Although a lot … Read more
We see examples of technical writing every day, yet it seems to be one of the least popular types of writing. But it’s everywhere. FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), Customer Service scripts, How-to videos, User manuals, and Release notes are just a few of the products made by technical writers. Each time you click the ‘Help’ … Read more
Conjunctive adverbs are words that are used to connect clauses. They are also transitions which show cause and effect, contrast, comparison, and other transitions. So, they’re both adverbs and conjunctions—they’re adverbs whose job is to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. They are usually confused with coordinating conjunctions but as you’ll find out in this … Read more
Opening sentences play a huge role in engaging the reader and inviting them to read the rest of the story. A lot of writers find it difficult to write an opening sentence that gets the reader’s attention. However, you don’t have to go out of your way to interest your readers. You don’t necessarily have … Read more
Good writing is neat, concise, comprehensive, and flows nicely. But it doesn’t just come together with a swing of a magic wand. It’s got to be conceived, arranged, and glued together. Gluing together random thoughts is a pretty tough job, a task entrusted to conjunctions. One very important type of these conjunctions is the coordinating … Read more
The general purpose of writing is to communicate views and ideas. What we (writers) intend to do is organize our written pieces in a way that provides some meaning. We aim to functionally organize sentences and paragraphs to help our readers follow the development of ideas just the way we conceived them. By using logical … Read more
Writers rarely write perfect first drafts—if I had to make an educated guess, I’d say 99% of the time, first drafts are full of rhubarb. Seasoned writers have come to terms with this reality. In fact, they understand that first drafts—and sometimes, a few subsequent ones—are for transferring rough ideas and plots onto paper (or … Read more
Do you know the Brooklyn Bridge? Now, imagine the time before it was built—like before 1883. Obviously I wasn’t there, but I can imagine that it was a struggle for someone to move across the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Well… you could still get across but not as conveniently as using the bridge—well, … Read more
Remember your high school English always reminding you that you can’t start a sentence with “and” or “but”? Well, I’m here to tell you that you can start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction, whether “and,” “but,” or the others. It’s totally okay. I believe, though, that starting a sentence with these words still looks … Read more
Very few people (writers) know which words to or not to capitalize in a title or section headings. Usually, people just write the full title in caps or capitalize words which have three or more letters. Post on social media and blogs usually get away with such mistakes, after all, who has time to police … Read more
