Welcome to the blog – advice, opinions and musings on how to make words work
Struggling to write is a universal human experience. We all find it hard to some degree, as I've explained before. But if the key word is 'human', what about AI? After all, ChatGPT is more powerful than ever (even if it has disappeared from the headlines). And AI...
It's tempting to think that writing comes easily to everyone but ourselves. But if we could see inside their heads, we'd probably find that their...
An embarrassing mishap befell me during my recent summer break. It happened when I was searching for the bathroom in an unfamiliar West Country pub....
I found myself in a strange situation recently – I was approaching a long Zoom call with genuine excitement. It was a webinar by an expert I'd just...
Telling someone they need help with their writing rarely lands well. You may be right. They may even agree with you. But they'll still probably feel...
One of the biggest dangers of relying on AI writing bots is perhaps not the most obvious. It’s not that what they produce is inferior to human...
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Most of us don't like the way we look in photos. We wince slightly when we glance at a picture that includes us. Despite how it might feel, though,...
Let's start out with a quick question. Look at the line on the left in the image below. Which one on the right do you think is most similar: A, B or...
Much of what we write often sails way over our readers’ heads. The problem is that we take our own knowledge for granted and assume that everyone...
The headline almost leapt out of my screen. It was June 2020. Every day was bringing another batch of harrowing news stories. Yet this one, on the...
‘Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.’ So said Gene Fowler, the American...
When writing anything for a global audience, it’s best to leave idioms out of it. Idioms are groups of words whose meaning is usually...
Patriots and language guardians rejoice: any perceived threat to our mother tongue from pervasive Americanisms – at least as far as our...
Step away from the keyboard and pick up a pen. That’s the latest expert advice for anyone who wants to study and remember more effectively. We...
Writing before high-pressure situations can raise your performance in them, according to new research. It may seem counter-intuitive, but taking a...
If you missed out on learning grammar at school – because it was no longer being taught in detail or you were too busy smoking behind the bike sheds...
Good writing is powerful. Bad writing belongs in Room 101. George Orwell, creator of that fictional torture chamber where people’s worst...
Writing messages that are effective for all your readers is not as easy as it may first seem. New research shows that patients may be risking their...
David Cameron has referred to it as his ‘mission’ and his ‘passion’, but it does seem that very few people are entirely sure...
Jargon can bring clarity for experts and irritation for laypeople, but could it sometimes be life threatening? Yes, according to the coroner heading...
Finance is a murky place for many people. Money comes into the bank account and it goes out again. And the process in between is something of a...
Apostrophes are the Marmite of punctuation marks: you either love them or hate them. But if you are one of the many for whom they arouse only...
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