Tag: Writing Tips; Communication; Language Use

What’s the problem with tautologies?

Identical twin babies is a double helping of ‘cute’. With words, though, doubling up on meaning is not such a great idea.

The KISS treatment. You might not need to give it to every piece of text but it’s always important that your writing is concise.

KISS = Keep It Short and Simple

Why? Three reasons:

1. Your writing will be clearer and cleaner
2. Your readers will stay engaged with your message
3. You’ll save everyone’s time.

‘Like’, ‘such as’ or ‘as though‘? These are three options that seem interchangeable but aren’t. ‘Like’ is close to being the most overused word in the language and apart from the irritation value, it’s often used wrongly.

Have you ever had trouble deciding whether to use ‘I’, ‘me’ or ‘myself’ in a sentence?

It’s pretty easy to make a mistake, especially when speaking. It’s also easy to avoid making an error when you know a couple of easy tricks.

Many writers and speakers are confused about whether something is irony or coincidence. They both involve a relationship between constructed or real-life events but the two are, in fact, totally different.

Don’t ‘measure the measurer’. Advertisers are major culprits but you might have seen this type of error in other places. What does it mean?
It’s such a common mistake, you mightn’t even realise why it’s wrong.

Let me explain.

There’s something wrong with each of these sentences:
     
     A huge amount of ideas came up in the meeting.
     We can cater for any amount of people.
     They were disappointed with the amount of mistakes in the text.
     The amount of people who came were amazing.

Can you work out what it is? 

The art of the dot point list is one you should learn. The skills relate to the visual impact of your text but there are also other things to consider.