Want to grab your reader’s attention? You must appeal to their emotions.
You don’t need to be manipulative to appeal to your reader’s feelings.
Tagged: Writing Tips
So you want to be a ghostwriter. Here’s what you need to know.
Ghostwriting needn’t be creepy. But you do need to become someone else.
How to Develop Fresh Angles for Your Story
In this digital age of storytelling, writers have multiple vehicles in which to tell their story. Whether you’re writing traditional articles, producing content for private clients, or simply marketing your own work, you need...
10 Tips For Making Your Big Game Coverage Stand Out From the Crowd
A reporter has one job when covering a sporting event – to paint a picture. But what do you do when your entire audience has already seen that picture? In many respects, covering...
Media Insider: How to Reach Millennials, Bloggers on Paris and More Media Moves
Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s round up of journalism, blogging and freelancing stories from the week. If You Want to Reach Millennials, Employ Them (World Editors Forum Blog) The American Press Institute recently published...
Grammar Hammer: Is It “It’s” or “Its”?
It’s just three letters (with or without an apostrophe). It’s one way of saying “it is.” “Its” is a simple possessive of a pronoun. It’s also one of the biggest grammar errors according to...
Grammar Hammer: Apostrophes After “-S”
My boss and I recently debated the proper use of the apostrophe when the word you’re adding it to ends in “-s” or “-es” (for the record, his last name ends in -es). To...
Beyond Print: 6 Alternatives for Writing Assignments
As a freelance writer, you’ve probably seen some of the outlets you write for close down. Fear not, there are still plenty of assignments out there for you. You may just need to look...
Ghostwriting 101: What Authors Need to Know
One of the most frequent questions we get from writers is, “How do I break into ghostwriting?” To answer that question, we turned to ghostwriting expert Marcia Layton Turner (@MarciaTurner) for her advice and...
Grammar Hammer: A Lesson in Writing from David Ogilvy
“Don’t use 10 words if you can say it in five.” This is one of the most common writing tips I come across while I’m researching grammar rules. Oddly enough, we were all taught...
Grammar Hammer: What is the Etiquette for Correcting Another Author’s Mistake?
A few weeks ago, my hometown high school football team faced a minor controversy that was featured in the news. During an away game, they had allegedly trashed the locker room at the opposing...
Grammar Hammer: Each and Every One
Which is correct? To say that I write a blog post for Grammar Hammer each week or to say that I write a post for Grammar Hammer every week? “Every” is used to talk...
Grammar Hammer: Shinny vs. Shimmy
Here’s our latest grammar explainer. This edition covers the difference between shinny and shimmy.
Grammar Hammer: So, Do Writing Disfluencies Exist?
In public speaking, you are taught to watch your use of “disfluencies” – as in the crutch words where you um, like, and you know your way through the silence as your brain scrambles to...
Quality and Relevance Reign: 9 Tips for Creating Online Content from Searchmetrics’ 2014 Study
Google’s algorithms can baffle the best of us. As any blogger or digital writer will attest, it seems that once we’re used to the latest changes, Google unleashes another batch upon us. Be it Panda, Penguin,...
How to Write Business Stories That Matter
There’s more to business writing than earnings and executive appointments. Beyond the sales figures and percentage points is the human element. How do business journalists take a dry business profile and transform it into an article...
Grammar Hammer: Is That Adverb Necessary?
If you were a child of the 70s and 80s, ABC’s animated series Schoolhouse Rock left an indelible mark. Many of us can trace a love for history, mathematics, science and – of course – grammar to the...
Grammar Hammer: Two Spaces or Not Two Spaces?
I’m of the age that one of the classes I took in high school was typing. Putting two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence was drilled into our heads as...
9 Headline Writing Don’ts for Online Journalists and Bloggers
You spent hours laboring over an article or blog post. You did your research and fussed over sentences until they were just right. The only thing standing between you and your next assignment is...
Grammar Hammer: All Day Every Day or Everyday?
A suggestion from a loyal reader inspired this week’s Grammar Hammer. Is everyday one word or two words (every day)? Both variations refer to an activity that occurs on a daily basis. As usual,...
