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Legal Writing

Daily Writing Tips

Are you trying to improve your writing skills? If so Daily Writing Tips is the right place for you. Featuring daily tips about grammar, spelling, punctuation, copywriting and more!

Post Frequency: 3.6/day

Last Entry: November 02, 2020 at 06:34:48

Warning: Microsoft Did Not Invent Grammar!

Posted on February 15, 2008
Most people who advise on writing tell you to check the spelling and grammar on your work. This is good advice. However, the trouble is that the tools we often use just aren't up to the job. Many of us use Microsoft Word for writing, and its built-in spelling and grammar checker for checking our work...

Top 5 Tips When Bidding For Freelance Work

Posted on February 14, 2008
One way of obtaining freelance work is by bidding for work through websites like GetAFreelancer.com, Guru.com or Elance.com. This route to contract work is a handy tool for stop-gap work but can be a minefield for the uninitiated. The idea is based on the eBay model, where clients post the type of work they are looking for within a budget range, timescale, and description of the work they need completed...

Fun With Words: Palindromes

Posted on February 13, 2008
Palindromes are words, phrases or number sequences that read the same way in both directions. Palindrome derives from the Greek for 'running back again'. Both the Greeks and Romans are known to have enjoyed palindromes. The Greeks also published palindromic poetry...

Will Your Book Ever Be Published?

Posted on February 12, 2008
Every writer who has browsed the pages of the Writers Market is familiar with notations like this one: Publishes 25-30 titles a year. Receives 5,000 queries and 1,500 manuscripts a year.

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What is the Difference Between Metaphor and Simile?

Posted on February 11, 2008
The terms metaphor and simile are slung around as if they meant exactly the same thing. A simile is a metaphor, but not all metaphors are similes.

Months: A History Of Time

Posted on February 09, 2008
Our calendar has changed a lot over the years, but in early Roman times there were only ten months. It was not until 700 BC that the last two months were added by Nuna Pompilus, Rome's second king, and the calendar got a further shake up in 46 BC when Julius Caesar reformed it, changing the number of days in many months...

Site, Sight, and the Spell Check Syndrome

Posted on February 08, 2008
Today I found a plastic bag on my front door. A yellow sticker identified it as a bag for the Scouting Food Drive. Being a writer and a grammar nazi, I never just glance at things like this. It is my curse to read labels in their entirety. In small print I was instructed to leave the bag, with food inside, "in plain site" on my porch.

Experts and Editors

Posted on February 07, 2008
In a previous article we looked at generalisation as opposed to specialising in specific subject matter. We looked at the pros and cons of each, and it provoked a lot of feedback from our readers. One question that popped up involved the amount of knowledge one should attain in order to be considered a qualified expert on a topic...

Poll: Should We Write email or e-mail?

Posted on February 06, 2008
I am pretty sure that you already considered if you should be writing the abbreviation of electronic mail as email or e-mail (or as something else yet). The same confusion applies to the abbreviations of electronic commerce, electronic book and so on...

Street Slang For Scriptwriting

Posted on February 05, 2008
If you're writing a script, one way that you can bring it to life is to let your characters speak in current street slang. That's the advice from the creators of Raindance, which promotes independent film in the UK. They have suggested a number of current slang phrases to give your characters some street cred...

Break Writer?s Block: Choose Your Audience

Posted on February 04, 2008
"Daily writing tips..." a student may be reading wistfully. "Oh, I'd be happy if my main need was tips for improving my writing. But I have to write a paper for school, and I don't even know what to say. I can't even get motivated to start." This kind of writer's block - the lack of an interesting topic - is most common among students, but it's not exclusive to them...

Word of the Day: Knack

Posted on February 03, 2008
A knack (n?k) is a specific talent or ability. It can refer both to natural and acquired capabilities. Some dictionaries also propose that a knack usually is a talent "difficult to explain or teach."

Rite, Write, Right, Wright

Posted on February 02, 2008
Here are four frequently misspelled words that your computer Spell Check won't catch.

Laugh About Writing

Posted on February 01, 2008
Writing doesn't always have to be a serious business. Though it's wise to make sure that you write correctly, there's a lot of fun to be had when playing with words. Two emails that landed in my inbox the other day made me chuckle. The first was called Humor for Lexophiles...

January 2008 Most Popular Posts

Posted on January 31, 2008
Below you will find the most popular posts of this month. Check them out if you missed any. Give me an ?A?: a vs. an: The indefinite articles a and an both mean the same thing. The definite article the refers to a particular thing (?Give me the ring! The wedding ring!?) while a and an refer to any item of a certain type (?Please hand me a nail, any nail...

Complex and Complicated

Posted on January 31, 2008
Listening to BBC 4, one of our UK readers heard a senior police officer refer to a recent case as "a complex and complicated investigation." Al asks: Was he repeating himself or were there subtle nuances of communication here?

Interview with Fiction Author Jeff Kozlowski

Posted on January 30, 2008
This is the first of many interviews that we plan to publish on Daily Writing Tips. Below you will find the questions that Gregg Donaldson, a contributing writer for the blog, asked to Mr. Jeff Kozlowski, an English teacher for college preparatory students with learning disabilities and fiction author...

Break Writer?s Block: Don?t Begin at the Beginning

Posted on January 30, 2008
Agonizing over your first words? Unsure of how your article or letter should start? Can't come up with a good title? Don't worry about it - yet. Newspaper reporters don't write headlines while out on the beat. Their editors do, back in the office. Great novelists usually don't sit down and launch immediately into brilliant words such as, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

For Want Of A Letter ? Bated, Baited

Posted on January 29, 2008
The expression with bated breath is recorded as appearing for the first time in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice towards the end of the 16th century. It refers to having subdued or restrained breathing because of some strong emotion.

Daily Writing Tips Reaches 5,000 Subscribers

Posted on January 29, 2008
Today our Feedburner widget is showing 5,056 subscribers. Considering that the site was launched eight months ago, that is a pretty good numbers (it turns into an average of 21 new subscribers every day).

Surviving The Midnight Oil: 6 Practical Tips for Freelance Writers

Posted on January 28, 2008
Freelance writers often suffer from a condition known as ?workaholism?, or an inability to know when to quit for the day. I?ve often found myself at the computer and thought I would call it a night after the next draft of an article, or completed the next chapter of a novel...

A Sweet Story About Marmalade

Posted on January 26, 2008
The other day I was watching the last episode of the Parkinson Show (a UK talk show), when Michael Caine told a story about the origin of the word marmalade. The word refers to a jelly like preserve, usually made of citrus fruits, in which bits of the fruit and rind are suspended...

Caesar, Kaiser, and Czar

Posted on January 25, 2008
To begin with, ?Caesar? was a family name. Now, in various forms, it is a generic term for ?ruler? or ?emperor.? In Roman naming practice, a newborn child was given three names (tria nomina). The praenomen was a name like Lucius or Marcus. The second name was the name of the tribe, clan, or gens, such as the Julii or Cornelii...

English Grammar 101: Prepositions

Posted on January 24, 2008
Prepositions are used to link nouns and pronouns to other words within a sentence. The words linked to are called objects

Sit vs. Set: Sit Down and Let Me Set the Scene

Posted on January 23, 2008
The verbs sit and set are commonly confused and misused, but the difference between them is similar to the difference between lay and lie - and maybe even easier to understand. The similarity between each set of words lies in the fact that one verb is transitive and needs a direct object, while the other verb is intransitive and can stand alone...

The Generalist vs. The Specialist

Posted on January 22, 2008
One of the biggest problems facing modern day freelance writers is whether to spread out and write on a variety of subjects, or whether to specialise in markets they are able to ?expert? in. It?s a problem both for established writers as well as those starting out, because while it may be the route to job satisfaction for one writer, it may also be the road to a life of boredom for another...

Colin Galbraith is Joining the DWT Team

Posted on January 22, 2008
I just wanted to let everyone know that we have a new writer joining the Daily Writing Tips (there are five of us now!). Being a web publisher, I work with many freelance writers for a variety of projects. I started working with Colin some months ago, and his writing skills are amazing...

Positions, Please

Posted on January 21, 2008
Getting the right position is not just about making a good career move or finding your spot on the stage. There are several words that refer to the different positions in which you can lie. Some of these are not just about the body, but about the attitude...

Word of the Day: Effusive

Posted on January 20, 2008
Effusive (?-fy?'s?v) is an adjective used to describe someone expressing his emotions excessively or enthusiastically. Such emotions could be gratitude, approval, praise, pleasure and so on. The opposite of effusive is restrained.

For Want Of A Letter ? Tic, Tick

Posted on January 19, 2008
Sometimes the inclusion or omission of a single letter can completely change the meaning of your word, phrase or sentence. Take the word tic, for example. It's a noun that refers to those visible twitches that suggest nervousness or stress. Merriam Webster defines it as: 'a local and habitual spasmodic motion of particular muscles especially of the face'...

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