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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

Words Formed from the Initial Letters of Other Words

Posted on January 12, 2009
The word acronym was coined in 1943 by Bell Laboratories to refer to new words like RADAR that had been created from the initials of the words in phrases. Distinctions can be made between initial letter constructions that can be pronounced as words (RADAR) and those which can be pronouced only as letters (FBI)...

Is Your Novel Ready to Go?

Posted on January 11, 2009
If you have completed the manuscript of a novel, you may want to consider entering the Second Annual Breakthrough Novel Award Contest sponsored by Amazon and Penguin. Last year’s Grand Prize winner, chosen from a field of 5,000 entries, received a publishing contract and $25,000: Fresh Kills by Bill Loehfelm...

When Most is Enough

Posted on January 08, 2009
It must be one of those “in your face” gestures of defiance. It can’t be that they don’t know better. I’m referring to the way so many bloggers create headlines that place a “most” in front of an adjective that already has the superlative -est suffix: The internet’s Most Rudest and Obnoxious people Mumbai, India is [...

Pass the Chile

Posted on January 07, 2009
Every time I see a race called the Chile Pepper advertised in my local paper, I have the same reaction: Chile is the country and chili is the vegetable! Most dictionaries give the spelling chile as a “variant” of chili, but chili remains the most common American spelling...

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Hey Clyde, Who?s That Harvey?

Posted on January 06, 2009
Slang changes from one generation to the next, but one thing remains constant: personal names are a frequent source. The first time I heard “Clyde” used in the sense of “dull, conventional person,” was in a Star Trek episode called “The Way to Eden...

Short Story Competition 2: Deadline Is Now January 11

Posted on January 06, 2009
Many readers contacted us asking for an extension on the deadline for the short story competition submissions. Considering we had the holidays in between, we agreed to. The new deadline is January 11, which is this upcoming Sunday.

Be Sure to Dot Your is!

Posted on January 05, 2009
A reader asks: What is the correct way to write, "there are three two's in the English language".

Banished Words of 2009

Posted on January 04, 2009
Every January Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie publishes a list of 15 Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. This year's losers (and some reasons given for banishing them):

Beginning Your Mystery Novel

Posted on January 01, 2009
You've got a great idea for a mystery novel. You can hardly wait to get started, but before you launch into that first chapter, three steps can save you hours of frustration and repair work later.

The Plural of ?Calf? is ?Calves,? or is it?

Posted on December 31, 2008
An NPR reporter talking about Colorado ranchers mentioned the income they get when they sell the offspring of their cattle. What she said was: when they sell their [k?fs].

Can ?blarney? be ?in fine fettle??

Posted on December 30, 2008
I came across the following in a newspaper column. the Bergthold blarney was in fine fettle I tend to think of people, horses, and things such as businesses as being "in fine fettle," so seeing the expression applied to "blarney" stopped me in my tracks.

Mixing up ?lay? and ?lie?

Posted on December 29, 2008
I have problems with lying and laying. Is there an easy way to make sure I am using the right one?

Famous Books Rejected Multiple Times

Posted on December 28, 2008
Commenting on That First Page, a reader remarks: Then there is the story of Orwell's novel being rejected by American publishers because "American readers don't like animal stories!"

December 26

Posted on December 25, 2008
The day after Christmas, December 26 (according to the Western tradition), has its own holiday associations.

?Dear Sir? and Other Business Conventions

Posted on December 24, 2008
A reader asks: Is it just me, or does the "Dear" seem a little awkward when starting a business letter to someone whom you have never met or communicated [with]? If I have to call someone "Mr." or something similar, is this person really dear to me?

Deck the Halls

Posted on December 23, 2008
Many of the traditional Christmas songs in English contain words or references that have changed in meaning or fallen out of common use. The familiar “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly” (words from 1881), has several words that may stump native and non-native speakers alike...

The First Page

Posted on December 22, 2008
One of the sessions at a writer’s conference I attended was set up like an episode of American Idol. Three New York agents played the part of the judges. Instead of performers, typed sheets of paper were the objects of their attention and wounding remarks...

Data and Information

Posted on December 21, 2008
A reader suggests addressing “the difference between data and information.” Both information and data are types of knowledge, a concept for which English has numerous words. The various words are used in different ways, according to context, but here’s an effort to differentiate some of them...

How Much Dialog is Too Much?

Posted on December 18, 2008
A reader asks: How much description or dialog that may be “unnecessary” to the plot is acceptable if it contributes to “atmosphere” or characterization? Short answer: Nothing “unnecessary” belongs in your novel. But this reader’s question is not about padding his novel with “unnecessary” dialog...

Demons, Daemons and Daimons

Posted on December 17, 2008
The three English words demon, daemon, and daimon all derive from Greek ?????? (daim�n), the word for a spirit that served as a link between the human and divine spheres. Daimons could be benevolent or malevolent. They were much lower in the divine hierarchy than gods like Jupiter and Diana...

Passing the Buck Slip

Posted on December 16, 2008
The other day I received a letter that directed me to refer to an enclosed “buck slip.” I’d never heard the expression, but I figured out that what was meant was a printed insert. Apparently this term, along with “lift note,” is common in the world of direct mailing: …there’s really very little difference between a [...

?Self-Published? is not a Dirty Word

Posted on December 15, 2008
In the old days, publishing companies that catered to writers who were willing to pay to have their books printed were called Vanity Presses.

I Got the Blues

Posted on December 14, 2008
Blue is not only a favorite color for a lot of people, it is a word that occurs in many English expressions, some of them oddly contradictory. Obscene language is said to be “blue,” yet blue laws are those that forbid activities considered irreligious to take place on Sunday...

Why Are Dirty Jokes Funny?

Posted on December 13, 2008
Off-color humor is certainly not new: some of the earliest recorded jokes, told thousands of years ago, deal with things that people do in the bathroom or the bedroom. What makes these jokes funny?

Ken Follett?s Master Class for Novelists

Posted on December 11, 2008
According to Forbes Magazine, Ken Follet is one of the world’s ten most highly-paid novelists, with an annual income of $20 million. Follett wrote several not-so-great novels before Eye of the Needle made him rich and famous in 1978. Since then, every novel he publishes becomes a best seller...

The Perils of Writing to Someone You Don?t Know

Posted on December 10, 2008
From a reader: I have a question. I work for a large Canadian law firm and I've noticed that many of the people here do not use Mr. or Ms., but rather address letters to "John Smith." Have I missed something? Is this proper now?

Names ?Epicene? and Otherwise

Posted on December 10, 2008
Until very recently, the only context I knew for the word “epicene” was a T. S. Eliot poem: Along the garden-wall the bees? With hairy bellies pass between? The staminate and pistilate,? Blest office of the epicene. —T.S. Eliot?s Mr...

Even Talent Requires Revision

Posted on December 08, 2008
A reader commenting on Don’t Be Too Eager to Publish says: While I may agree that lengthy detail is unnecessary, I believe you are far too critical of the opening passage. Reading�with interest is a very personal matter. Why put a writer in a box where he must conform to the�way in which�a daydream is [...

Merriam-Webster?s Words of the Year 2008

Posted on December 07, 2008
The most looked-up words in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2008 reflect the nation’s preoccupation with discussions surrounding the Presidential campaign. Seven of the ten–bailout, vet, socialism, maverick, rogue, misogyny, and bipartisan–have political associations...

Are ?Gone,? ?Taken,? and ?Written? on the Way Out?

Posted on December 04, 2008
About a year ago, I wrote an article about the misuse of five irregular verbs:Go, Come, Write, Give, and Eat. After the fact, I wondered if perhaps I had singled out grammatical errors too obvious to trouble my readers with. The other day I heard a television news announcer say “have went” while delivering a [...

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