Nancy Rudel
Author's posts
Aug 21
Using foreign words
Any writer of anything more meaningful than a text message or business email knows the frustration of expressing an idea that simply doesn’t have it’s own word(s). Instead of struggling to explain that I yearn for some solitude and tranquility among silent pine trees, it turns out I can just blurt “Waldeinsamkeit” to a passing …
Aug 17
New dictionary entries
Aug 08
The most unique
On vacation last month, I saw this tour bus. It illustrates a common problem with unique. According to Merriam-Webster, unique means sole or unequaled. A item either is unique, or it isn’t — there aren’t degrees to which an oil painting can be sole or unequaled, nor can a Halloween costume be more or less …
Jul 25
Vote for I
I’ve been reading my voter’s guide for the upcoming primary election and marveling at the number of candidate statements that are plagued by misspellings, voice inconsistencies, bad grammar and punctuation, and other distracting errors! After finding more than two mistakes in a candidate’s statement, I’ll skip ahead to consider the next candidate. I don’t want …
Jun 26
Quotation
Jun 07
Self-publishers, take note
Forbes contributor Suw Charman-Anderson offers these lessons drawn from a recent survey of self-publishing writers. It seems that “getting help, paid or unpaid, with editing, copy editing and proofreading provided a 13 per cent bump in earnings.” Meanwhile, “authors who did their own story editing, copy editing, proofreading, and cover design did slightly worse, making …
May 25
“It was a dark and stormy night…”
Bad opening sentences are enthusiastically welcomed at the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Thousands of original entries vie for the title of ‘worst’ in a number of categories. The 2012 deadline is June 30. Details and last year’s winners can be found at Bulwer-Lytton.com Selecting a favorite from the 2011 winners is difficult. I offer you …
May 02
Quotation
Apr 20
So there!
While writers do best to avoid using so as an adjective intensifier, it is a perfectly legitimate conjunction. (Remember FANBOYS? For, and, nor, but, or yet, so.) A conjunction joins two phrases or clauses. I was exhausted so I had no trouble falling asleep. We missed breakfast and lunch while waiting in the ticket line, …
Apr 17
So…what?
Using ‘so’ to intensify an adjective is common in speech and informal writing (I was so tired after the exam, or we waited in line for so long this morning) but avoid it in formal or professional writing. Instead of ‘so tired,’ ‘exhausted’ or ‘beat’ might convey the same meaning in a richer way. Instead …