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[QW Bonus] Infographic: 4 Money-Saving Steps to Your First Draft
Two weeks ago, my talented VA created the infographic I vowed to generate. Two years ago. In all my spare time, right? When October rolled around this year, I did offer you my post on this subject: 4 money-saving steps to your first draft But I still didn't...
Newsjack alert! A twist on Thanksgiving
Enjoy this first post from the new website! 'Newsjacking' is grabbing a story in the news to give it an interesting twist. I decided to combine two stories. Let's see what happens! Today, I'm backing out of the tech and text world and jumping into a little...
[QW6] Is “Everyone has …” or “… have …” correct?
If you've followed along with the Quick Wins from the beginning, this is where it starts paying off! In [QW1], we discussed a team is a collection of people making up: A group An entity (one - 'it'). The team has a chance to win. It has a chance to win. Although it...
4 money-saving steps to your first draft
It's an unhappy moment. An editor tells an author they need the first-draft copy before editing can begin. The writer is dumbfounded. Isn't that what they emailed? No. They sent months (or years) of musings. Maybe the file was run through spell check. But it's not the...
[QW5] “It’s” vs. “Its”
Here is a problematic word puzzler where one outlier does not follow the rule. [QW5] "It's" vs. "Its" We often find an apostrophe demonstrating ownership: The dog's bone A company's logo A Ferengi's tooth sharpener (If you're not a Star Trek fan, never mind 🙂 ) We...
“Am I a good work-from-home candidate?”
Someone just screamed at their phone: "NO!" And I sympathize. In February or March, your employer may have joined the worldwide lockdown movement. The company sent you home to work. From ... home. Every ... weekday. For ... for months! You plunged ahead, called your...
[QW4] ‘Democratic’ vs. ‘Democrat’
Okay, pet peeve time. We in the U.S. are ramping up to an election in early November. And I guarantee: we will hear and see the word 'democratic' misused 99% of the time between now and then. Well ... forever, really. Few of us – including grammar pundits and the...
A fresh look @ follow-up
When my friend Shawn and I talked about meeting reminders, she gave me an excellent idea for the perfect follow-up (no pun intended) to that post. “I’d like to find the best way to follow-up and thank clients. Has the etiquette around thank-you notes changed?” Funny...
[QW3] Don’t confuse ‘I’ and ‘me’
[Surprise! I'm experimenting with sending my posts on Saturday mornings. It's history makin', and you're part of it ;-). Thanks for tagging along. Enjoy, K.] One of the most difficult things to get right in sentences is 'I' and 'me.' [QW3] Don't confuse 'I' and 'me'...
“Why is it so hard to find good employees?”
When I asked you for 2020 blog post ideas, this question came back from various readers (who are mostly small business owners): "Why is it so hard to find good employees?" Sad. But I wasn’t shocked. I began researching this topic a while ago. Here's my ‘take’ on the...
[QW2] Never (!) refer to people as ‘that’
Welcome back to Quick Wins for those pesky 'word puzzlers' in our lives. This month's offering is one of my biggies: [QW2] Never (!) refer to people as 'that' If you've ever asked me to edit for you, you are probably aware I'm a 'That' Nazi. This is what some of my...
A fresh look @ meeting reminders
One great thing about asking your subscribers for blog post topics? They come up with countless ideas. Thanks to Margie G., an executive assistant for a racing team, we'll consider useful meeting reminders. The question that started it all As you might imagine, Margie...
[QW1] Companies and groups are not people!
Hey! What's all this 'QW' stuff in the headline?! Let me tell you the story. I recently looked back through some notes from editing projects, where I discovered a pattern of easy-to-fix 'word puzzlers gone wild.' 😉 The puzzlers not only cost my clients more $$ for...
“Is it OK to write like I talk?”
You’ve labored long-and-hard on that flier. Or maybe your website landing page text. You’re no writer, but you can at least take a stab at it, right? You show it to a friend, and he shreds your excitement balloon with . "You can't write like you talk. It isn't...
Project communication = everything
A few years ago, I watched a video about Walmart's company strategies. No matter what you think of it, Walmart is thriving. (I don't shop there. I didn't appreciate the bait-and-switch from 'Made in America' goods.) As supervisors (or parents!), we can learn from this...
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