How to improve writing (no. 98)
“Hypothetically speaking, would you be in support of or not in support of an exception to the Senate’s filibuster rule with regard to legislation involving voting rights?”
How to improve writing (no. 96)
And ad for Whitley Neill London Dry Gin.
A John McWhorter page-ninety test
I thought to try the page-ninety test with John McWhorter’s Nine Nasty Words: English in The Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever.
Rewrite that sentence, PBS
“Designer Ed Welburn’s passion developed early, as a small child.”
How to improve writing (no. 93)
As I wrote in no. 75, “Every time I look at Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo, I end up rewriting one or more sentences.” And so it is today.
How to improve writing (no. 92)
From The New Yorker: “A couple of weeks ago around dinnertime, neither my husband nor I were in the cooking mood.”
Recently updated
More tedious discussion of the phrase “a pair of twins.”
How to improve writing (no. 91)
Sometimes when I look at an old post, I wonder how I could have missed what now seems so obvious.
How to improve writing (no. 90)
It’s easy to overuse semicolons.
Recently updated
“Is it right to speak of a ‘pair of twins ’?”
How to improve writing (no. 89)
Two identical twins?
How to improve writing (no. 88)
Rewriting the sentences on a box of Tetley tea.
How to improve writing (no. 87)
In today’s Mark Trail, some dialogue in need of improvement.
How to improve writing (no. 86)
A sentence from The New Yorker.
How to improve writing (no. 85)
An odd sentence from The New Yorker.
How to improve writing (no. 84)
Some sentences I wrote.
How to improve writing (no. 83)
An added preposition makes things right.
How to improve writing (no. 82)
When I read the news, I don’t go looking for things. They present themselves, and my sentence-repair alarm goes off.
How to improve writing (no. 81)
Even “breaking news,” as they call it, can wait another minute for writer(s) to get the sentences right.
How to improve writing (no. 80)
Rewriting a garden-path sentence from The New Yorker.
How to improve writing (no. 79)
”We serve relentlessly with our community until all can thrive in each stage of life.” Yikes!
How to improve writing (no. 78)
A revision from Harold Evans’s Do I Make Myself Clear? A Practical Guide to Writing Well in the Modern Age, revised again.
How to improve writing (no. 77)
A Washington Post headline: “Kavanaugh arrives wounded, as is the Supreme Court’s image.”
How to improve writing (no. 76)
I didn’t go looking for a sentence to improve this morning: this one, from David Brooks, presented itself as needing immediate help.
How to improve writing (no. 75)
Every time I look at Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo, I end up rewriting one or more sentences.
How to improve writing (no. 74)
“Certainly, no artist as hugely successful as he has been can have struck a chord without owning a piece of his time.” Yuck.
How to improve writing (no. 73)
Today we have rearranging of parts. From a New York Times opinion piece , a sentence that needs improvement.
How to improve writing (no. 72)
“The portfolio that works even when you aren’t.“
How to improve writing (no. 71)
Inflated diction, a weak “to be” verb, a nominalization.
How to improve writing (no. 70)
A page-ninety test.