How to improve writing (no. 40)
From a box of Twinings teabags.
How to improve writing (no. 39)
More and more often, I am happy getting it, whatever it is, from the library.
How to improve writing (no. 38)
I’ve been reading cereal boxes at breakfast since childhood. But it’s only in recent years that I’ve started to edit while eating.
How to improve writing (no. 37)
“Like at the post office.” Ugh.
How to improve writing (no. 36)
When the context is serious, and a pun would do no more than call attention to its maker’s cleverness, block that pun.
How to improve writing (no. 35)
“What does it mean to have a body like an elephant, but ‘much more so’?“
How to improve writing (no. 34)
“Visiting guests.”
How to improve writing (no. 33)
A comma semicolonized, from Infinite Jest
How to improve writing (no. 32)
A passage from the book Higher Education?
How to improve writing (no. 31)
Avoid dangling modifiers.
How to improve writing (no. 30)
A sentence from the New York Times
How to improve writing (no. 29)
Rewriting Verizon's prose
How to improve writing (no. 28)
Improving vacuous, pretentious sentences from a brandy bottle
How to improve writing (no. 27)
Changing Blogger's "View my complete profile"
How to improve writing (no. 26)
A sentence from a New Yorker review
How to improve writing (no. 25)
From a book on design, a sentence in need of help
Strunk and White and Seidel
Sentence revision
How to improve writing (no. 23 in a series)
A sentence about Woody Allen
How to improve writing (no. 22 in a series)
Good writing doesn't "flow."
Cereals in the hands of an angry blog
No. 21: analysis of sloppy Post cereal box design and copywriting
How to improve writing (no. 19 in a series)
Pita bread, not pizza bread
How to improve writing (no. 18 in a series)
Avoid hyperbole and redundancy
How to improve writing (no. 17 in a series)
Anchor? No, encore.
How to improve writing (no. 12 in a series)
From 28 syllables to 16
How to improve writing (no. 1 in a series)
From a bureaucratic e-mail
How to improve writing (no. 2 in a series)
From an invitation to an evening of financial aid information
How to improve writing (no. 3 in a series)
A newspaper headline
How to improve writing (no. 4 in a series)
Add that apostrophe.
How to improve writing (no. 5 in a series)
From 8 words to 4
How to improve writing (no. 6 in a series)
Omit legalisms