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Following my earlier post on apostrophes, and because I’m planning more blogs about grammar and punctuation, I thought I’d post this, to find out people’s views on whether or not punctuation still matters. There’s a running joke in our family that we’re all obsessed with spotting punctuation errors on signs, adverts and websites. Both my parents were teachers at one […]
Read MoreWhile being an employee can mean early submissions of holiday requests and disappointment at working between Christmas and New Year, being self-employed would suggest that you can finish whenever you like and start work again in January after a long break. The truth is often quite different. I was intending to finish work on 17 December this year, after the […]
Read MoreIt’s been a few years since I’ve been to a job interview, and I don’t know how I’d feel if I had to do one now. Early interviews were me and one other person, and then in later years, the norm seemed to be have a panel, which was always a little intimidating. From people I’ve spoken to, they’re often […]
Read MoreThere are good and bad points to working from home. You don’t face constant interruptions from colleagues and managers, but when you’re working on something less exciting than some of your work, endless cups of tea or chores suddenly become an appealing distraction, which can really impact productivity. When I’m working on a piece of writing for someone, I tend […]
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I intended to write a guide covering various aspects of grammar, but as it can be a dry subject, it seemed easier to focus on one area at a time. I decided to start with an item of punctuation that a lot of people struggle with – the apostrophe. I have to confess, there are times when I’m not certain […]
Read MoreI know my parents read to me constantly from when I was tiny – some of our family catchphrases are lines from my favourite childhood books. My mum has a story about me “reading” out loud while sitting on the floor of a bookshop – I was making it up. I thought being a writer sounded exciting. I was fascinated […]
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If your business has been established for some time, you’ve probably got a website that you’re happy with which was set up early on. You may have used a developer to put the content together while building the site, or maybe you did it yourself. While there’s nothing wrong with this, it can be worth having your website content reviewed, […]
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Blogging Content Content Marketing
As I recently completed a 90-day blog challenge, it would be reasonable to assume that I don’t struggle for blog topics. As a writer, I can theoretically write about anything, and you’ll see that my blogs are about things that interest me as well as how-to information guides. But what if you’re tasked with creating the content for your company’s […]
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A recent article in Writers’ Forum Magazine looked at a new book about understanding readers, what writers can do to encourage them to read their work and the importance of writing for the audience. “The Reader’s Brain”, by J. Yellowlees Douglas, sets out five tips to bear in mind when writing, based on the science of reading and the “science […]
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In the final post in this series, we look at what to do in the last two weeks leading up to publishing your book, the day itself and afterwards. Book Signings In the final fortnight, see if you can arrange book signings in your local area. The best bet is an independent book seller, who chooses their own stock (including […]
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