President Obama’s speech at Madiba’s funeral has been described as a “masterclass” and a “lesson in speech writing”. The speech is also an excellent example of the use of parallelism to create a powerful rhythm. Parallelism (or parallel structure) is when all elements in the sentence have the same weight and are often the same […]
At Write to the Point we are interested in constantly improving our own practices as editors, writers, writing tutors and learning designers. Sure, we have done courses and got the certificates, and we learn everyday in our work and the interaction and feedback we get from clients. However, courses and learning on the job have […]
At a recent Editors’ Circle meeting, we discussed what advice we would give to a rookie editor starting out as a freelancer. These were the top ten tips: From Day 1 start your own style sheet and discuss your style decisions with other editors. Clients often don’t know what editing means, or the […]
While it is indeed true that a picture paints a thousand words, can all information be represented graphically? What are infographics? Information graphics (or infographics) portray visually the important information and are supposed to be aesthetically pleasing. A good infographic is able to communicate facts and complex relationships. I also think that an infographic should […]
Oh joy! On 17th February 2012, The Economist’s Style Guide came back online, in a browsable alphabetised format. I think this style guide should be manadatory reading for all writers, especially in business and government. Here’s one piece of essential advice: ‘Readers are primarily interested in what you have to say. By the way in […]
At our last Editors’ Circle, we discussed some common grammar mistakes that almost everyone gets wrong, using this list as a starting point. Someone raised the issue of when to use ‘between’ and ‘among’, which is not on the list. The common rule is that ‘between’ is used for two choices and ‘among’ for more […]
If writers spent more time organising their thoughts than choosing the mot juste, the overall quality of writing would improve overnight. I would rather edit a grammatically incorrect piece of writing from a second-language English speaker than a mish-mash of ideas that has no logical flow or purpose. Why is it that so […]
The first meeting of Write to the Point’s Editors’ Circle took place this week. Our ‘homework’ was to edit the introduction of (what I call) a ‘slash and burn’ paper. Guidelines included not to worry about the author’s voice and not to be shy about rewriting/cutting. For me, the most interesting aspect that arose […]
Well, our first Foundation Course is over, and all our guinea pigs survived the last module. We are so grateful for their commitment and positive feedback. We learned that there is only so much grammar that a person can take! Therefore, in our next courses, we will infiltrate grammar into the earlier modules. We have […]
Our Foundation Course runs over 5 weeks (choice of morning/evening classes in City Bowl or Southern Suburbs) and consists of weekly, classroom-based workshops, with email support between classes. Classes start are run in the City Bowl and the Southern Suburbs. Requirements: Commit to completing homework outside of the workshops. Submit a short piece of writing […]