The Better Writing Skills newsletter

The Better Writing Skills monthly newsletter is free, informative and covers writing-related topics of wide interest.

Recent issues

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Due to travel, there will be no newsletter in June or July 2013.

May 2013:

The possessive form of people's names
On paragraphs
Metric units made easy?

April 2013:

"We too" or "us too"?
Brackets, braces and parentheses. Oh my!
Quoting versus paraphrasing

March 2013:

"Medicine" versus "medication"
"A bunch is" versus "a bunch are"
"If I were" versus "if I was"

February 2013:

Hyphens and commas and numbers! Oh my!
Hyphens are sometimes used in adjectives
Commas are used between adjectives
Numbers are sometimes written as words

December 2012:

Can I start a sentence with "and" or "but"? Yes!
Two new wonderful fonts — and they're both free
"There were no" versus "there was no"

November 2012:

More about using a comma before "and"
"First, second, third" or "firstly, secondly, thirdly"?
"Which" or "that"?

October 2012:

"Provided" or "providing"?
Using "the" with place names
Do we need a comma before "and"?

September 2012:

"Effect" versus "affect"
"A historic" versus "an historic"
"How many" versus "how much"

August 2012:

The use of commas in lists
Should we start a sentence with "however"?
Should job titles always have initial capitals?

July 2012:

"Its" versus "it's"
How should we pronounce "the"?
Punctuating the word "however"

June 2012:

Four reasons why you should care about punctuation
What's the past tense of "cc"?
A free chapter from "Report Writing: Reports and Letters Made Easy"

May 2012:

Apostrophes in dates: 1970's or 1970s?
'Empathic' or 'empathetic'?
'As if' or 'as though'?