All three statements use myself incorrectly. Here’s what the speakers should have said—and why:
Our legacy is built on finding and knowing the essential.
That’s what a leading financial company says on its website. Expertise or reputation would be more accurate than legacy, which is what you’re remembered for after you’re gone.
Or take the magazine executive who said he wanted to be sure... (Read More)
This edition of Say It Better Say It Right comes from a news article about the fashion brand Kate Spade.
I’ve written many bulletins about dashes—America’s favorite punctuation mark—but today’s edition focuses on the overlap between a pair of dashes (like the ones I just used), commas, and parentheses. All three punctuation marks can be used to give readers extra information.
Let’s take that opening sentence. I could replace the... (Read More)
“Communication doesn’t take place because you tell somebody something. It takes place when you observe them closely and track their ability to follow you.”
Alan Alda wrote that in his charming book If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on Face? My Adventures in the Art and Science... (Read More)
The stakes just got higher.
On the heels of last week’s post about the missing comma that cost a dairy company $5 million in back pay comes more vindication for grammar geeks. Slate, in an article about the indictments against 13 Russian nationals for meddling in the 2016 election,... (Read More)
To market my writing workshops, I’ve produced a video. I was taped giving a one-hour lunch-and-learn session—new in my lineup of offerings—and then interviewed by my producer. How did you get started? she asked. What can companies expect when they hire you? And why should they choose you? Be yourself,... (Read More)
When Hervé Pierre, sometime stylist to First Lady Melania Trump, sits down to sketch, he asks himself, “Where is this woman going?”
“If you don’t have a purpose,” he told Vanessa Friedman, fashion director at The New York Times, “it’s just an idea on paper and the dress means nothing.”
... (Read More)With an incredibly demanding schedule full of 13-plus-hour days, every effort is being made to maximize Secretary Price’s ability to travel outside of Washington to meet with the American people.
That was part of the statement put out last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in... (Read More)
After my last post—the one about ruby chocolate and the hyperbole-laced, credibility-straining press release that announced its arrival—a reader questioned whether credibility should have been credulity. These two words often get confused, and I’m relieved to say I used the right one.
Credibility means believability; credulity means gullibility. If... (Read More)
