voice Archives - Words by a Pro https://old.wordsbyapro.com/tag/voice/ Tue, 17 Jul 2018 20:45:06 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/cropped-WBP-FAVICON_7-32x32.jpg voice Archives - Words by a Pro https://old.wordsbyapro.com/tag/voice/ 32 32 Policy and Procedure Documents Without Tears https://old.wordsbyapro.com/policy-and-procedure-documents-without-tears/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=policy-and-procedure-documents-without-tears Tue, 17 Jul 2018 20:43:32 +0000 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/?p=2896 If you are a professional writer in a corporate setting, and are extremely unlucky, you may be called upon to write policy and procedure (P&P) documents. This is actually a good thing, for the company if not for you. Many P&P documents are written either by lawyers, in which case they are completely incomprehensible, or […]

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]]> Stop Alienating Your Readers! Choose the Right POV https://old.wordsbyapro.com/stop-alienating-your-readers-choose-the-right-pov/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=stop-alienating-your-readers-choose-the-right-pov Tue, 03 Apr 2018 19:50:55 +0000 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/?p=2842 I was checking out one of the educational marketing courses offered at the HubSpot Academy the other day when I was struck dumb. Dumbstruck, even. The lesson I was watching involved content marketing and the choices writers face when drafting copy. Things started out fine. HubSpot explained that one of the first decisions a writer […]

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]]> The Flavours of English https://old.wordsbyapro.com/the-flavours-of-english/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-flavours-of-english Wed, 13 Dec 2017 21:25:28 +0000 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/?p=2545 In the 1964 movie My Fair Lady, excruciatingly British phonetics professor Henry Higgins worries about the fate of the English language. “In America,” he observes, “they haven’t used it for years.” If you write or edit English prose for hire, you may be called upon to ensure a piece follows the spelling, grammar, and punctuation […]

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]]> Attention, B2B Companies: Stop Writing Boring Content https://old.wordsbyapro.com/attention-b2b-companies-stop-writing-boring-content/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=attention-b2b-companies-stop-writing-boring-content Tue, 03 Oct 2017 17:33:14 +0000 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/?p=2244 There’s something terribly wrong with the current state of content marketing. Specifically, I’m referring to Business-to-Business (B2B) content marketing and its inherent lack of creativity. For writers in the modern era of content overload, this lack of creativity can be a death sentence. We all know that content producers don’t have long to get a […]

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]]> The Kids Are Alright: Connecting to the Youth Online https://old.wordsbyapro.com/kids-alright-connecting-youth-online/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kids-alright-connecting-youth-online Tue, 16 May 2017 21:06:59 +0000 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/?p=2112 Ah, the joys of youth – growing pains – remember swooning over your first crush from a folding desk? Sorting through your college picks with staggering anxiety, breaking curfew to spend time with your friends, and taking powerful life lessons from Lysol’s most recent ad campaign? Wait, was that just me? All right, adolescence and […]

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]]> Questions for a Language Ninja: Overused Words and Slaying that Content https://old.wordsbyapro.com/questions-language-ninja-overused-words-slaying-content/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=questions-language-ninja-overused-words-slaying-content Wed, 05 Apr 2017 22:22:14 +0000 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/?p=1968 Q: What would you say are the most overused words from the past year? I nominate “pivot.” Yes, the word “pivot” – a word that was previously only used in osteopathic and Jazz dance applications – has been tossed around quite brutally, particularly on cable news channels. The Ninja agrees that as an indication of […]

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]]> The Evolution of the Singular Pronoun “They” https://old.wordsbyapro.com/the-evolution-of-the-singular-pronoun-they/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-evolution-of-the-singular-pronoun-they Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:30:02 +0000 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/?p=1624 In a case of grammatical form following function, the American Dialect Society voted “they”, used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun, as 2015’s word of the year. The selection may have some traditionalists clutching their pearls, but the recognition validates the singular pronoun’s utility and reflects our shifting social landscape. Truth in Language Language is a […]

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]]> Humor Me: When to Use (and Avoid) Humor in Your Writing https://old.wordsbyapro.com/humor-me-when-to-use-and-avoid-humor-in-your-writing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=humor-me-when-to-use-and-avoid-humor-in-your-writing Tue, 16 Feb 2016 18:35:23 +0000 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/?p=1609 It’s fairly safe to say that no one knows how to write humor. The great modern humor essayists – Dave Barry, P. J. O’Rourke, and the late Lewis Grizzard and Erma Bombeck, among many others –do it naturally, instinctively knowing just what turn of phrase and clever irony readers will find funny, but they probably […]

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]]> A Little Love for Put-down Punctuation https://old.wordsbyapro.com/your-dog-ate-grandma-folly-of-missing-commas-and-semicolons/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=your-dog-ate-grandma-folly-of-missing-commas-and-semicolons https://old.wordsbyapro.com/your-dog-ate-grandma-folly-of-missing-commas-and-semicolons/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2015 19:39:11 +0000 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/?p=1519 In journalism, commas in a list are frowned on (AP Style outright bans them), and simplistic writing is encouraged. While journalists are, by far, some of the best writers out there, they have to adhere to a certain style—and not just AP or inverted pyramid. Their writing itself must be presented a specific way, or […]

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]]> https://old.wordsbyapro.com/your-dog-ate-grandma-folly-of-missing-commas-and-semicolons/feed/ 1 What the Heck is Antecedent-Pronoun Agreement? https://old.wordsbyapro.com/what-the-heck-is-antecedent-pronoun-agreement/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-the-heck-is-antecedent-pronoun-agreement Wed, 18 Nov 2015 02:22:54 +0000 https://old.wordsbyapro.com/?p=1478 From The Rocky Mountain English Professor (aka Susan Metzger) “Somebody forgot to pay their bill.” Aaaaa! Antecedent-pronoun agreement. Can you hear me screaming all the way from Colorado? What’s wrong with this sentence? For those who have an ever-so-faint memory of the term antecedent-pronoun agreement from middle school, this sentence may sound wrong. That’s because […]

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