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See what I did there? If you don’t, you really should keep reading. This is one of the pieces of writing advice that annoys me the most, because it is so, so often misunderstood. But writers are still urged to expunge all examples of passive voice from their writing. First of all, what is passive… Continue reading Pinches of Salt 2: Passive voice is to be avoided

A few months ago, I wrote about the dangers of applying blanket “rules” to your writing, and I promised that I would write some posts about some of these rules that writers should really take with a fairly big pinch of salt. But then I got distracted by life and the terribly exciting SfEP conference,… Continue reading Pinches of Salt 1: Avoid Adverbs

Choosing an editor is a difficult thing to do. There are, by my count, eleventy bajillion editors in the world, all of whom claim to be the best editor in the world, except for Arthur Biggs from Dorchester, who claims only to be fairly mediocre*. (*This was a joke. If you really are an editor… Continue reading Questions To Ask An Editor

And so we come to my third and final set of SfEP conference sessions (you can read about the others here and here, and general blithering about the conference here), which were about marketing. These were the probably the sessions I needed the most because, I’ll be totally honest, I HATE marketing. It’s the thing… Continue reading Conference Lessons 3: Selling Yourself

This is my third post about the SfEP conference, which seems such a long time ago now, and the second about the lessons I learned there (the first post was mainly about getting excited to see people and eating). Last week, I wrote about learning about language “rules” and how many of them need killing… Continue reading Conference lessons 2: Doing Stuff Better

This is the second of my posts about the SfEP conference (you can read the first one here), and I’ve decided that rather than blather on about who I said hello to and how much hot chocolate I drank (many people and many cups, respectively), I’m going to group the sessions into vague themes and… Continue reading Conference Lessons Part 1: On Language “Rules”

It’s that time of year again. The one where dozens of editorial professionals take to their blogs to wax lyrical about the Society for Proofreaders and Editors conference they’ve just attended. In 2016, I sat at my desk growing more and more jealous and mentally kicking Six-months-previous Me who had decided she wasn’t going to… Continue reading Conference Ramblings

And breathe. It’s over. Back they go, in their newly purchased school uniforms and shoes that I pray will last longer than three weeks this time. A new year has begun. September has always felt like a time for new beginnings for me. I went straight from university to a company whose activity was based… Continue reading Back to School

By Kia Thomas, aged 30 ½* *the half being half a decade. Hello there! I am back from my holiday. Did you miss me? No need to answer – I know there’s been a hole in your life ever since I went away. It’s okay now. I have returned, and I’d like to share with… Continue reading What I Did on my Holidays