Happy National Punctuation Day!

Today is National Punctuation Day, a day dedicated to celebrating the importance of punctuation.

In the era of texting and social media, punctuation (not to mention spelling and sentence structure) has not just been abandoned; it is something to be scoffed at and even downright ridiculed.

But on this special day, I think we should take a moment to remember all the good that punctuation does for our society.

Commas really DO make a difference, people.

And how if you think about it, punctuation can actually be quite beautiful.

Bet you didn’t know the name of this little guy.

So, to all my fellow proofreaders, editors, and grammar nerds, I say: let’s seize the moment!

Go ahead and suggest adding those missing commas and switching the misused exclamation marks to question marks. And, don’t be afraid to point out the incorrect use of apostrophes (or the lack thereof).

Or if you’re really feeling brave, you can even tackle the great em dash vs. en dash vs. hyphen debate!

In other words….let’s party!🎉

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Top Email Do’s and Don’ts

Good old email. While there is a wide variety of ways we can communicate with one another, email remains the primary vehicle for the written word, especially in business. And yet, even though — or maybe because — it’s so easy to fire off a quick email, it seems that clear, concise communication is hard to come by these days.

If you’re finding that your inbox is fuller than ever, but it’s taking longer and longer to get the information you need, or to even get a response at all, it may be time to examine your email habits. Over the course of my career, I’ve learned what makes for a successful email exchange, and just as important, what can cause the dreaded email fail.

Following are my top email Do’s and Don’ts for successful communication. Continue reading “Top Email Do’s and Don’ts”

A Cure for the Sunday Night Blues

It’s Sunday evening.

The weekend is coming to an end, so your attention starts to turn to Monday morning and the (gulp) monumental to-do list that will greet you.

Your mood begins to change, and a feeling of anxiety, even dread, starts to wash over you.

You’ve got a case of the Sunday Night Blues. (Yep, it’s a real thing. There’s even a full-fledged Wikipedia entry dedicated to it).

I want to help my clients avoid the SNB’s, so I examined what our typical Monday mornings are comprised of. One of the tasks I do for pretty much every client (as well as myself) is send out their weekly to-do list.

While this is an effective and well-established practice, I realized the anticipation of a new, seemingly endless, list of tasks would be sitting in their in-box was a big contributor to those Sunday Night Blues.

So I asked myself: if a looming list of to-do’s causes feelings of dread and helplessness,  what would evoke the opposite? Why not flip the switch? Continue reading “A Cure for the Sunday Night Blues”

#TBT to the Best Project Ever

In honor of #TBT, I’m making the declaration that working on the 100 Best Places to Stuff Your Faces was pretty much the Best Project Ever.

Teaming up with a super-talented writer and an amazingly creative designer was truly an honor, and working on a book dedicated to my favorite subject (eating) was, well, the proverbial icing on the cake. #badpunalert

Also, I consider being compared to a honey badger the highest form of flattery (check out the credits page).

Interested? A few copies of the second edition are still available.

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