What Is Writing Style?

We often hear of the term ‘writing style’ – the ‘writing style’ of this writer is good, but the ‘style’ of that writer is not. What is this ‘style’ that we talk about? ‘Writing style’ refers to the manner in which writers express themselves. This manner is based on the choices they make in selecting [...]

What Does ‘Re:’ Stand For?

Today one of my students asked me what “re:” stood for in the subject lines of e-mails (and letters).   I thought I’d write the answer here, too, since many people take it to mean something else. “Re:” is what is written in the subject line of e-mails (and in letters) to tell the receiver what [...]

What is Confident Writing?

We often hear the term ‘confident writing’. What is confident writing? Don’t we all write confidently? Well, this depends – depends on how we write.  First let us define ‘confident writing’, then we’ll go on to the ‘how’. Confident writing is when we have full faith in ourselves as writers. We write because we want [...]

Rhetorical Devices

This post is a follow-up of my previous post on clichés. The reason? I received several requests from readers asking me to clarify, or explain, the rhetorical devices further. There is confusion in the minds of some as to what is what. It is not possible to write everything on the subject in one post, [...]

What is a White Paper?

One of my students recently asked me exactly what a white paper was since he had seen it used in different ways. He was right – it is used in different ways. There’s the American way and there’s the British way. In American English, a white paper is an authoritative report, or a guide, that [...]