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Amateurs think paragraphs are for babies
Bydr.kimI could not stop myself. Food and editing! This photo of a pilcrow pretzel by Windell Oskay is too funny. Since a pilcrow is the symbol editors use to say “start new paragraph here,” it’s appropriate for today’s post. Here’s a pic that might make the symbol more recognizable. If not, you learned something new today! I…
If content is king, then usability is queen
Bydr.kimYou’ve heard me say how important reader testing is when you truly care about meeting the needs of your audience. The Before and After Gallery hosted by the DigitalGov User Experience Program provides some terrific examples. [6/16/14 Update: examples appear to have moved to Government Usability Case Studies.] After watching some representative readers use the Fueleconomy.gov Mobile…
Amateurs don’t know they don’t know
Bydr.kimI’ve been struggling to understand why teaching undergraduate students to write for the workplace is so difficult since around 1988. Quite a while back, I recognized that students have to clear a psychological hurdle to succeed. I just couldn’t figure out what to call that hurdle. Until now. In a 1999 article in the Journal…
To better understand . . . Or to understand better?
Bydr.kimHas anyone given you grief over splitting an infinitive in your writing? If so, they would claim “to better understand” is wrong because the adverb better appears between to and the verb understand. The “rule” to avoid splitting infinitives originated in the 18th century due to a faulty comparison of English with Latin. (For more…
Shibboleths & White Shoes: 5 Lessons for Editors
Bydr.kimThis post is a response to comments from readers about my use of “insure” in Editors insure content matches audience readiness for it. I’m using this as a teaching moment for my technical editing students so it might be too long for others. Skip ahead if you just want to get to shibboleths or white…
What word is used only in a woman’s performance review?
Bydr.kimWanted to share this piece from Fast Company even though I have no time to elaborate today. (Tip o’ the hat to Marie Paretti for sharing it!) Those of you who write performance reviews for women need to reflect on your word choice. And what it says about you! The answer = abrasive.

I defiantly enjoy this post.
Wait … defiantly and definitely aren’t homophones — just another effect of the Spell Check Trap.
Ha! I have certainly been called “defiant” before. But it’s not true at this specific moment. Or in response to this specific post. Though Jack Black could be implicated here. I can’t blame spell check. Just clumsy typing on my part. (I had to re-type after the system kicked me out ’cause it didn’t like my log in ID.) Argh . . .