Lucy Paine Kezar: Lucy's WritingTips

Lucy sends a communication tip to interested people--clients, students, and friends--each month. She started this service as "Writing Tips" in October of 2000 and has sent 92 tips on writing.

"CommunicationTips" now includes suggestions on public and one-on-one speaking, as well as on writing. The first speaking-related tip is #93, "Your telephone voice," of November, 2008.

All Writing/CommunicationTips appear below. If you would like to receive these please let Lucy know. Privacy is guaranteed; we will not release your name or address to anyone.

Year 2000

1.		Go with your body clock.
2.		What's wrong with saying or writing, "The reason is because...."?
3.		Can't get started?

Year 2001

4.		Is e-mail different?
5.		The semicolon.
6.		Daunted by the blank page?
7.		Proofreading our own writing.
8.		What's wrong with this sentence?
9.		It's its own little puzzle.
10.		Breaking the procrastination barrier.
11.		Queries in quotes.
12.		E-mail etiquette for today.
13.		Passive or active?

Year 2002

14.		Should we rewrite?
15.		What's an ellipsis?
16.		Misplaced modifiers
17.		"No day without a line,"
18.		Notes on Quotes
19.		Others' Opinions
20.		One word or two?
21.		A style tip: Varied Beginnings
22.		Language change
23.		Who is that?--in "who" versus "that"
24.		Brevity and style – 1
25.		Writing in holiday letters

Year 2003

26.		The opening sentence
27.		Writing, sleep, and circadian rhythms
28.		The hyphen and the dash
29.		Parallel construction
30.		Words often confused
31.		Brevity and style – 2
32.		What to look for in proofreading – 1
33.		What to look for in proofreading – 2
34.		What to look for in proofreading – 3
35.		Notes on Quotes
36.		Writing in holiday letters – 2
37.		Why write?

Year 2004

38.		Opening lines
39.		Humor – 1
40.		Capitalization
41.		Humor – 2
42.		Brackets [ ]
43.		Humor – 3
44.		A Perfectionism Barrier
45.		Humor – 4
46.		Style tip: varied sentence lengths
47.		Humor – 5: The Setup and Punch
48.		Writing in holiday letters – 3
49.		At Year’s End, a Reason for Improving our Writing Skills

Year 2005

50.		Getting Started, Looking Back
51.		The Less-Obvious Misplaced Modifier
52.		Common Punctuation Mistakes
53.		Common Grammatical Mistakes – 1
54.		Common Grammatical Mistakes – 2
55.		Common Grammatical Mistakes – 3
56.		Rules that aren’t rules
57.		Write a line a day!
58.		Words in flux: decisions about their use
59.		Words Easily Confused – 1
60.		Writing in Holiday Letters – 4

Year 2006

61.		The rhetorical question
62.		Getting Started: Organizing Material
63.		Which/that or who/whom?
64.		Rhetorical devices – 2., Preterition
65.		Rhetorical devices – 3, The Rule of Three
66.		Overcoming procrastination
67.		"Hopefully"
68.		The semicolon revisited - 1
69.		The semicolon revisited - 2
70.		Initial caps
71.		Slang
72.		Writing in holiday letters – 5
73.		Quick and easy proofreading

Year 2007

74.		Getting started: writing when "blocked"
75.		Colloquialisms, 1
76.		Colloquialisms, 2:
77		The who/whom question – 1.
78		The who/whom question – 2.
79		Keep a vacation journal
80		Read and writing
81		The Misplaced Modifier Revisited --a revision of Tip #16, of March, 2002.--
82		Parallel construction This is a slight revision of Tip #29, of April, 2003.
83		A frequently-heard error, explained and corrected
84		Writing in holiday letters – 6.
85		Year end quotation.

Year 2008

Proofreading made easier

87		Brevity and style: omitting unnecessary words.
88		Preposition at the end of a sentence?
89		Overcoming procrastination
90		The closing sentence
91		Humor
92		"Very"
93		Your telephone voice