Traci M. Sanders's Blog, page 24

Tip #240: 4 Ways to Show Emphasis in Writing

Full disclosure: this post is not written in bold print as usual so that I can demonstrate various font styles.  Today’s post is all about making certain text in your writing stand apart from the [...]

Tip #239: Capitalizing directional words?

Today’s post is about a grammar issue I ran across just this week in a novel–incorrect capitalization of directional words. That is to say: north, south, east, and west, but also referring to territorial directions. [...]

Tip #238: Lead Vs. Led

For some reason, I have seen the misuse of lead (pronounced like leed, not like the gray material found in pencils or metals; although, I have a sneaky suspicion some people opt for this form [...]

Tip #237: Bad Vs. Badly

Today’s post is about two words that are quite similar in meaning but each one does have specific uses.  Though it’s subtle, there is a difference between bad and badly. Again, some people confuse these [...]

Tip #236: For all (intensive/intents and) purposes

Today’s post is about a commonly misunderstood and misused phrase. Some people use it because they were taught incorrectly through everyday communication with others around them. When we speak, we tend to say things faster, [...]

Crooked Tales: A Collection of Twisted Short Stories

I was honored to be invited into this project by Mark Fine. I only recently started writing short stories and I’m already hooked!  If you would like a free advance reader copy (ARC) of this [...]

Tip #234: Reach and teach, but try not to preach

In tip #200 I spoke about authors allowing their personal opinions and beliefs to seep into their writing. To a point, this is okay, and even makes for compelling writing; however, one thing that readers [...]

Tip #233: Precede Vs. Proceed Vs. Proceeds

Today’s post is about a set of words that many authors confuse because, again, they sound similar but have different spellings and meanings. I’m referring to precede, proceed, and proceeds.  Here are their definitions: Precede – to be, come, [...]

Tip #232: Its Vs. It’s

This is going to be a short post but one that absolutely must be included in this segment. I touched on the correct usage of these two words in a post early on in this [...]

Tip #231: Site Vs. Sight

It seems almost ridiculous that I would need to include a post about this topic; however, I saw an example of this very issue in the past few weeks while reading. There is a huge [...]