This writer/editor, red pen in hand In introducing myself to potential clients and business colleagues, I sometimes find myself talking about why I love writing and editing. I suspect this might also be of interest to readers, so I’m sharing it now. It’s the creativity in writing and editing that I love. The best analogy […]
Here’s a word that, in my view unfortunately, has been creeping into use in the U.S. – “bespoke,” as in a “bespoke” suit or shirt. Taking myself as a representative moderately well-educated American native speaker of English, I have to admit that the first couple of times I came across “bespoke” I was completely […]
“Track record.” This expression bugs us at Pen-for-Rent. It pops up everywhere that people wish to point out an individual’s history of accomplishments – in other words, his/her “record.” Why “track record”? Is the discussion about a race horse? That’s right, it appears that it was folks involved in horse racing who contributed this shopworn […]
Clients often tell me I’ve captured their voice in, for example, ghost-written speeches or newspaper opinion pieces (op-eds). The funny thing is that I have no idea how to capture someone’s voice and never spend time or effort trying to do so. What I do instead is simply write as clearly, concisely and engagingly as […]
