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Déjà vu jokes … plus a few more, 2019

July 13, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Updated and republished July 13th, 2019: Déjà Vu for You Too? Some updated smiles for you …

Thanks to Nigel Jamie Bangs who originally shared this gag on my Facebook group, The Joke Street Journal (please join if you want some good laughs.) The original thought was this: Deja poo jokesAnd that got me thinking. So I started writing…..and writing…..and writing……and I came up with the following. Now in July 2019 I have come up with a few more. But … let’s get you thinking of even more!

Déjà Boo:  Boring people with ghost stories when it isn’t Halloween

Déjà Blue: Long-standing UK Conservative / US Democrat voter [Read more…]

Filed Under: How to Write, Latest, Social writing, Writing humour Tagged With: , , , , ,

How to write yourself a wonderful wedding website

July 11, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Getting married this year? Welcome John Daulton from Your UK Wedding Directory who explains how to set up a low-cost yet effective wedding website to capture all those memories forever.

Wedding websitesby John Daulton

So… you’re getting married and you know you’d like to document it and keep reminders of it in every way you can. You’ve hired the photographer, and you know your friends will be there taking videos and photos with their smartphones. What else can you do to keep the memories alive? [Read more…]

Filed Under: How to Write, Latest, Social writing, Writing tips Tagged With: , , ,

Should we ladies write swearwords? Discuss.

July 8, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Well, f**k my old boots and call me potty-mouthed, but I swear. I swear when I speak and I swear when I write. How about you other ladies? (Or if you want to be PC, “women?”)swearing by women Many of us “gals” the wrong side of 40 grew up believing that if Daddy stubbed his toe and said the F-word we would smile and tut-tut sympathetically, but if the same happened to us we would be told that swearing is unladylike and deserving of chastisement — not an ice pack and analgesia.

Unladylike? An ancient word?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: How to Write, Latest, Putting The World To Rights, Social writing, Writing discussion Tagged With: , , , ,

Letter from the doctor: can you understand this awful jargon?

June 10, 2019 By Leave a Comment

An Agony Column email from Emma in Gloucestershire, England brought this pearl of gobbledegook to my attention this week…what are these doctors on? Read on and be gobsmacked…

Dear Suze

chickenpox and shingles

Having an attack of shingles is no joke – but the letter warning patients about it is.

My mum has just turned 70 and received an invitation from her GP doctor’s surgery (family doctor’s office) to go get a jab to help prevent shingles. The first paragraph was plain enough and referred readers to the enclosed leaflet produced by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), which was also plain enough and explained everything well.

The rest of the letter, though, is unbelievable…

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Agony Columns, How to Write, Latest, Putting The World To Rights Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Great writing tip from Ann Handley, top US content expert

June 3, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Please welcome the one and only Ann Handley, content head honcho of the famous US site MarketingProfs.com for which I once had the honor of being a columnist (and whom she named “Little Wacky.” Probably because I am, er, a little wacky.) 
Ann is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author with her brilliant book, “Everybody Writes,” and writes an incredibly useful and entertaining bi-weekly newsletter called Total Annarchy. Here’s an excerpt from the current edition which I really wanted to share with you. (Below you’ll see her in action live in this video, but don’t forget to read her tip below!)

Hey, Homeslice!

A friend asked me to look at a few chapters of a book he’s writing. It’s a strong book with a strong premise. But he’s struggling with making the writing equally buff. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business writing, How to Write, Latest, local business, small business, Writing discussion, Writing tips Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Why you need to know the difference between writing errors & writing mistakes

May 28, 2019 By 2 Comments

Most old-fashioned editors (hereafter known as OFEs**) and all my happy clients know that when it comes to “sticking to the rules” of writing I am an anarchist.

mistakes in writing

The fact that information crosses approximately 3,400 miles of Atlantic Ocean in less time than it takes you to sneeze does rather make a mockery of trying to preserve the good olde days of British English. British, American, Australian? They’re all OK.

Please note, however, that I’m not particularly anarchic in any other ways. I never burned my bra for Women’s Lib (although I was too young to need one then) and I didn’t even go to the anti-Trump protests in London in 2018 but only because there was no-one available to let my dogs out for wee-wees.

Grammar, spelling, punctuation: do you control them or do they control you?

This question has been bothering me for a long time over issues like the Oxford comma and whether you use a capital letter after a colon or not. Short answer? Issues like that do not matter worth a pinch of coonsh*t, as my dear old Canadian dad used to say. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blogging, Business English if you're not a native speaker, Business writing, How to Write, Latest, local business, small business, Social Media, Writing Mechanics, Writing tips Tagged With: , , , , ,
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