David Bowman

Writers have the obligation to avoid sexist writing. How can we decide what words to use, and what strategies can we apply to avoid sexist language?

Great dialogue is essential for a great story. However, three common problems prevent authors from writing great dialogue. Using a sample of poor dialogue, let’s study these three problems and find solutions.

What word do you use to describe when something happened? “In” or “On”? Using the incorrect word is a fairly common mistake. Fortunately, it’s easy to fix when you know what these words communicate.

You can’t write effectively unless you understand the primary and secondary audience for your document or manuscript. Who are these people, and what to they want?

You lift weights to make your muscles strong. You use power subjects to make your writing strong. Power subjects beef-up your writing so you can impact your readers.

Win a free analysis and review of your manuscripts from the editors who help writers publish great books.

Punctuation isn’t complicated once you know what you’re looking at. I see many writers making errors when punctuating appositives. This may be a new term for many folks, so we’ll take a look at what I mean by “appositive,” and then we’ll figure out how to punctuate them correctly.

You have a great story idea, but the story leaves the reader yawning. The problem is a weak middle. What makes a weak middle, and how can you strengthen your story to keep the reader interested?

The frightening story of how the people in one beautiful town become possessed through the fiendish misuse of an apostrophe. Read only with the lights on!

Criticizing your critics is a powerful strategy for negating criticism and winning an argument. The White House–Fox News fight provides a good example.

“Effect” and “Affect” may sound similar, but they have very different meanings. Knowing which to use is a sign of being a professional writer.

The most important strategy for writing clearly is to use the S+V+O sentence structure. This article discusses this strategy and provides 5 related tips for clear writing.

Does your writing need a little R & R? Sometimes you can revise a sentence in multiple ways. Which way is best? This strategy will help you decide.

When used carefully, a one-sentence paragraph can be a powerful tool for emphasizing an idea. Three guidelines will help writers use one-sentence paragraphs effectively.

Many writers change their verbs into nouns to make their writing sound more professional. Instead, this makes their writing clumsy, hard to understand, and tedious to read. Fortunately, this problem is easily solved.

Your resume creates an impression of your competency and personality, both of which are important to personnel directors. These 7 words in your resume will help you make a positive impression.

These 10 words result in unclear and unprofessional writing. However, using the 10 techniques in this article can instantly improve your writing.

Writing in the present tense provides serious challenges to the author: maintaining perspective, introducing prior events, and filtering the stream of consciousness. This article discusses these challenges and provides an example of present-tense writing done well.

Ending sentences with prepositions: should you or shouldn’t you? The answer is “maybe.” This article explains why.

All words are good words, but some are overused in writing. We created a list of 10 overused words, based on documents we have edited during the last 5 years. Which of these do you overuse?

“Effect” and “Affect” may sound similar, but they have very different meanings. Knowing which to use is a sign of being a professional writer.

Starting sentences with "there" results in weak writing. Using simple strategies to revise these sentences can make your writing more direct and more powerful. This article shows you how.

Many writers change their verbs into nouns to make their writing sound more professional. Instead, this makes their writing clumsy, hard to understand, and tedious to read. Fortunately, this problem is easily solved.

The most important strategy for writing clearly is to use the S+V+O sentence structure. This article discusses this strategy and provides 5 related tips for clear writing.

In their attempts to remove sexist language from their writing, many writers use bad grammar or produce poor writing. Fortunately, you can fix these problems.

Reading great books helps a person become a better writer. The writings by these 30 authors are worth reading and studying.

The "not only...but also" pair is often used incorrectly, leading to faulty and listless writing. Using these correctly improves your professionalism and the impact of your writing.

Your resume creates an impression of your competency and personality, both of which are important to personnel directors. These 7 words in your resume will help you make a positive impression.

Commas are confusing, and most writers are a little insecure about using them. This article explains their most common uses to help your write more professionally.

The characters in your story, what they do, etc., are what make your story unique. The events, however, follow a set pattern. To tell a great story, use the perfect plot structure.