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Dear Active Rain Friends, Thank you all for letting me into your world these last few months. I’ve enjoyed reading your blogs and discussing the ups and downs of written communication. In an effort to streamline my website and postings, I’m making a few changes. I’ll no longer be posting on Activ...
07/26/2011
Writing can be intensely personal even when it is for public consumption. So when somebody offers advice, we take it personally. The best way to grow as a writer, though, is to listen to sincere criticism, consider its value with an open mind, and apply it when it will make your writing better. 
07/22/2011
This punctuation mistake makes me cringe when I see it on signs—an apostrophe is NOT decoration!  An apostrophe shows possession or abbreviation. In the case of possession, the apostrophe comes before the ‘s’ at the end of the word (the boy’s wagon). If there is more than one boy who owns the wag...
07/21/2011
Paragraphs most often start with a statement that has to be supported. The rest of the sentences in the paragraph support this main idea. Essentially, you are lumping the information into organized sections to aid in your audience’s understanding of the piece. Get Daily Writing Tips in your inbox...
07/20/2011
Although a helpful tool, don’t rely on the spell checker alone for proofreading. Most fast readers are bad proofreaders because their minds fill in the correct information. To slow it down enough to catch the mistakes, try reading the copy out loud or touching each word as you read.   Get Daily W...
07/19/2011
No one is asking you to write in more than one language—English is usually a handful. But consider your audience and purpose when planning your writing. Ad copy, a blog and an essay all have different structures, formats and needs as do other types of writing. Know your writing focus and plan acc...
07/18/2011
To make your writing stronger, avoid using the passive voice. Instead of writing, “The house will be sold” (object-verb) use the subject-verb-object combination: “I will sell the house.” Next week’s tips: Sentence Structure 101     Get Daily Writing Tips in your inbox—email writingtips@crtwriting...
07/15/2011
"But language is a treacherous thing, a most unsure vehicle, and it can seldom arrange descriptive words in such a way that they will not inflate the facts -- by help of the reader's imagination, which is always ready to take a hand and work for nothing, and do the bulk of it at that."  Mark Twai...
07/13/2011
Drafting is the real meat of writing. The rough draft should be an extension of your pre-writing and planning but is still fairly basic. As you move through the drafts, don’t be afraid of making significant changes starting with changes to paragraphs and structure and ending with a careful proofr...
07/11/2011
As much as it sounds like common sense, the first thing you should do to start writing is to actually write. I hear a lot of people say, “But it’s all in my head; I’ll write it down later.” This is usually not a successful tactic. A good way to force yourself into converting thoughts into words ...
07/06/2011
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Catherine Rayburn-Trobaugh

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