Impertinent Remarks

How to market in a highly-regulated indu...?

In certain industries — health care, financial services, legal — licensing boards, privacy laws, and professional ethics dictate how professionals can market their services. This often includes a ban on specific words or phrases in advertising, how these professionals can communicate with clients, and even how they can respond to online reviews.

How to politely decline unsolicited advi...?

No matter where it comes from, unsolicited advice often goes awry. It’s one thing to receive feedback when you’ve asked for it. It’s quite another to receive unsolicited advice from an officious co-worker or your mother-in-law. Even worse is when the “advisor” demands detailed explanations of your decisions and argues with you if you don’t follow their suggestions.

Do you know your brand acronyms?

As consumers, we’re exposed to anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 brand mentions per day. Yet when it comes to the brands we are most familiar with, we may not know the simplest things about them. Consider M&Ms. They’re the small chocolate candy many of us have eaten since childhood. They’ve always been around, there was once controversy about the red M&Ms, and for years the main flavor choices were plain or peanut.

How to nail subject-verb agreement?

About half of all grammatical errors are mistakes in the use of verbs. As professional writers and editors, we sometimes focus so much on choosing the right verbs that we forget the basics of these powerful and sometimes troublesome parts of speech. Here’s a brief look at two problem areas involving subject-verb agreement.

Do you believe in “old writer̵...?

If you spend your life writing, you know that much of your time is spent staring at the page or screen trying to think of what to write next. Maybe you know what to write next, you just can’t land on the right words. Maybe you found the right words, but self-doubt has crept in and you want to start over. This may be why writers have so many quirks, odd habits and superstitions. Dr. Seuss wore a hat when he felt stuck.