Writing & Editing

Set up if/then statements. Contingency plans remove guesswork and eliminate the nebulous element of willpower.

Lake Superior State University’s 42nd annual list of banished words includes, ironically, ‘listicle.’ Venture within, linguists, to ‘get your dandruff up.’

Readers are tiring of pap like the above. So, how can you catch their eyes and get your article opened and read? You might try accurately conveying the content inside. What a concept.

Impress your friends and colleagues by knowing who coined words such as cyberspace, factoid, meme, piehole, debunk and more from years ago.

With 2017 upon us, here are the final entries in our list of the most popular stories on Ragan.com in 2016.

Always opt for simple language over the complex—unless you’re dealing with one of these arcane words. Think you could work one into your copy?

You responded to our appeal to send us the jargon word that causes you to erupt in a screaming fury. Did you respond!

Writers can always benefit from new sources of inspiration. Old photos, names on headstones, even simple people-watching can ignite a narrative. Here is some literary kindling.

Are you a hidebound reactionary or a linguistic libertine? Both sides will find plenty of ammunition in the list of mispronounced words and phrases below.

The 2015 edition of AP Stylebook contains several additions and revisions to food, sports, news and social media terms.

The resource that has become many communicators’ bible is changing the rules by presenting a new image with new terms, fewer capitals and a search-friendly redesign.

The English language changes constantly, but sometimes it retains sayings that use words and meanings that have fallen out of favor. That leads to inadvertent mistakes.

Inspired and inspiring, these presents will warm the hearts—and the hands—of the freezing freelancers, aspiring authors and pithy poets on your shopping list.

Data suggest people make more writing mistakes on social media than anywhere else online. Don’t become one of them. Here are some things to avoid.

Early last century, a group of artists used ‘surrealism’ to describe the content of their dream-like expressions. Now, folks are using it to characterize extraordinary world events.