In a ‘war for talent’, forward-thinking employers realise that non-native, English-speaking employees may mix up a subject-verb agreement, but their cultural and social intelligence is high. In fact, it’s likely these multi-lingual individuals: have a good memory can solve problems are critical thinkers concentrate well can multitask listen well are internationally minded are flexible thinkers […]
My book, With My Little Eye, has become an Australian bestseller since its launch in February 2021.’Dudley and Joan Doherty worked for ASIO during the Cold War and they raised their children to help with espionage work. The three children—Mark, Sue-Ellen, and Amanda—were taught to memorise number plates and faces, to follow people, and not […]
Write for your reader, right for you. Guest writer Good writers consider their audience; bad writers don’t—it’s the first principle of effective writing. Here’s a lively summary of why your audience matters and how to work out what they want from experienced writer and editor, Bev Sullivan. I hope you enjoy it. I’ve been helping […]
Don’tcha wish your girlfriend was hot like me? Did the songwriter who penned the line in this title get it right or wrong? Should the girlfriend be hot like me or hot like I? Grammatically speaking, it should be hot like I, but songwriters claim exemption from grammar rules. The way I check those I/me […]
Why did everyone stay away from the Giant Kid’s Playground? Because they were afraid of the giant kid, of course. This is one of the many apostrophe jokes in Lyn Truss’s classic punctuation text, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, which is so endearing that it became a bestseller when it was first published in 2003. Her […]
What’s wrong with this sentence? ‘A decision was made by the committee.’ The problem is that it’s in passive voice. Passive voice is an indirect way of saying something that puts the subject at the end of the sentence, instead of the beginning. In general, we should write in active voice, rather than passive. An […]
