Richard

When Facebook first took off, how many ‘friends’ you had was quite a big thing. Facebook made it very public, and some people may have found it a bit disheartening to see people with four-figure friend lists while theirs was grinding to a halt around the 75 mark. Today, Facebook seems a lot less competitive, […]

Everybody has a slightly different technique of preparing for an exam. You might be someone who regularly reviews their material over the course of a year or more, or you may be the type who prefers to put in a big revision session here and there. Either way, the day will eventually come when the […]

Writing is one of the few professions or hobbies that we can do pretty much anywhere. Helped by modern technology, writers have so many more options and locations at their disposal than to simply sit at a desk with a pen and notepad. Working at a desk is fine, of course, but there’s no need […]

Most writers and wordsmiths tend to be fond of the likes of crosswords, anagrams and word puzzles, but does this just come down to a love of wordplay, or is it possible that their interest in one is aiding their ability in another? Perhaps the most famous of all word games is Scrabble, and with […]

There’s an old saying that “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me,” but anyone who has been on the receiving end of serious name calling will know how hurtful it can really be. A 2013 study by the University of Pittsburgh seems to back up a long-held theory that

A topic of conversation that always remains hotly contested among writers is how to refer to an unspecified person. We do this quite naturally in spoken English, but when writing, the choices of personal pronouns at our disposal mean that we sometimes spend longer than we should pondering which ones will help us achieve the […]

Poetry, as a form of writing Is challenging, perilous, brave and exciting But get it just right and it will be rewarding And leave all your best friends in awe and applauding Unless racked with jealously if they’re averse To seeing the beauty of penning some verse Yet there’s still time to view it all […]

A big part of writing for the web is knowing how to report news, and the reason for this is that it never runs out. Imagine switching on the evening news or picking up the paper only to find that journalists and reporters had found nothing to tell us. News is always happening and, if […]

March is shaping into quite some month for advocates of accurate writing. Hot on the heels of National Grammar Day, today sees another mouthwatering date on the grammar geek’s calendar – National Proofreading Day! Alright, so grammar and proofreading is a fairly dry subject for most of us. It’s not something that sets the creative […]

Part of the skill of good writing is taking what sounds good in our heads and converting it into clear, coherent and impressive words on a page. We know exactly what we’re trying to say and

Have you ever really wanted to learn a new skill, but been unsure where to start and how to fit it around your busy schedule? The pace of life in the UK seems to be getting faster every year, so how are we supposed to find time to develop new abilities? With the world of […]

With today being Valentine’s Day, it might be expected of you to put on some spectacular display of love and appreciation to somebody else, but when love is in the air, don’t forget the importance of having respect for yourself. Writing can be a very personal and lonely profession or hobby, and a big part […]

How often have you had something important to do, but decided that you just don’t feel like doing it today, and that you’d rather do it tomorrow instead? Invariably, when tomorrow comes, you feel no more like doing it than you did yesterday, but now you have no choice and less time to do it […]

Writing is a sensitive and very personal art, regardless of whether it’s done for business or as a hobby, and it’s one that can easily leave us with an inflated or deflated opinion of ourselves. A self-conscious writer might pick up a famous work of fiction and curse that they will never be able to […]

Writing is one of those things that everybody says they want to do, but not everybody gets around to doing. How many people have you heard say ‘I’d love to write a novel someday’? You might be one of them yourself. The intention to do it is always there, but the practicalities of sitting down […]