Storytelling is an art form as old as language itself. Every culture, every civilization, has its unique approaches to narrating stories and engaging the reader. Storytelling is directly linked to the way we perceive reality, and by learning how to captivate our readers through powerful narrative techniques, we take them on an unforgettable journey.  Storytelling and Its Impact on the Reader’s Experience The main power of storytelling is to engage readers emotionally. By presenting a storyline that resonates with your audience on a deeper level, you open up avenues for your message to gen ..read more

A formerly useful and innocuous set of words–groom, groomed, and grooming—has become a trope used primarily to stir anxiety and dread in parents. People who use words professionally may want to give some thought to taming some of the hysteria that has come to reside around these words. The noun groom Until recently, the noun groom denoted a person who looks after horses. They met at her stable when the groom took his niece, Claire, to riding lessons. The word probably began as a word for boy or man. The use of groom to denote a man on his wedding day is a shortening of the word bridegroom ..read more

I read that a political commentator, whom I will not name, asserts that five particular terms are “meaningless buzzwords.” Labeling these particular words “buzzwords” sent me to my language sources to discover whether my understanding of the word is faulty. Here are definitions from my two main dictionaries. buzzword: noun, Originally and chiefly U.S. a keyword, a catchword or expression currently fashionable; a term used more to impress than to inform, especially, a technical or jargon term.—Oxford English Dictionary buzzword: noun, an important-sounding usually technical word or phrase ofte ..read more

A reader has asked for a post on the difference between “mustn’t have + past participle” and “couldn’t have + past participle.” He gives these examples: a) Ahmed failed the exam. He mustn’t have studied hard. b) Ahmed failed the exam. He couldn’t have studied hard. Before writing to me, the reader queried native English speakers of his acquaintance and received these answers. • Some native speakers say that ONLY the first example is correct. • Others say that both are correct. • Some say that “mustn’t have + pp” indicates a conclusion based on evidence. • Some say that “mustn’t have” suggest ..read more

There’s a saying that “everyone has a book in him.” Since self-publishing has become so easy, quite a few people seem to be trying to expel it. During the month of November, hundreds of thousands of people signed up to write a novel during NaNoWriMo. The annual ritual of National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 with 21 participants, six of whom finished the challenge of writing a manuscript of 50,000 words. In 2018 (the last year I’ve found stats for), 450,000 people signed up; 53,000 of them completed the challenge. How many of those produced a publishable novel is another question. As the ..read more

Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in our lives, gaining new applications every day, including in the realm of writing! Generative Pretrained Transformer 3rd Generation, or GPT-3, is by far the most advanced technology of its kind, but, what is exactly GPT-3 and what can it do? If you want to try it out for yourself, check the list of AI writing generators we published last week. Most use GPT-3 behind the scenes! What is GPT-3? GPT-3 is an artificial learning model (implemented as a computer software) used for text production and manipulation. It uses a technique called Deep Lear ..read more

A formerly useful and innocuous set of words–groom, groomed, and grooming—has become a trope used primarily to stir anxiety and dread in parents. People who use words professionally may want to give some thought to taming some of the hysteria that has come to reside around these words. The noun groom Until recently, the noun groom denoted a person who looks after horses. They met at her stable when the groom took his niece, Claire, to riding lessons. The word probably began as a word for boy or man. The use of groom to denote a man on his wedding day is a shortening of the word bridegroom ..read more

I read that a political commentator, whom I will not name, asserts that five particular terms are “meaningless buzzwords.” Labeling these particular words “buzzwords” sent me to my language sources to discover whether my understanding of the word is faulty. Here are definitions from my two main dictionaries. buzzword: noun, Originally and chiefly U.S. a keyword, a catchword or expression currently fashionable; a term used more to impress than to inform, especially, a technical or jargon term.—Oxford English Dictionary buzzword: noun, an important-sounding usually technical word or phrase ofte ..read more

A reader has asked for a post on the difference between “mustn’t have + past participle” and “couldn’t have + past participle.” He gives these examples: a) Ahmed failed the exam. He mustn’t have studied hard. b) Ahmed failed the exam. He couldn’t have studied hard. Before writing to me, the reader queried native English speakers of his acquaintance and received these answers. • Some native speakers say that ONLY the first example is correct. • Others say that both are correct. • Some say that “mustn’t have + pp” indicates a conclusion based on evidence. • Some say that “mustn’t have” suggest ..read more

There’s a saying that “everyone has a book in him.” Since self-publishing has become so easy, quite a few people seem to be trying to expel it. During the month of November, hundreds of thousands of people signed up to write a novel during NaNoWriMo. The annual ritual of National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 with 21 participants, six of whom finished the challenge of writing a manuscript of 50,000 words. In 2018 (the last year I’ve found stats for), 450,000 people signed up; 53,000 of them completed the challenge. How many of those produced a publishable novel is another question. As the ..read more