Monthly Archives: December 2018

Powerful verbs: Beyond the passive voice

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged grammar verbs on by

“Carthago delenda est!” Do you think the passive voice is weak? That passive-voice construction (“Carthage must be destroyed!”) brought down a powerful nation.

Most writers at least vaguely recognize that the passive voice is often a bad thing. Fewer of them know why, or even what it is. People trying to sound smart use the term “passive voice” for many things that aren’t. It’s just one of several ways that verbs are often weaker than they could be. Let’s take a look at them and learn the differences.
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Stop being an unpaid publicist for Google!

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged Google Internet research on by

Google has accomplished something impressive. It has thousands or millions of people who regularly tell others to use its search engine. They don’t do it because they think it’s better than the alternatives. They don’t do it because they’re paid to. They do it because being an unpaid publicist for Google is a social norm. Want to show you’re smart when someone asks a question? Tell them to “Google” for it. No intelligence required.
Google is far from the only search engine around. Among the alternatives:
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Note on ContentGather

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged ContentGather on by

If you write for ContentGather, you should be aware that you won’t get email notifications when a regular marketplace article of yours sells. You have to check the site periodically to find out if you’re owed money. There isn’t any preference setting which lets you get notified about a sale of a regular article. You can, however, get notifications about the sale of custom jobs.

This seems like a way to hang on to writers’ money longer.