Press Release: Poor Business-Writing Skills Plague Nation; New Book Offers Solutions

Write It Well, a Bay Area-based training and consulting company that helps people improve their business writing skills, has just published a new edition of its popular book about writing for business. Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide now includes expanded sections on e-mail, grammar, and punctuation. The book addresses a fundamental yet largely overlooked skill in every career level of business: how to write business letters, e-mail, and other documents that communicate clearly and effectively

The iPad: When You Don’t Need Two Commas

Things that aren’t practical on the iPhone due to its small size are natural and almost magical on the iPad. — Daniel Eran Dilger, “Hands on with Apple’s iPad (with videos and photos),” Apple Insider, January 27, 2010 Imagine this sentence were longer. Would it still be correct without any commas if it read this way? Activities like looking at large webpages and reading e-books that aren’t practical on the iPhone due to its small size are natural and almost magical on the iPad

The iPad: When You Need Two Commas

After months of speculation, Apple launched its tablet, the iPadon Wednesday.  The lightweight device (1.5 pounds) features a luminous touchscreen and a user interface similar to the iPhone

Whistler, Canada, in the News

Peter Frenette of the U.S. jumped during a training session in Whistler, Canada, on Thursday

Luge, Skeleton, and the Series Comma

Out of more than 30,000 runs in the three sliding sports — bobsled, luge and skeleton — Whistler has seen 340 crashes. — David Epstein, “Luge dangers exaggerated,” CNN Opinion, February 16, 2010 “Skeleton” in the sentence above refers to a winter sport (AKA tobogganing). The writer uses only one comma because it’s standard journalistic practice to leave out a comma before “and” in a list of three or more items in a series