Spell Check Please. © by paulswansen

Is it desperate or desparate, seperate or separate, dessert or desert? Here are a few tips for getting commonly misspelled words right:

• Desperate – The desperado is desperate.
• Separate - Think “apart” and that ‘a’ after the ‘p’ will feel like a natural choice
• Dessert – Think “strawberry shortcake” for dessert
• Inoculate – YourDictionary.com says that this sounds like a shot in the eye and that one ‘n’ is enough.
• Twelfth – Think of an elf with a lisp.

What words do you frequently misspell – and what are your tricks to get them right? Share your ideas below!

This post was inspired by: Spelling is hard – I think I’ve gotten this one wrong a few times myself. . .

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A few weeks ago I talked about setting writing rates and some of the advantages of pricing per unit. While pricing per unit (word, page, or project) has its advantages, there are a few downsides to be aware of.

Disadvantages of Per Word Pricing: Word Counts

For starters, your customers may not be able to visualize word counts as easily as you and I can. For example, I know exactly what 400 words looks like because I’ve been writing and paying attention to word counts for years. However, a small business owner creating his first website probably doesn’t.

Disadvantages of Per Word Pricing: Mental Math

Even if a customer has a good sense of word count, quoting a project strictly by your per word rate requires the customer to do some mental math. To overcome both of these problems, give examples when quoting such as “About Us page – 300-400 words – $XX – $XX.” People are familiar with About Us pages, so breaking down the quote by page type can give them a better idea of the word counts involved. Providing the estimated cost means the customer doesn’t have to do the math.

Disadvantages of Per Word Pricing: Unfair Cuts

Another potential problem with per word pricing involves the customer taking your draft and removing large chunks or even entire pages of text and then expecting the bill to be reduced because the word count has been reduced.  This has only happened to me once in the past five years. Depending on the circumstances, you’ll have to judge whether or not to charge for the words eliminated from the final draft. Though rare, this is something to think about addressing in a payment policy. 

Disadvantages of Per Word Pricing: Small Projects

Per word pricing isn’t appropriate for projects that require a great deal of thought and work – and short word counts. For example, it could take hours, if not days, to write a 100-word mission statement.  Instead of charging by the word, either set a minimum charge for small projects or create standard rates for various project types.

While there are definitely a few disadvantages of charging by the word, most of them can be overcome once you’re aware of them. Did I miss any? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

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• Setting Writing Rates–Per Hour or Per Unit?

In 2009, I posted monthly Constant-Content.com writing challenges over at the CC forum. These were a lot of fun. After taking a break, it’s time to start up once again. This month’s writing challenge is to learn a new writing trick or technique and then submit an article using that trick or technique to Constant-Content.com.

Challengers can pick anything they want to learn. Whether it’s a new SEO technique, something to do with grammar, or adopting a different writing style doesn’t matter so long as it’s something that you need to learn. Here’s what I want to work on for this writing challenge: Defining a voice.

This comes straight from chapter 3 of the Yahoo! Style Guide. The chapter discusses different voice characteristics and developing a unique voice for a website. It includes what it calls “voice charts” that you develop to ensure that everyone who writes for the site understands the tone and voice to use. I always meant to do this exercise and stretch myself by using an entirely different voice than I’m used to using. So, here’s my plan. I want to write an article using a completely different voice than I usually do.

If you’re a Constant-Content.com writer, head over to the CC forum and join the challenge!

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Happy New Year! As writers, it’s natural for us to come up with writing-related New Year’s resolutions. I’m particularly fond of them because back in January 2006, I resolved to “make money with my writing” and here I am happily selling words for a living ever since.

Here are a few of my writing resolutions for 2011:

• Master the principles taught in the book Made to Stick and use them to communicate more effectively (My brother gave me that book for Christmas and it’s awesome – thanks Bro!)
• Create a vision and strategy for my writing business
• Prioritize and focus (I tend to want to do too much, all at once)

What are your writing resolutions this year?

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• National Punctuation Day

Remember the grammar rule that was drilled into us to never end a sentence with a preposition? It’s old news. Even Strunk & White agree. My trusty edition (the fourth) of The Elements of Style says:

“Years ago, students were warned not to end a sentence with a preposition; time, of course, has softened that rigid decree. Not only is the preposition acceptable at the end, sometimes it is more effective in that spot than anywhere else. “A claw hammer, not an ax, was the tool he murdered her with.” This is preferable to “A claw hammer, not an ax, was the tool with which he murdered her.”

If you search the Internet for more information about this old rule, you’ll find plenty of authoritative sources agreeing with Strunk & White including the Chicago Manual of Style and OWL Perdue. In fact, this rule relaxed ages ago. One reference I found was dated 1987, and even that passage spoke of this rule has having been relaxed for a long time.

Not only that, the voice of Internet writing tends to be informal and nothing sounds more formal than a sentence forced to comply with this old rule. For example, compare “Who are you traveling with?” with “With whom are you traveling?”

So, don’t sweat it if you find yourself with a sentence that sounds better ending with a preposition. It’s okay. This relaxed grammar rule is one you can live with.

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