Posts by Schroedingers Cat
It is part of the standard way of finishing a press release. Some of these formal documents still use these conventions. It comes, I think, from the time when press releases came on a teleprinter,...
"One day, nothing significant happened. Everyone got on as normal". What does your character do on that day? If they cannot get through a normal day, doing normal things - which may vary depending ...
The only way of not having forward references is to build up everything from the bottom. So you start with a glossary, defining the terms you are going to use. In some cases, these can cross refere...
Further to Steven Drennons answer, make sure you get people to read it who know and understand the same sorts of influences that you have. This means that a) they are more likely to be your target ...
I think that the image you have is only one aspect of pettiness. I would express that person as Grumpy Old Man, one of whose characteristics is pettiness. I tend to associate pettiness more with y...
If the documentation is only ever going to be written by one person, and read by the same group of people, that documentation does not require a style (assuming it is internal documentation, not go...
Firstly, while I like HP, I am not sure they are the best style guide for a writer. They are not all especially well written. The stories and concepts behind them are superb, which is what captured...
I think for a writing competition, you need a theme or focus, and maybe - for that age - some guidelines. Are you after an imaginative story, or a factual-type report of a fictional situation, or i...
I think you are on the right lines, in that including contradictions is a good way of indicating that the person is not telling the truth. Of course, you need to avoid the danger that readers think...
Most of the time, the answer to this is structuring of the writing. I work in Software development, and you are right that a lot of technical documentation is appallingly overdone. The straightfor...
The review will have different purposes - and should be written differently - for each of these places. If it is just after you have read the chapter, then it should be summing up all of the major ...
One question that becomes very important is whether you are being positive or negative about the celebrities. If you are going to suggest that, for example, David Cameron had a gay affair with your...
Flatten the scope - you are attributing personality to the people he sees, but the words imply they have none. Also focus on the self-obsession of the narrator ( as per @J.R. ). Just my suggestion ...
One of the Rules of writing indicates that knowing the end before the beginning is critical to writing. Which I find odd, because in my writing (early days, probably doing it wrong), one of the bes...
