Posts by Monica Cellio
A supplement to this answer: All the shared-world anthologies I've read had "framing" stories written by the primary author, the one who came up with most of the setting and is driving the proces...
This is a rhetorical question and, used well, can enhance the essay. The key to using this device is to first raise a question, issue, or concern that the reader might reasonably have, and then to...
I am one of several authors on a fairly new shared blog. The blog has a mix of serialized and one-shot posts. Because it's a new blog (2.5 months, ~30 posts so far), there is quite a variety of p...
First, if your institution has a style guide, follow its recommendations if there are any. But assuming it is silent on this point or you don't have one: It's helpful to provide an outline of the...
You can imply rather than say things with descriptions. For example: He picked his way down the garbage-strewn street, stepping aside to yield to an over-sized rat. The reek of stale beer and...
I am assuming that your organization does not have an official style guide, or that this is a personal project. (If you are bound by a style guide, consult it.) I am also assuming that you aren't...
A longer post can work on a blog that usually tends toward shorter posts if you take some care in structuring it. "Here are 20,000 words, plus equations" may send some people to the "back" button ...
When I'm editing technical documentation (and, ideally, when I'm writing it in the first place), I try to make every word earn its place. If both words in your phrases need to be there to make you...
I haven't tested this (which would require registering with them and obtaining an ID), but CrossRef provides a web service that appears to do what you need. From the documentation: Crossref qu...
If you're self-publishing and not doing it through a company, use your real name: "Copyright (C) 2015 John Doe". Under the Berne Convention (which applies in most countries), you own the copyright...
No. All that is required is that the reader know who is speaking. The conventions of dialogue do a good job of that. Bob continued, "blah blah blah." "But wait", Sue asked, "what about b...
Consider how your reader will use the book. In an academic work (which this is not), readers: are likely to already be familiar with the cited works (they're also researchers in this field, af...
While there might be a payoff coming in the fourth chapter, if readers get frustrated enough on the way there, some of them will bail and never finish your book. So while you can ask your reviewer...
This depends in part on the type of writing (technical reference manual? novel with illustrations? etc) and how people will read it (printed book? online?). If a reader follows a reasonable path1 ...
As this answer points out, name changes aren't limited to transgender people. A practice I've seen often is to include both names when clarification is necessary. For example, I'd adjust the exam...
In many ways you approach this the same way you would approach any other new project: Review any available high-level descriptions (like functional specifications) and user stories: what is this ...
You cite the (or a) source that you used. If you read it in Book A and that book says it came from Book B, you cite Book A because that's your source. If you choose to follow the reference and se...
This is a decision you need to make in consultation with your company's legal advisors. The ability to defend against claims is affected by both what the warranty says and how prominent it is. A ...
Rules? No, not beyond any that your publisher or editor might have. But one factor to consider is that, assuming you're not publishing in a specialized or foreign market, your readers probably wo...
Outlines vary in how much text they cover; some people might write a multi-page outline for the same content for which another would write: Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy goes to mad-s...
This is almost never done in my experience (which is mostly with technical documentation and some journal articles), for the reason implicit in your question: it's confusing. Once you start carvin...
I don't know how much benefit you'll get on a resume from having read about, as opposed to used, DITA, but some knowledge is better than none. DITA is both a specific framework and an approach. M...
From a strictly grammatical point Lauren's answer is right -- you're talking about something that happened in the past, so "that was" is correct. However, dialogue is often more colloquial and a f...
Realism has several components. Different ones dominate in different genres/settings and among individual readers. (Real) setting accuracy: If you're describing a real place or a time in history...
That's not a comma splice; that's a statement followed by an elaboration.1 The second does not stand alone, so a semicolon there would be incorrect. This would be a comma splice: It had been ...
