Professional Writing

I’ve edited many books, short stories, and even papers by authors who seemingly believed that…

Be Yourself When You Write Essays

Unfortunately, we see many misguided essays here at ProofreadingPal on a daily basis. And one…

Know Your Enemy – The Modern Language Association (MLA)

The MLA currently claims about 30,000 members in about 100 countries. Although founded in the…

“On Em dash, on En dash, on Prancer, on Vixen”

Having a client who is adept at em and en dashes is indeed rare. Usually…

Read Before You Write (Part II)

But no, I get it, really. You are busy. Welcome to the twenty-first century, in…

Read Before You Write (Part I)

Writing is easy. Writing well is not. Otherwise, we would all be signing seven-figure deals…

Knowing What to Look For

Effective writing is not so esoteric as to be beyond description. There are many elements…

Livestock Judging and You

Most skills are learned largely through imitation. It’s common sense that if we want to…

How Writers and Proofreaders Can Live in Peace

When Alexander Pope (1688-1744) warned, “A little learning is a dangerous thing,” he was, among…

Creating a Memorable Résumé

At ProofreadingPal, we see dozens of résumés a month. While some are pretty sharp, most…

The Unexamined Page

As a proofreader at ProofreadingPal, I see a lot of otherwise well-written documents with some…

How to Let Them Know Who You Are

How to let them know who you are in your personal statement.

The Nuts and Bolts of APA In-text Citations and References

Referencing authors of sources within the main text, within the parenthetical citations themselves, and on…

What to Say and How to Say It

So what should you say in your admissions essay and how should you say it?…

Making a Mark in Proofreading World

ProofreadingPal was recently covered in the Iowa City Press Citizen newspaper.

How to Make One Essay Work for Most Prompts

Most schools follow a much less intriguing path to college application essay prompts, and that’s…

Submitting Short Fiction to Literary Magazines

So you’ve written a short story and are looking to getting it published in a…

Writers vs. Editors – Cage Fight for the Centuries

Some proofreaders and editors like to think there are rules, rigid rules, rules that transcend…

Strunk and White are Still Dead or How Writers Can Stay Alive

There are some rules of English grammar that are, and probably will remain, nearly absolute.…

Strunk and White are Dead

I admit it. I used to teach grammar. But it wasn’t my fault. I was…