I decided to write a blog post on this single topic because of my own personal interest. The very idea that a simple comma could create such controversy is both amusing and fascinating. How does this even happen? Why does this even happen? How can something be right and used everywhere one day, to simply become a matter of opinion the next? I decided to explore the issue, and here’s what I found.

Right or wrong

Interestingly enough, using or omitting the Oxford comma is neither right nor...

For the longest time I avoided book clubs. I had a bad attitude about them. I mean, with hardly any time to read for fun, why would I let someone else pick the books for me? What about my ever-growing list of books I wanted to read? I saw book clubs as a deterrent to finishing my own reading list, but then I got a little lonely. Suddenly, book clubs became a way to spend an evening with a group of interesting and intelligent people, talking about so much more than books. I was hooked, but I...

This month marks two-and-a-half years for my freelancing career. Thankfully, it continues to provide enough work for me to feel relevant in the ever-changing world of content creation. The majority of my assignments, these days, are for blogs. This isn’t how it started out. The first months as a freelancer, I did some blog content, but most of the focus was on catalog copy, email copy and long-form online content. Today, I have about six regular clients — all asking for blogs.

Not everyone...

You’re looking at this headline and thinking, “why two pens?” right? Well I’ll get to that, but to start, let me talk about my work area. As a freelance writer, my work area is in my home. I have two desks. One is so full of clutter, all having nothing to do with work, that I never even swivel my chair over to it.

The other desk is my working desk. It has its fair share of piles as well, but it also contains the items I need, to get my work done every day. Not counting my computer, these...

This may be the ‘older’ writer in me, but I have to devote this entire blog to conclusions. They seem to be missing in so much writing today and I lament their exit.

I’ve loved wrapping up a writing piece with a beautiful conclusion since we covered the 5-paragraph essay form in school. If you have an introduction, there must be a conclusion. So, why do I feel like I’m the only one writing one?

This issue came to my attention during a recent project where I was refreshing old content for a...