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I once knew an editor who refused to hire someone purely because he didn’t like their use of the serial comma – a punctuation mark so insidious, contentious and divisive that it even goes under several aliases (it's also known as the series, Harvard or, more commonly, the Oxford comma).

Now that most of us are working from home, we’re relying on our writing skills more than ever before to communicate with colleagues and clients.

As a contradictory person, I used to be both annoyed and pleased as an editor when writers would send me copy that was far longer than I’d commissioned.

We often pepper our writing with unnecessary words. Sometimes we do this in a misguided attempt to add description – such as when we say something is very good, or quite reasonable, or really shocking.

If you struggle with writing good link text, you're not alone – the web is filled with poorly written links.

Every sentence needs a subject and a verb – and the stronger your verb, the stronger your sentence. Instead of writing: I really do not like boiled asparagus.

Do you know the difference between exalt and exult? Or fewer and less?

In my defence, it seemed like a good idea at the time. When I left my full-time editing job at The Sydney Morning Herald a decade ago, it occurred to me that I could write a book about how to pitch stories to the media.