Have you noticed people saying myself when, as far as you're concerned, they really should be saying me? It seems to have become an epidemic.  Continue reading...

A while ago I ran across a website written by a management consultant whose target audience included high-level executives. The home page copy was full of "I, I, I," as in "I do this, I do that, I was educated here, I've worked for these companies," blah, blah, blah.

Here's the plain truth: no one cares about you or your company.  Continue reading...

Advice to aspiring writers usually includes these words: "Write more." More words. More pages. More chapters, poems, articles.

But I have a different suggestion: To become a better writer, write less.

No, not less frequently. But with fewer words. Lots fewer. As in... no more than 140 characters' worth.

What? And why?  Continue reading...

A Jewish friend wrote recently to tell me that her son had been invited to join a fraternity. "It's not a Jewish fraternity," she noted, "although they have a handful, literally, of Jewish members." Now, I've known some tiny Jews in my day (some of my best friends and family are tiny Jews), but I can't imagine even one fitting in someone's hand.  Continue reading...

Writing a book is hard: just ask any author. But coming up with a title for your book? That's easy.

Honestly.

Oh, you've probably heard a different story, about how choosing a book title is the toughest part of the whole endeavor. But I'm going to share with you a six-word secret for skipping directly to a happy ending: Find a formula and copy it.  Continue reading...

I love the assonance in my name, the repeated long "u" sound in Julia Rubiner. Which isn't to say I haven't daydreamed that my name is Julia Jubiner (or for that matter, in the manner of Scooby Doo, Rulia Rubiner) because then I'd enjoy both assonance and alliteration, two of my favorite poetic devices, and, as I've learned in my copywriting work, two great tastes that taste great together (the writer who coined that phrase on behalf of Reese's to describe the relationship between peanut butter and chocolate clearly knew a thing or two about assonance).  Continue reading...

Science education may be on the decline. The general level of scientific knowledge may be headed back to the Dark Ages. But the language of science has never been more popular.

Or more woefully abused.  Continue reading...