Everyone can write. But not everyone can write well.

We all learn to write at school but then society makes a distinction between 'writers' and 'the rest of us.' A writer sits in a garret and writes poetry. The rest of us write memos. It's a false division.

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"Write what you know."

How many times as writers have we been told just that? I think it might even be in the initiation packet along with instructions on the secret handshake. But there's no denying that it's a technique that works. Especially for a first book. It gives you a level of comfort that allows you as the writer, the freedom to allow your story to come to life. So for my debut novel for MTV Books, I did just that -- wrote what I knew.

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The Eggcorn Database is "devoted to collecting unusual English spellings that have come to be called eggcorns." (See this week's "Behind the Dictionary" feature for a related story.) Compiled by a group of linguists, the site looks at lexical errors that "tell us something about how ordinary speakers and writers make sense of the language they use." To find out how "tow the line," "fullproof," "beyond approach," and yes, "given up the goat" came to be click here.

Geoffrey Pullum, the co-creator of the language website Language Log, sums up his site's popularity this way: "A: We like to have fun. B: We enjoy writing. And C: We're linguists." Over 40,000 people a week visit for a smart, witty, wry -- and, yes, fun -- take on how we use this English language of ours. Now Geoffrey and his collaborator Mark Liberman, both linguistics professors, have captured the flavor of their website in a new book called Far from the Madding Gerund and Other Dispatches from Language Log. We called Geoffrey to talk about his work.

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Need to polish your pitch? Erin Caldwell, the public relations executive we interview in this week's "Candlepower" feature, recommends these blogs for improving your PR communications skills:

Better Communications Results

Communication Overtones

The Flack

Diva Marketing Blog

Micro Persuasion

PR Studies

When Erin Caldwell was a senior at Auburn University in Alabama she wanted to learn more about public relations, her major, than what she got from the classroom. So she launched a website called Forward-Moving that brings together PR novices with the salty veterans of the trade. The website was a hit, popular with students and young PR professionals who use it to gain practical, real-world advice on all sides of the business -- including writing for public relations. Which, naturally, is what we discussed with Erin, who now works at a major public relations firm in Washington, DC:

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Want to write a better press release? PR professional Erin Caldwell suggests you read Public Relations Writing: The Essentials of Style and Format by Thomas H. Bivins. While they're not books, per se, Erin also recommends you listen to these podcasts: For Immediate Release and Inside PR.