I’ve been recommending Mark Twain’s treatise “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” for years now. Read it! You’ll learn a lot about writing, and you’ll enjoy a few laughs.

Here are Twain’s points 12-18, with my own comments beneath. He says that these “little rules” require that the author shall:

Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.

When you merely come near to it, your reader might be confused. Worse, your reader might not be confused; he might accept as true what you don’t mean.

If you mean to say “Wednesday at 3:00″ don’t say …

In Part Two of my series on writing clear e-mail messages, we’ll consider good word choice.

I’m obsessed with words, I know. I’ve got Merriam-Webster’s homepage not just bookmarked, but on my bookmarks toolbar.  Most of you are more relaxed than that, but using the right word correctly matters if you want your e-mails and other business writing to be (a) read all the way through and (b) understood.

So let’s look at a few words that confuse and how to use them correctly:

Literally and virtually are not superlatives

Virtually means nearly, almost, and for all practical purposes. …