Italics are like fancy dress for words. Seeing a word in italics is like going into your local grocery store and seeing someone working there in a samurai costume. “Well,” you think, “you’re certainly here to tell me something.”

Most people resent having to update software. And nowadays, updates don’t stop with your computer or even your phone. It’s hard to watch a television without being interrupted by warning messages about a new update that never seems to make much difference.

Those of us writing business proposals can’t rely on a Hollywood ending. Bid documents require the art of persuasion. That’s more of a challenge for many of us than we would like it to be. So if you’re more concerned about huge grants than Hugh Grant, here are some things to watch out for when writing proposals, bids, and other pieces designed to sell your company to clients.

You’re taking the plunge: you’re setting up as a freelance editor. You’re going to have your own company and you’re going to get clients and edit their text and invoice them and make a good living as a midwife of words. But the first choice you face is a big one: What are you going to name your company?

If you read the title and just said “Don’t you mean Felix Ungar?” then you know you are. The very fact that you’re reading this makes it likely that you’re a Felix. You’re probably an editor, and editors tend to be Felixes (or should that be Felices?).

There are five important things to watch for in numbered and bulleted lists. If you’re editing according to a style manual such as The Chicago Manual of Style, you’ll have good guidance for many of these things. But even if your style is entirely at your discretion, you’ll still want to think before you list.

Here’s a quick test on when to use a and an. Spot the errors: I was at an historic occasion, a meeting at a hotel near an university to discuss an HUD directive, when my recorder ran out of power. For want of an AA battery, my records of the meeting were lost, and it was all consigned to no more than a * in an MS.

How many slip-ups do you count? There are actually six mistakes in there. Let’s see what they are—and why!

It’s important to get a PLS right. When done well, these summaries can improve health literacy in the general public and encourage the pharmaceutical companies that sponsor clinical research to operate more transparently. These eight hacks, adapted from tips by the Plain Language Association International and The Center for Plain Language, will help you master your next PLS.

Lawyers spend a lot of time in Word, but one of the biggest challenges in finding solutions to problems is that Microsoft don’t use the same terms that lawyers use. How can you figure out what to do if you don’t know the term for it?

Drafting complex law documents can be intense work. Fortunately, Microsoft Word has a vast array of free, built-in tools that lawyers can use to make the document creation process easier.

Exploring technology options can quickly become complicated and overwhelming. Even when you focus on document creation workflows, it’s hard to appreciate the options and determine the right-size fit for your needs. To make the right choice, you must see the big picture.

Legal Training and Assessment: Programs and Resources to Supercharge Your Legal Tech Skills

When lawyers spend more time efficiently using Microsoft Word, and less time fighting it, everyone benefits. Lawyers can spend more time drafting arguments rather than drafting documents.

Today, The Chicago Manual of Style moves into proofreading software for the first time. I’m delighted to say that PerfectIt will be its platform. Whether the Manual is part of your work or the basis of your organization’s house style, The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt will give you a new level of confidence in the text you deliver.

Sometimes the best way I can help people is to explain exactly what’s happening. In the case of PerfectIt Cloud, I think it’s going to surprise you. But let’s start with the big news that I know you wanted to hear. The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt Has Feature Parity Across Versions.

Some of you reading this already know me. I run PerfectIt’s support. If you hate tech (or even if you love it), you might have wondered why someone like me has made customer support my career. I do it because I love helping people.

Here are some ideas for what to do about 42 of the most hated buzzwords.

Before you schedule an interview with your SME, you’ll want to do a bit of homework first. Plopping down in front of them and saying “tell me everything you know” will waste both of your time—and likely won’t get you the focused content you need. Instead, take an organized approach to working with an SME. Here are six steps to guide you through the process.

Are your legal documents showing their age? That’s the question that the Association of Corporate Counsel asked. If you’re reading this, then you probably already know that it’s time to update your form documents and bring them into the modern era.

American Legal Style now consists of more than 125,000 corrections for legal users—that’s four times as many corrections as were available just six months ago. Here’s the story behind the improvements.