¶ The Library

Style

The email, the covering letter, the text to a mate — one map for all three registers

Curated by Roger Fielding 21 articles

Adults UK & US

In this pillar

Every article, one shelf

Start here Style Is a Choice, Not a Rule 4 min read The difference between writing that's correct and writing that lands right — start here

"Very", "Really", "So": Ditching the Empty Intensifiers 9 min read "Very", "really", "so" — the intensifiers that work overtime and still say nothing at all
Academic & Professional Style: Credible Without Stiff 13 min read Blank page, renewable energy essay due — how to sound credible without sounding like a robot
Active vs Passive Voice: A Style Choice, Not a Rule 11 min read Someone scrawled 'avoid passive' in red pen, no reason given — here's the actual choice behind it
Avoiding Ambiguity: Making Sure They Get What You Mean 10 min read "I only told Mum yesterday" lands wrong — fixing sentences that mean two things at once
Avoiding Stereotypes & Loaded Labels 12 min read "The old man was surprisingly sharp" — unpicking the label your sentence didn't mean to make
Clarity & Concision: More With Fewer Words 12 min read You've read your own draft back and it just sags — trimming until it holds
Contractions in Formal Writing: Is "Don't" Ever OK? 12 min read "Don't" comes back ringed in red on a history essay — when contractions actually work in formal writing
Cutting Wordiness & Redundancy: Edit Like You Mean It 10 min read "It is very important to note that" — the six words your sentence doesn't need
Disability Language: Person-First, Identity-First 12 min read "A person with autism" or "an autistic person" — the difference, and who decides
Ending a Sentence With a Preposition: Myth vs Modern Usage 10 min read You wrote "the person I looked up to" and froze — the truth about ending sentences with prepositions
Formal or Informal? Choosing the Right Register 12 min read "Write it formally" says one teacher; "sound like yourself" says another — how to pick the right register
Gender-Neutral Job Titles & Roles 9 min read "The firemen rushed in" — why that word snags, and what actually replaces it
Impersonal Tone, Hedging & Cautious Claims 10 min read It could be argued or I think when hedging sounds sharp not shifty
Inclusive Language — Start Here 3 min read Mid-email, you stop and wonder if that word's still okay — a quick way through
Nominalisation: When Verbs-Turned-Nouns Help (and Bury) 9 min read Two sentences, same idea, one buries it — spotting when a noun swallows a verb
Professional Writing: Emails, Reports & Workplace Tone 13 min read It's 4:52 on a Friday and that email won't write itself — getting the tone right
Sentence Fragments: Stylish or Sloppy? 10 min read The line comes back marked "fragment" — when a stray sentence works, and when it just reads sloppy
Singular "They": Clear, Correct and Respectful 10 min read A student left their bag behind — whose "their" is it, and is it even wrong
Slang, Emoji, Ellipses & Dashes: When They Earn Their Place 12 min read One emoji, one dash, one ellipsis... knowing when they land and when they just look sloppy