Passive voice gets a bad rap. And for good reason. In business writing, at least, it usually translates into a deadened tone that keeps the reader at arm’s length. Consider an angry neighbor who says, Your neck will be wrung by me! Or a police officer who shouts, Stop. Or you will be shot by me! Both of these are written in passive voice. They both lack punch, wouldn’t you say? In addition to its stuffy tone, passive voice also lengthens and clutters sentences. Business writi

Who knew that commas had names? Take the Oxford comma, for example. It’s a swanky term for a serial comma, that is, the use of two commas in a series instead of one. For example, I bought bread, cheese, and eggs. The Oxford comma is the one before the last element in a series. OK. So what’s the big fuss? It’s just a teensy-weensy bit of punctuation. How important could this argument be? Very if you want your meaning to be unambiguous. Consider these examples that leave out th