Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations

Hiya Reader,

We use passwords to protect everything from our bank accounts to our email, so why not our families and friends? Given the prevalence of AI and its increasing technological advances, experts are increasingly recommending that households come up with a shared code word — a simple, memorable phrase that loved ones can use to verify they're really talking to who they think they are.

Think this is excessive? Maybe. But consider this piece from Thomas Germain of the BBC, who tried to prove he was real. I tried to prove I’m not AI. My aunt wasn’t convinced.

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Example of the Week

Sometimes this is a good example—or a great one. Sometimes this is a bad example—or just a funny blooper. Sometimes a combination. You never know.

You know that feeling when you re-read something you wrote and think, this is perfect, every word lands exactly right, the meaning is crystal clear, and frankly it's a little brilliant? Congratulations: you have just experienced the most dangerous drug in a writer's medicine cabinet. We are, by definition, the worst possible readers of our own work.

We wrote the thing, we know what we meant, and our brains will cheerfully hallucinate all the clarity, nuance, and wit we intended directly onto the page, whether it made it there or not. It's less reading and more... aggressive remembering or awareness of lived context.

This sign, for example, leaves out an awful lot of inarguably crucial information.

Actionable Tip of the Week

A trick to add to your self-editing toolbox right now!

Wordiness creeps into our writing for understandable reasons. You want to sound authoritative. You want your work to feel substantial, polished, like something worth reading. So you reach for longer phrases, academic-sounding language, and complex constructions. The result? A paragraph that technically says something but makes your reader work way too hard to find it.

We might make the mistake of wanting to add substance and believing that doing so takes a lot of words. What happens is our ideas, our points, our sheer brilliance gets buried under the weight of words.

"It is worth noting that, due to the fact that readers have limited attention spans, it is of the utmost importance that writers make every effort to communicate their ideas as clearly as possible."

Versus

"Readers are busy. Write clearly."

The deeper issue behind wordiness, though, is often less about habit and more about confidence. We inflate our language because we're not sure our ideas are enough on their own. But padding a sentence doesn't strengthen an argument — if anything, it signals that you're not sure it can stand up by itself. When you catch yourself reaching for a complicated phrase, ask: am I adding this because it helps the reader?

Clarity is a skill. When you strip away the filler, your real ideas get room to breathe. The next time you're tempted to inflate a sentence to make it sound more impressive, try the opposite. Cut it down. Your argument will only get stronger.

​Download my free workbook on wordiness here.​

Reader Question of the Week

Patricia wrote: I hope you don't think this is silly, but I am really confused about when to use "being" and "been."

Patricia! No grammar question is silly to me. I have a badge my son got for me that read “Grammar Police: To Correct And To Serve.”

Here's the simplest way I can put it: "been" and "being" each have their own partner verbs, and once you know the pairings, it clicks pretty fast.

"Been" goes with have, has, and had:

• I have been meaning to write.
• She has been working nonstop.
• He had been sick all week.

"Being" goes with am, is, are, was, and were:

• He is being ridiculous.
• They were being careful.
• She is being considered for the promotion.

One other place you'll run into "being" is on its own at the start of a phrase, acting like a noun, something like ”Being patient is hard." Here it's not paired with any helper verb — it's just standing in for a noun (same idea as saying "Patience is hard"). Grammatically this is called a gerund, but you don't need to remember that. Just know that "being" can pull double duty, and this is one of those cases.

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Link of the Week

I love first sentences. Here's a cool site that shows the opening line to a different book every time you refresh the page.

I ❤️ Hearing from You!

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Thanks for reading!

~Helene, your writing sherpa