Stephen Wilbers

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Stephen Wilbers

Columnist | Effective Writing

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Stephen Wilbers teaches seminars in effective business writing. His column appears online every other Monday.

Wilbers: Slice and dice your writing to make every word work hard

Nearly every book on style offers the same advice: Make every word count. Eliminate wordiness. Concise writing is the foundation of good writing.

Updated: August 05, 2012, - 07:23 PM

Wilbers: Pay uncommon care to the use of the humble comma

I realize it might not seem fair for a columnist appearing in the Star Tribune to pick on the Wall Street Journal, but I'm going to do it anyway.

Updated: July 22, 2012, - 06:50 PM

Wilbers: Expressions with double meanings might offend

For the benefit of people working in English as a second language, I asked you for examples of English phrases that might take on unintended, inappropriate or even offensive meanings if slightly altered or used out of context, and you really came through for me.

Updated: July 08, 2012, - 06:56 PM

Closings convey relationship and level of formality

Wei Li writes: "There's a question confuses me for quite a long time. When I write to my group people, by the end of the letter, I need to close the letter by regards, best regards, kind regards, warm regards, best wishes, your sincere ,your truely. I'll appreciated if you can tell me the differences between all these phases."

Updated: June 24, 2012, - 02:30 PM

Cellphone tower will scar BWCA

Phone tower ruling undermines and undervalues true wilderness experience.

Updated: June 19, 2012, - 08:21 PM

Wilbers: From history came a capital idea for the use of uppercase

Sometime around 780 Charlemagne was having lunch with his buddy Alcuin. Also known as Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus, Alcuin was a poet, monk and scholar whom Charlemagne had invited to serve in his court so that they could toss out the old (the classical civilization of the Greeks and Romans) and bring in the new (a medieval European civilization).

Updated: June 10, 2012, - 07:46 PM