Here’s an idea for an editing exercise:   “This week, erase (on paper or on computer screen) at least three words from everything you write. When you see the improvement, I bet you’ll erase more.” 

Thanks to Roy Jacobsen and  Kenneth W. Davis

Lynn Gaertner-Johnson has a great post on “How to Scare Away Customers.”  The same would apply to scaring away clients.  She quotes this message that a sales representative (yes, this person was trying to sell something) sent to a friend: 

thank you for the rapid response I am grateful for the follow up. as far as information, I sending you an up coming schedule of class's we are offering but let me tell you this, I would like to purpose a special offer of 15% off for all your employee's, plus multi enrollment discounts and periodic specials like buy 2 get one free on select class's. thank you for your time should you need more information please let me know. I look forward to doing some business with you.

It’s easy to feel a little sanctimonious when reading that appalling missive.  But it should be a good reminder that the things we write say a lot about us and our work. 
 

Lynn Gaertner-Johnston at businesswritingblog.com has an editing contest that you might want to consider.
The task -- produce the best edited version of a 139-word job announcement. The job announcement is a doozy. Almost any editing will be an improvement, but I suspect the competition for "best edited" will be tough.

Lynn will choose the winner based on her best judgment. As she notes, however, "everyone who enters will win the satisfaction of rewriting a bad sentence and sending it to someone."
Good luck!

John McIntyre at the Baltimore Sun has an interesting blog entry today about words that are frequently misused. I cringe when I read lists like this because I always see words that I have used incorrectly.
In addition to pointing out the mistakes, John also provides some helpful reminders for correct usages. For example, "comprise is the box that contains the contents, not the contents themselves. The alphabet comprises 26 letters. The alphabet is composed of 26 letters." � But this was my favorite:

Podium. A Web site on public speaking offers the advice "Stand behind the podium, don't lean on it or slouch behind it." � Crouch, maybe. Apart from the comma-splice run-on, the problem here is that a podium is a platform on which a speaker stands. Podium, from the Greek podion, foot; same root as podiatry. A lectern is the stand on which the speaker rests notes.

Thanks for the pointers John.

John McIntyre at the Baltimore Sun has a blog about language and usage. In a recent blog entry, he says that copy editors have to know a little about just about everything.

The Sun gives copy desk applicants a test that is grueling. In fact, McIntyre says that in the past 11 years, only one applicant scored over 90 percent.

McIntyre gives some questions from previous tests. Even though some of questions that McIntyre lists are at least slightly law-related, I am certain that I would not have scored over 90 percent or anywhere near.

Here are some examples, but check them all out at McIntyre's blog.

Briefly define "Rig-Veda."
Who was Sojourner Truth?
What is the significance of the Dred Scott decision?