Bonnie Trenga

Hello from Bonnie. Several guys have said that time is a problem for them, and that's why they can't sign up for the class. I imagine it would take students 30 to 60 minutes a day. That's not that much time. Watch one less sitcom or skip the sports section? Do your lesson on the john? Possible? Would you prefer not to study for seven weeks but some other time frame, such as one month? I want to make this accessible to everyone with the least amount of headaches for everyone, so I'm asking you all to please let me know what changes to my suggested curriculum you want. Thanks for your time, and I hope to be light-heartedly correcting you all soon!

Calling Mr Leslie VanAlstine, Mr Brad Manor, Mr Jim Morrison and Mr Chad Fabry! And two other willing participants! I hope you had a great three-day weekend (assuming you didn't work). May I remind you that starting a week from today is the first Sentence Sleuth Writing Workshop, starring... YOU! (And me, a little.) We need you to sign up in the Sentence Sleuth forum area. It's just $125 for seven weeks of luscious learning. I promise it won't be dull. DevWave is making it easy for you by allowing you to pay by credit card. Thanks, DevWave! I look forward to hearing from all of you! Bonnie, AKA The Sentence Sleuth

Hello everyone. In case you weren't aware, you are now able to sign up for the writing class on the Sentence Sleuth forum area. I'm looking forward to the class starting in 11 days! You can also ask me any question about writing, style or grammar at the Ask the Sentence Sleuth area. Bonnie

Not to be a nerd, but my only comment (other than if you want me to contact Mr Long, I will) is that you've misused it's and its! Arrg!

Would you like me to contact Michael Long? I certainly can if it would help you guys.

Hi. Sorry about your time constraints, Randy. I wonder, though, if you can fit in 30-60 minutes a day for writing practice. That's what I have planned.

Thanks to everyone. Hausdok is helping immensely, and we're getting things organized. It seems that checks won't be needed anymore. And I imagine this is a deductible business expense for the inspectors (Mr. Accountant Husband, am I right?). Bonnie

Hi all. I'm still working on finding out about accepting credit cards. Once I get this organized I'll give you details about where to send payment. I hope that will be by the end of the week. Anyway, the price for this seven-week writing extravaganza will be just $125. Bonnie

Bain is right. Simple, declarative sentences are best for your type of writing. You don't need fancy, wordy sentences that go on forever. These are the types of issues we'll discuss in the class. I've decided it will be called The Sentence Sleuth Writing Workshop. (My column in Writer's Digest Magazine will be called The Sentence Sleuth.) You detect problems in homes; now it's time to detect problems in your writing. I'm excited to start this class. To help me prepare, can any of you who will be in the class send me badly written home inspector prose? It can be your own if you feel it's not written well, or it can be any other writing related to your field. More tomorrow. Time to put the kids to bed.

How do you feel about credit cards? I'm inquiring about that with my bank.

Hi Clyde. I've never met a real Clyde. We now seem to have seven. We can start organizing whatever area of the website is necessary.

Hi. We have six lucky inspectors so far. I've been looking into PayPal and I'd like to avoid paying a 5% fee on every transaction (assuming you do a credit card). Would a check be too old-fashioned?

Hi. Any bookstore should have it, or you can get it at Amazon. Thanks a lot! I look forward to reading your writing! And oops, it's Monday June 4, not June 1.

Let's try to start Monday June 1. Does that work? I'll come up with a price.

Bon. Bonnie

I'm glad to hear one person is interested. Anyone else?

Hi. I'm glad I can help stimulate discussion on writing! Good point about you're vs. your. It's vs. its is another problem area. Just say "it is" in the sentence. If "it is" makes sense, then you can use "it's." Otherwise, it is "its": "It's (It is) great that you guys like learning about writing." I'm willing to entertain the idea of leading a sort of class, perhaps with my book as a text. Let's imagine there would be 10 people in a "class." My book has seven main chapters. We could focus on one chapter a week for seven weeks. I could give you a short writing assignment on a Monday, due on a Wednesday. Then you would e-mail me and all the other students your writing assignment. You would use MS Word. There's a feature called Track Changes, where you can show your edits (I can tell you more about that later). Each of you would read the other students' work and edit if necessary. Then you will send me (and the original writer) your edited version by Friday. I will then post comments and answer any individual questions you have. Then we would move on to the next topic. We could certainly change around this idea if this doesn't suit everyone's taste. These are just ideas. Someone would have to create a new forum area I think (I'm not very technically oriented, so I'm not sure how that would work). Or we could just work by e-mail. There would be some cost involved, but it would be reasonable. Bonnie

What are you trying to get published? Memoirs of a Home Inspector?

Hi. Go for the freebie, of course. It's 104 today where I am, so I pity Phoenix-based home inspectors! Don't worry. I was nice in my article.

Hello all. It's been a while... I've been waiting to hear the status of my InspectionWorld proposal. Declined. Oh well. I do have news, though. You can read some more of my writing wisdom starting the end of August. I'm the new grammar columnist for Writer's Digest Magazine, a mag. for writers. I address home inspectors in my article for the October issue (out Aug 21). I hope you'll read it! How's the writing life going? Bonnie

Does anyone want to fix the spelling mistake in this topic's title?[:-graduat

Thanks for your input. I'll put together an irresistible proposal for Mr Long.

Hi. I was going to finalize my proposal by Monday in the interest of time. Perhaps I could fax it to you or another guy with some pull instead, and then you could hand it to the appropriate people. Or I could send it to Mr Long as I was originally planning, and see what happens. Whatever you think. At this point I haven't come up with a very detailed outline, but I basically want to teach chapters out of my book. I was thinking of having copies of the book on hand, which would be available for less than cover price (something like 40% off).

I hope my proposal will be accepted. Jim, can you tell me how many people might attend my presentation? Do I do one presentation only and then leave, or do I do one each day and have a booth and all that? It's an exciting prospect.

I guess I'm a wuss. I'll contact Mr Long again to see if I can convince him to let me do a two-hour presentation.