Carol Waites's Avatar

Carol Waites

@carolkw.bsky.social

Online teacher of writing skills for international organizations. Also writing my memoir of my time at the United Nations in Geneva. I love spending time in my various home countries in Australia, Spain and the Swiss mountains. Drawing: Christine Lefeaux

68 Followers  |  93 Following  |  46 Posts  |  Joined: 16.11.2024  |  1.6431

Latest posts by carolkw.bsky.social on Bluesky

How do I form the possessive of nouns? - My WordPress We generally form the possessive of singular nouns by adding an apostrophe and an “s”. And we put the apostrophe after the plural “s”. Examples: Jean’s report and the members’ (several members) or mem...

This week's writing tip deals with the possessive apostrophe. It addresses general rules and tricky aspects. You can also practise!

carolswritingtips.com/how-do-i-for...

18.11.2025 09:08 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Use active voice in your correspondence - My WordPress Passive voice shifts the responsibility and can sound impersonal. The active voice puts the person back into the writing and makes the reader feel included. It is action-oriented. When writing emails ...

This week's writing tip is to use active voice in your correspondence.
carolswritingtips.com/use-active-v...

09.11.2025 20:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Pruning your text to get rid of redundant words - My WordPress “all, relevant, appropriate, duly, due, specific, closely, close” Do you tend to use these words? They’re words that are commonly found in writing in international organizations and can usually be del...

Here is today's writing tip about pruning your text.
carolswritingtips.com/pruning-your...

04.11.2025 10:15 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Tenses in reports and minutes of meetings - My WordPress Report writing is a formal task requiring careful command of tense shifts, use of correct structures following reporting verbs, and careful use of reporting verbs. Time expressions also shift back in ...

This week's writing tip is about using correct tenses in reports and minutes of meetings.
carolswritingtips.com/tenses-in-re...

27.10.2025 21:52 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Sound more engaged and action-oriented by avoiding “impersonal” beginnings - My WordPress To make your writing sound more alive, don’t use dull and impersonal expressions such as “it is”, “it was”, “there is”, “there was”. Not only do these carry little or no meaning but they also introduc...

This week's writing tip is about writing more concisely and clearly.

carolswritingtips.com/sound-more-e...

20.10.2025 20:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
UN Careers United Nations

careers.un.org/jobSearchDes...
Spread the word. Part-time language teachers being sought in the six official languages in Geneva. See the requirements in the ad.

16.10.2025 14:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Eliminate wordy expressions and empty phrases - My WordPress Prune your writing – remove the redundant and replace wordy expressions with short ones. Here are some things to avoid: Impersonal beginnings e.g. expletives (there is/it is) and ‘waste words’ like ‘t...

This week's writing tip is about eliminating wordy expressions.

carolswritingtips.com/eliminate-wo...

16.10.2025 13:13 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Deciding what style to adopt in your writing - My WordPress When deciding what style to use in an organization website or documents, here are some key points to decide on for consistency. They relate to United Nations style. 10 key style points Spelling – use ...

This week's writing tip is about choosing the right style for your workplace.

carolswritingtips.com/deciding-wha...

07.10.2025 21:21 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
For easy reading, keep your subject and main verb close together - My WordPress English follows the “subject – verb – object” word order in sentences that sound natural. All of the Plain English campaigns recommend you adopt this writing technique to sound clear and be easily und...

This week's writing tip is about writing clearly.
carolswritingtips.com/for-easy-rea...

28.09.2025 18:54 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Unfortunate email beginnings - My WordPress Today in international organizations, we’re writing emails to so many different people in different locations that our email language is sounding less and less English and more and more mixed across l...

Test yourself to see if you use unfortunate email beginnings! carolswritingtips.com/unfortunate-...

23.09.2025 18:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
How to write dates in UK and US English - My WordPress In both UK and US styles, there is a difference between how we say and how we write dates. Compare the spoken versus the written versions: UK“We received your email on the 1st of July 2025.” We receiv...

This week's writing tip is about dates and how to write them. carolswritingtips.com/how-to-write...

15.09.2025 09:32 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Behind the Flags is my personal memoir of my time at the United Nations in Geneva. It is now available for purchase in paperback or ebook format.

Lulu.com
Colour version
www.lulu.com/shop/carol-w...

Amazon.fr
ebook
www.amazon.fr/dp/B0FLWPGGWK
Paperback
www.amazon.fr/dp/B0FLWVM4CR

28.08.2025 07:11 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Book banner advertising my book Behind the Flags.

Book banner advertising my book Behind the Flags.

Now available on Amazon.
I’m proud to share the launch of my memoir:
Behind the Flags: A Personal Memoir and Insights into a Career at the United Nations in Geneva
After three decades teaching English and writing skills at the UN in Geneva, this book reflects on life behind the scenes.

11.08.2025 12:56 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
What is Generative AI and how can I use it when writing emails? - My WordPress Generative AI (GenAI) tools are software applications powered by artificial intelligence that can create new content, designs, or data based on the prompts or training data you give them. They leverag...

This week's writing tip is on using GenAI to help you write emails. carolswritingtips.com/what-is-gene...

28.07.2025 12:50 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Present simple tense used for effect in headlines and narration - My WordPress If you look in a grammar book on uses of the present simple, you will usually find the following explanation: The simple present tense is used to express a variety of grammatical functions, including ...

Writing tip: Did you know that present simple tense is used for effect in headlines and narration

carolswritingtips.com/present-simp...

23.07.2025 15:11 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
“Sorry!”: a word with multiple meanings - My WordPress In professional writing, “sorry” can convey an apology, empathy, responsibility, bad news or a desire to maintain positive relations. But its usage requires caution. According to Tony Thorne, an acade...

This week's writing tip is about confusing words we use in emails. "Sorry" is one of them. carolswritingtips.com/sorry-a-word...

14.07.2025 08:58 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Use gender-sensitive language - My WordPress Avoid sounding insensitive and old-fashioned. Use gender-sensitive terms in your writing. What is the best gender-sensitive alternative to this kind of dated language? Try to give at least one for eac...

Avoid sounding insensitive and old-fashioned in your writing. Use gender-sensitive terms. carolswritingtips.com/use-gender-s...

07.07.2025 20:22 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Getting the tone right in emails - My WordPress When we’re writing emails at work, it’s important to distinguish between casual usage and more formal language. A casual tone is appropriate when we’re writing to our colleagues, but we need a differe...

This week's writing tip is about getting the tone right in emails.
carolswritingtips.com/getting-the-...

30.06.2025 12:45 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Avoid overusing brackets (UK) or parentheses (USA) - My WordPress Clearly, we use brackets for in-text citations and for abbreviations, but apart from that, they are better removed. These ( ) are called parentheses in the USA or brackets in the UK. Using brackets is...

What's wrong with brackets in writing?

carolswritingtips.com/avoid-overus...

23.06.2025 09:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Some differences in spelling between UK and US English - My WordPress Most agencies in the United Nations system use UK spelling (based on the Concise Oxford Dictionary). There are a number of differences in spelling between UK and US English. Here are just a few for yo...

This week's writing tip is about US vs UK spelling. carolswritingtips.com/some-differe...

16.06.2025 11:39 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Tips for newsletter or journalistic style - My WordPress When they draft newsletters, writers in international organizations often have overlong sentences and use an academic style. A more journalistic style would help engage the reader. English sentences c...

This week's writing tip is about journalistic style. See how it's done by the journalists.
carolswritingtips.com/tips-for-new...

10.06.2025 15:39 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Post image

Wonderful workshop in Olten, Switzerland with other volunteers in the English Teachers Association, Switzerland (ETAS)

27.05.2025 09:57 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Oral vs written language - My WordPress I am listening to the BBC breaking news programme and the broadcaster is describing an accident with “a large amount of police” arriving. But what is the correct written form? “a large number of polic...

This week's writing tip is about oral vs written English carolswritingtips.com/oral-vs-writ...

27.05.2025 09:55 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
How to address people in work-related correspondence - My WordPress Use of Miss, Mrs., Ms. and Dr.Titles and their usage often vary from one culture to another. In French, for example, Mademoiselle and Madame relate more to age than marital status; whereas in English,...

This week's writing tip deals with how to address people in work-related correspondence. carolswritingtips.com/how-to-addre...

18.05.2025 17:17 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Confusing “past” tenses in English - My WordPress Tenses are often used differently from one language to another, even among European languages (e.g. English, French, Portuguese). This is particularly true of present perfect vs. simple past. And spec...

Test your grammar with this week's writing tip: carolswritingtips.com/confusing-pa...

12.05.2025 21:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Don’t confuse your ‘thats’ - My WordPress ‘that’ can have several different functions in a clause: Defining relative pronoun When ‘that’ is a defining relative pronoun, it does not take a comma before it.(In British English, ‘which’ is more c...

This week's writing tip is to help demystify the use of 'that'. carolswritingtips.com/dont-confuse...

05.05.2025 16:06 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
To be or not to be: Avoid overusing this verb! - My WordPress Liven up your writing by avoiding the verb “to be” Nothing makes for duller reading than the overuse of the simple verb “to be”. It lacks life, can’t be visualized and goes with poor style such as unn...

This week's writing tip is about making your writing more dynamic.

carolswritingtips.com/to-be-or-not...

22.04.2025 20:18 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
“Few” or “a few”? “Little” or “a little”? - My WordPress In English, the presence or absence of the indefinite article can sometimes make a big difference by making a statement positive or negative, such as in “few”/”a few”, “little”/”a little”: Examples: F...

This week's writing tip is a confusing grammar point: carolswritingtips.com/few-or-a-few...

15.04.2025 13:42 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Can we start a sentence with “And” or “But”? - My WordPress The Chicago Manual of Style says: “There is a widespread belief—one with no historical or grammatical foundation—that it is an error to begin a sentence with a conjunction such as "and," "but," or "so...

This week's writing tip is about starting a sentence with "And" or "But".

carolswritingtips.com/can-we-start...

07.04.2025 15:02 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
When you have a relative clause starting with “which” or “that”, do you put commas? - My WordPress Commas are often used for adding information. Example The project which received financial support from the World Bank consists of the extraction of oil from three oil fields. “which received financia...

This week's writing tip is about relative clauses: "which" or "that"? Commas or none?
carolswritingtips.com/when-you-hav...

02.04.2025 14:15 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

@carolkw is following 19 prominent accounts