The Redemption of the Feared Red Pen

by Kimberly | post a comment

Red pens get a bad rap. They bring to mind stern, authoritative writing, corrections, and bad grades. The stark contrast of red ink on white paper with black writing can be very jarring. However, I have many red pens that I could never do without, and I recommend using them in lots of different situations, just not for giving Ds on spelling tests.

Red can be uniquely useful in editing typed documents. Tight line spacing and narrow margins can leave an editor with very little room to comment and call the writer's attention to areas that need work. A fine point red pen (or even bordeaux black) can jump out to someone skimming the page without taking up much space. An extra comma that is crossed out with a color less brash than red could easily go unnoticed by a writer when revising.

Red's power to call attention to something on the page can be used for emphasis on all kinds of documents. Red curly braces can identify an important section of reading, and underlining or circling parts of text can be a more professional alternative to highlighting. To me, a page highlighted in several candy colors can be too distracting for taking to a business meeting, so I use red pen on those documents.

While red ink on white paper isn't very pleasing to me, I love red writing on some other colors of paper. Grey, light green, or pink in particular make nice complements to red ink, so when you are picking out valentines, be sure to choose paper that looks great with your festive red ink on Valentine's Day.

Red pens can be some of the prettiest in your pen case. I love to match them with red notebooks or pen cases, and of course they make great stocking stuffers (paired with a green pen of course!). But don't forget how useful they can be for editing, emphasis, and festive holiday or valentine's cards.

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