‘As thick as unabridged dictionaries’ and more expressive language
Here are more great examples of words eloquently or imaginatively written for the enjoyment of readers: “The files holding the data are as thick as unabridged dictionaries.” – Joshua Wolf Shenk in The Atlantic, “What Makes Us Happy?”...
Zappos CEO gets it; or how to communicate like a human
It’s so refreshing when a CEO sends out something that actually sounds like a human being might have said/written it. That was the case when Zappos’ CEO, Tony Hsieh, issued an announcement about Amazon buying Zappos. I liked that he apologized “for...
Hit or miss(ed) opportunities: Are you following up?
A thank you card arrived today in my mail, signed by someone I had never heard of. Turns out she is part of my local library’s summer reading program, just one of the programs the library notes it is able to run thanks to donors to their literacy efforts....
Sports announcers get away with jargon, but don’t try this at home
When interviewing someone for an employee newsletter article, I always ask the meaning of unusual terms, acronyms (a word, like OPEC, formed from the initial letters of other words) and initialisms (a group of initial letters pronounced individually, like CBC). People...
6 tips to avoid the legal blues and get ‘approvals’ from lawyers
If you write for a company, its lawyers may have LOTS to say about what you can and cannot say. Here are some suggestions for avoiding approval problems with lawyers: 1. Consider what’s going on. In a time when lawyers are super-super-sensitive, like a lawsuit...Have you lost your blogging mojo, too?
While countries around the world worry about swine flu (sorry, H1N1), I’m here to tell you there is another insidious virus sweeping at least the blogging world. Yes, some online Dr. Evil is secretly going around stealing our mojo. You know you’ve noticed...Truly awful writing takes skill; here’s some inspiration
Everyone can write, can’t they? But it takes real skill to come up with truly awful writing, like that celebrated by the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.(Sadly ended in 2025.) This is almost as much fun as the Oddest Book Title of the Year contest. But...
Twitter signs he’s just not that into you
In the movie, “He’s Just Not That Into You” (seen on the plane on the way home from San Francisco), Drew Barrymore’s character laments the sorry state of communication with the opposite sex: “I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work,...