Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: chortle. I was reading an amusing Kathryn Schulz piece in the New Yorker about writer Nell Zink this week. (The piece was headlined “Outside In” and appeared in […]
What’s the origin of the word chortle? Read More »
Reading time: Just over 4 minutes Looking for some recommended books in time for summer holidays? Here’s my roundup based on my reading so far this year. I aim to read 52 books every year and my habit is to post the names of them for you, twice a year. I
Recommended books: summer 2015 Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a website produced by writer Miranda July….. I’m guessing the name Miranda July (that’s her, pictured above)
No one belongs here… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 2 minutes Do your teeth hurt? Imagine what it would be like to have severe dental pain that persisted for years and no hope of treatment… I’m seldom able to be public about crisis communications in which I’m involved. My column today is the happy exception. No harm
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a metaphor from Bob Morris… My mother died 10 years ago last month. I still remember the inexorable hours I spent in her hospital room, comforting her, feeding
The figurative language of Bob Morris… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: adducing. When I don’t know a word I enjoy guessing at its meaning. My husband is better at this than I am because
What does adducing mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Is a messy desk hurting your writing productivity? One of my classmates in high school had such a messy desk that our teachers — nuns — frequently hassled her and sometimes gave her detentions for her untidiness. In retaliation she posted a sign saying, “a clean desk
Do you suffer from Irritable Desk Syndrome? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post about the late William Zinsser….. William Zinsser, who died on May 12 of this year,
Good writers got better and bad writers… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute Lessons in crisis communications come from all sorts of places. I would never have predicted that a particularly telling one would come from FIFA president Sepp Blatter. I’m not much interested in organized sports. My pursuits run more along the lines of hiking, canoeing and walking. But
No longer the president of everybody Read More »
Reading time: Less than 2 minutes Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: villanelle I’ve suddenly become an enormous fan of the journalist, blogger and science writer Clive Thompson. A reader sent me a copy
What’s a villanelle? Read More »
