Word count: 297 words Reading time: Just over 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 writers. Today I look at a piece from Mashable on the Boston Marathon bombing. I was speaking with a colleague about media coverage […]
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Word count: 462 words Reading time: Less than 2 minutes A great way to improve your writing skills is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. Today’s comes from Joan Acocella in the New Yorker. I read the New Yorker ravenously, voraciously. It arrives
Women seemed stupid…. Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. Today’s comes from Sara Hope Anderson. Sometimes, sustained metaphors can become tiresome. Do you know what I mean? Here’s an example of one that I really don’t like: The teacher descended upon the exams, sank
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Word count: 338 words Reading time: Just over 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: sybaritic. I haven’t met Jan Wong in person, but I did hear the talk about her when I worked in newspapers. Rumoured to be
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Word count: 649 words Reading time: About 2.5 minutes I’m frequently impressed by the parallels between writing and music. Today I find writing inspiration from the musical work of Jonathan Mann. I can’t remember who told me about Jonathan Mann (pictured above) but I’m grateful for the tip. I don’t spend enough time on the
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Word count: 313 words Reading time: Just over 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 writers. Jim Romenesko is a blogger who writes about the media. The idea for today’s post comes from him. I started working
Things we do not say Read More »
Word count: 204 words Reading time: Less than 1 minute A great way to improve your writing skills is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. Today’s comes from Nicole Bokat. I have family members who suffer from clinical anxiety. This was perhaps the
I curled myself into a snail-shape… Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. Today’s comes from the late Roger Ebert. Even when I was an entertainment editor for about five years, I managed to do the job without owning a TV. (Shhh, don’t tell my boss.) As a result,
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Word count: 240 words 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: mishegoss. Somehow, when I saw the word mishegoss, I knew it was Yiddish, even though I didn’t know what it meant. (Perhaps it
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Word count: 710 words Reading time: less than 3 minutes If you’re unfamiliar with readability statistics, here’s an introduction. And if you haven’t gone beyond the Flesch-Kincaid index, here’s a new idea for you… Did you know that in pre-Elizabethan times an average written sentence was 50 words long? Fifty words! Why? I’m guessing that
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