Posts tagged as:

language

If you love words, watch the History of English

July 3, 2011

One reason I love writing is because I love playing with the language itself. I enjoy finding that perfect word, twisting it in a strange way, or otherwise crafting something original. English is amazingly maliable, and is constantly incorporating new words and evolving how old ones are used. It’s been like this throughout its history, [...]

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Idea Generation

May 10, 2010

Image by annais via FlickrIdea generation is an interesting topic. Obviously, different people get their ideas different ways. Personally, my ideas seem to come at me when I am in the process of doing something rather mundane, like driving or taking a shower. Unfortunately, neither of those occupations is conducive to writing down my ideas. [...]

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At a loss for words? There’s help for that.

November 23, 2009

I recently read an insightfully funny book, “There’s No I in Office”, a compendium of 4,293 phrases to use in conversations with your co-workers.  Television writers Jacob Lentz and Paul Koehorst recognized the need for a guidebook to help cubicle denizens navigate the risky waters of office small-talk, where avoidance will likely get you labeled [...]

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creative writing exercise – one sin

August 31, 2009

A few weeks ago, Eric posted about a writing exercise in which you only use single syllable words.  I decided to give it a try, but first I had to come up with a title to work from.  I cleared my mind, set forth the constraint that it was to be a phrase consisting of [...]

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Longing

August 27, 2009

Last week I talked about the pros of using short and simple words in writing.  It tends to keep prose clear, concise, and on track; good aims generally.  I do however think a hard-line fundamentalist view can limit your options for language.  The wonder of English, after all comes from a fairly simple syntax with a huge [...]

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