Posts tagged as:

language

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 well [...]

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Short and Sweet

August 20, 2009

A few days back I ran across a small paperback my wife had lying around.  It was The Miracle of Languageby Richard Lederer and was published in ‘91.  It’s a quick read, musings on English and it’s use but one chapter hit me.  It was “The Case for Short Words”.  The chapter was fittingly brief, only [...]

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