Recently my learned friend and colleague sent me a link to a Slate article about the tendency of writers to abuse the long dash, with the note “are we guilty of this?” Absolutely not, I thought. Dashes have a very specific purpose, namely to mark the presence of parentheses. There are three other marks for [...]
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When words change meaning
Poynter Online has posted a very interesting article about the “semantic shift” through which the meaning of a word changes drastically. Some original meanings that might raise an eyebrow or two include “enthusiastic” (overzealous, misdirected religious emotion) and “girl” (a young person of either sex—in the 14th century). Try to do the little exercise at [...]
Terengganu: 4 Pages
A writer faces a dilemma when travelling: do you (1) remain fully in the moment, or (2) step out of that moment in order to take copious notes, so you can write about it later? The better the trip, the greater the dilemma. Over the years, I’ve learned the following: 1. Jotting down details in [...]
(Proof)Read this!
It’s no secret by now that I love good grammar, and any website that devotes itself to educating the masses on how to use good grammar and spelling is a champion in my eyes. Enter proofreadNOW.com, which offers proofreading services to business professionals, and sends out a GrammarTip newsletter twice a week to help anyone [...]
“Clunk” is the word…
Is written English becoming clunky? Prof Ben Yagoda, an English professor at the University of Delaware in the US, would say “Yes”. In his article titled “The Elements of Clunk” which appears on The Chronicle of Higher Education website, he plucks out a short paragraph from a student’s essay to demonstrate why writing skills have [...]
