Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | A kind of magic
Although Walter de la Mare’s gothic whimsy and goblin language was at odds with the realism of his contemporaries, Ezra Pound and TS Eliot, he became one of the nation’s best-loved poets and storytellers. James Campbell looks back at his life and work on the 50th anniversary of his death
Naming the Beautiful Game: It’s Called Soccer - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
The English roll their eyes when Americans talk about “soccer.” But actually, it’s what the game should be called. And it’s a British word.
Email: an author’s guide - Blue Flavor
Popular as it is, the web is not the most-used Internet application by transaction volume. Email is. It’s also the most misused. Since it’s such an important and often overlooked component of our online lives, I’m going to step away from preaching about the web for a moment and focus on simple steps to make your email discussions more effective.
What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years? - New York Times
Early this year, the Book Review’s editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify “the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years.”
Reason: What Good Are the Arts?: A brilliant case for literature by Nick Gillespie
As the nation’s lit departments go begging for students, they would do well to consult John Carey’s brilliant, funny, and insightful What Good Are the Arts? (Oxford University Press), which makes a compelling and persuasive case that creative expression—especially the written word—is central to a rich and thoughtful life.
Telegraph | Connected | Alphabets are as simple as…
Writing systems may look very different, but they all use the same basic building blocks of familiar natural shapes, reports Roger Highfield
A friend of mine went to a convenience store in the Emirates last week. He asked for some oil.
The response: Sir, it is on your backside.
[Meaning: behind you.]
Legalwriting.net: Plain English: using you
…. you is widely recommended in guides for writing in plain English. Besides the website mentioned, I offer these sources:
How to Write Plain English by Rudolf Flesch:
- “I consider the you style as absolutely indispensable for Plain English.”
Writing Readable Regulations by Thomas Murawski:
- “The most important word in regulatory writing is you.”
Writing for the Legal Audience by Wayne Schiess:
- “[U]sing you . . . is the single most important technique for making the text readable and effective.”
the (new) legal writer: American Heritage Book of English Usage
“This book is designed to inform you about current
problems in English usage so you can make intelligent decisions when
communicating.” Included are chapters on grammar, style, word choice, and gender (sexist language and assumptions). It even has a chapter on e-mail, which includes tables of commonly used abbreviations and emoticons.
the (new) legal writer: Economist Style Guide
The Economist‘s style guide is an on-line version of the style book given to all journalists at The Economist. Its usage is British, not American, but most of its advice applies on both sides of the Atlantic. Its theme is stated in the introduction:
Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what
you want to say, then say it as simply as possible. Keep in mind George
Orwell’s six elementary rules (”Politics and the English Language”,
1946):
- Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Writing, Clear and Simple - Notebook - Proof-read everything!
You have to go back and re-read everything you write, or you run the risk of ending up with something like this:
Mere Islam: Book-of-the-Month for February 2006
I’ve selected Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television as our Book-of-the-Month.
When I first glanced at it on the bookstore shelf I thought it said Four Arguments for the Elimination of Wahhabism, obviously due to subconscious wishful thinking on my part after reading some of the articles ([1][2][3]) in the new issue of Islamica Magazine, thus my initial reaction was to think, “Why only four?!?” However, after a closer reading the actual title became apparent, thus I realized that this was the book that I’ve heard both Sidi Hamza Yusuf and Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller recommend in some of their lessons and lectures.
NPR : Amateur Audio Books Catch Fire on the Web
Literature fans looking for something beyond Oprah Winfrey’s book club are discovering a new kind of club on the Internet — Web sites that offer audio versions of books, voiced by fans instead of professional voice actors.
* LibriVox — Volunteer Voices, Classic Books
Writing, Clear and Simple - Articles - Don’t get lost in translation
In our increasingly globalized world, chances are good that something you write today will be translated into another language tomorrow. But the transition from one language to the next isn’t always a smooth one, as the Coca-Cola company learned when it entered the Chinese market in 1928. While they were searching for an appropriate set of Mandarin symbols to approximate the sound their product’s name without ending up with something silly or offensive, Chinese shopkeepers stepped forward with their own renderings. Most of them sounded like Coca-Cola but their literal meanings were nonsensical, like the infamous “bite the wax tadpole.”
Marginal Revolution: The best sentence I read yesterday
There is surely some irony in that fact that you
can now be prosecuted in Europe for denying a genocide and prosecuted
in Turkey for asserting that a genocide took place.
Between Two Worlds: How to Write Between the Lines
Mortimer Adler, author of the justly famous How to Read a Book, wrote a short essay called How to Mark a Book. Adler argued that we must not only read “between the lines,” but also write between the lines.
Why
is marking up a book indispensable to reading? First, it keeps you
awake. (And I don’t mean merely conscious; I mean awake.) In the second
place; reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to
express itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually
the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps you remember the
thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed.
Read the whole thing as Adler expands on each of these points.
the (new) legal writer: Punching up your writing: Advice from the experts
“Writing is fighting,” Muhammad Ali
once said. That’s certainly true of
much legal writing. Just as the boxer
who punches better than his opponent
is more likely to win the fight,
legal writing that has more punch is
more likely to accomplish its purpose.
How then, do we punch up our writing?
Here is a collection of tips from
the experts.
Writing, Clear and Simple - Notebook - Don’t dumb it down, but keep it simple
Winnie the Pooh once said “Big words bother me.” I agree, even though I also agree with the long-time Reader’s Digest feature that says “It pays to increase your word power.” [read on]
Johns Hopkins Magazine — The Art and Craft of Translation - Elborg Forster
A translation is like health: if it’s good, you don’t notice it. But if it’s not (or if some reviewer thinks it is not), it becomes very important and can ruin a whole book….
Virgin country from Guardian Unlimited: News blog
The great George Orwell (1903-1950) once wrote:
England and the English, as a rule they will refuse even to sample a foreign dish, they regard such things as garlic and olive oil with disgust, life is unliveable to them unless they have tea and puddings.
But
there comes confirmation today that, while there remains much truth in
Mr Orwell’s observations about tea and puddings, olive oil has never been so popular on these shores.
Minor Wisdom: Noun chains
The good folks at DRI just published a little article I wrote in the December 2005 issue of For the Defense. It’s called Noun Plague: Breaking the Chains. Here’s the gist:
Fred
Rodell once complained that bad law-review writing often “looks as
though it had been translated from the German by someone with a rather
meager knowledge of English.” … I often think of Rodell’s complaint
when reading something full of noun chains.
Richard Wydick coined the term “noun chain” to describe a series of
three or more consecutive nouns, with all but the last functioning as
adjectives….
A two-noun combination such as baseball game presents no problem. The problems begin when three or more nouns appear in succession. For example…. [read more]
Writing, Clear and Simple - Notebook - Flaunt or flout?
From time to time I see flaunt used where it should be flout,
and it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard every time. It’s
usually something like this: “He was flaunting the rules.” No, he was
not ostentatiously showing off the rules, he was scornfully
disregarding the rules, so it should have been “He was flouting the rules.”
Don’t flaunt your disregard for good usage by flouting the definitions of these two words. Those who do so could use a flogging.
Minor Wisdom: ABC’s of copyright
Here’s a tip for all writers, including bloggers:
If you write anything (and I do mean anything) but have never
given copyright much thought, do yourself and everyone else a big favor
and read Brad Templeton’s articles, A brief intro to copyright, and 10 Big Myths about copyright explained.
Writing, Clear and Simple - Notebook - Don’t take the shortcut: “and/or”
When you write whatever it is you write, there will be times that you are tempted to use both and and or at the same time. The usual result of that temptation is and/or, a miserable little textual pushme-pullyu that isn’t able to make up its minds about what it actually is. So don’t use it.
Technorati Tags: english, usage, writing
Minor Wisdom: For writers (legal and otherwise), a suggested New Year’s resolution
If you resolve to improve your writing in 2006, I have a few books to recommend to help you keep your resolution. All of these books focus on the structure of writing. Read them, and you’ll see that good writing is a science more than an art: anyone can learn how to do it…. [read more]
Writing, Clear and Simple - Notebook - Speaking a foreign language
Strip out the jargon, the corporate-speak, the buzzwords. Learn to connect with people using plain, simple, clear English. You’ll catch your audience’s attention like a cool breeze on a stifling day.
This applies to writing on Islam as well. How often do we see sentences like, “You have to have tawakkul, yaqeen, and absolute thiqa in Allah in order to be someone of true taqwa and istiqama.”
What language are we writing in? Whom are we trying to communicate to? (If its Arabs, why not just write in Arabic?)
EconLog, College Illiteracy, Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and Liberty
The Washington Post reports:
Literacy experts and educators say they are stunned by the results of a recent adult literacy assessment, which shows that the reading proficiency of college graduates has declined in the past decade, with no obvious explanation.
“It’s appalling — it’s really astounding,” said Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association and a librarian at California State University at Fresno. “Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it. That’s not saying much for the remainder.” [read on]
Technorati Tags: college, literacy, university
Minor Wisdom: Says they
As I wrote a few weeks ago, use of masculine singular pronouns to refer generically to both sexes is not as acceptable as it used to be. Writers often struggle to avoid sexist-sounding language, while at the same time not appearing to try too hard to be politically correct. Their problem is that English lacks sexually generic third-person singular pronouns.
Or does it? Linguist Henry Churchyard says that, like you and your, the pronouns they, them, and their enjoy a venerable history of singular usage. He also gives 75 examples of "the singular their" in Jane Austen’s writing, plus a slew of additional examples from other respected sources, including the OED, the King James Bible, and the writings of Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, and other writers.
Technorati Tags: english, usage, sexism, language
Through the Wardrobe-How Narnia Works - Lifehacker
The Chronicles of Narnia have long been some of my absolute favorite escape books, and a whole new generation is now discovering them through the new Narnia film. How Narnia Works is a detailed introduction to this world - even though I thought I knew a lot about Aslan et al, I was pleasantly surprised to find some really interesting information here. — Wendy Boswell
Minor Wisdom: Plain English Campaign Awards
The Plain English Campaign has just presented its 2005 "awards for clear—and baffling—use of English." Under the "baffling" category, we find the Golden Bull Awards (for worst examples of gobbledygook) and the Foot in Mouth Award, for a truly baffling comment. Among the eight Golden Bull winners is this bit of Australian tax legislation
uwnews.org | University of Washington News and Information
With Father’s Day just weeks away, American men might consider the idea of giving their children a gift instead of receiving one. Perhaps the best present they could give in a society concerned with growing teen-age violence is emotional control, a skill scientists believe fathers help foster in powerful ways Fathers are critical in children’s development of emotional control, according to University of Washington psychologist John Gottman, author of "Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child."
For the best modern book on English usage, I recommend–
Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online
Winnie the Pooh’s owner just attractive enough, so Disney turned him into a 6-year-old girl…
Bid`a!
NPR : Children’s Fantasy Lit in the Modern World C.S. Lewis wrote that "once every hundred years some wiseacre gets up and tries to banish the fairy tale." Lewis also said the best fantasy worked for young and old alike. Authors of children’s fantasy examine how that holds in today’s literature.
“Merriam-Webster just released Open Dictionary to better take and share the pulse of language through the Web. Of course, Webster’s has long celebrated and conveyed language’s evolution - unlike linguistic prescriptivists who fail to grasp that’s just what language does; and - where I’ve compared entries - they’ve certainly done so in a more consistent, professional fashion than online amateurs have in recent years: might Open Dictionary - in conjunction with Webster’s standard
Online Dictionary - yield the best of authoritative (top-down) and organic (bottom-up), online lexicography?”
Doth he protest too much? from Guardian Unlimited: Culture Vulture In the third instalment of his weekly etymological blog, Sean Clarke investigates the origins of the word ‘protest’.
Writing, Clear and Simple - Notebook - Writing that makes you go “Mmm-mmmm, good!”
I’ve pointed out (and pointed at, jeering) some examples of How Not To Write. Courtesy of David at Faith in Fiction, here are some examples of writing done well. Savor the goodness, and remember that good writing can be fun.
For a while I’ve been
onthe trail of a saying usually attributed to Winston Churchill:”This is the sort of arrant nonsense up with which I will not put” (orsome
variation thereof). Typically the line appears in an anecdote where an officious clerk or editor tries to correct something Churchill has written by “fixing” his trailing prepositions, and Churchill then scribbles the famous comment in the margin of the revised text.
| ChicagoTribune, Feb. 28, 1944, p. 1 /// |
New YorkTimes, Feb. 28, 1944, p. 9 |
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