No book about the craft of writing seems complete without a stern chapter on the importance of eschewing adverbs and adjectives - but what to put in their place?
Read MoreLanguage
Review: How Yiddish changed America and how America changed Yiddish
I bought this book two or three years ago, and it has given me a huge amount of pleasure.
Read MoreReflections on language
in Language, Reflections
If it is such an effort to deny that you’ve done anything wrong, then you must be guilty. Otherwise, it would be easy.
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Nonfiction Notebook: No excuse for poor spelling
Unless you’re so poor at spelling or English in general that a spell-checker wouldn’t do you much good anyway, there isn’t really any excuse for this sort of thing.
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Photo from Stencil. Licence: CC0
On this day: 7 features of bad writing
7 Features of Bad Writing suggests some common characteristics of poor prose. Any one of these 'sins' would serve as an indicator, especially if they occur more than once or twice.
Read More7 useful literary techniques
Here are seven handy techniques with which to enrich your writing. Used sparingly, they can be very effective at bringing a piece to life.
Read MoreReview: Waterhouse on newspaper style
This book may be thirty years old, but its advice is still pertinent. If you want to have a blitz or crackdown against, or shake-up of, bad writing (all examples of 'tabloidese'), then this is the book for you.
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Why would anyone write badly?
Why do some writers write badly? Plus links to examples of bad writing.
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Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
What "interesting" REALLY means (or might do)
in Language
When did “interesting” become a synonym for “useful”? If anything, when the word “interesting” is used by an English person, usually means the opposite.
Read MoreLanguage Barrier
Here’s a piece of writing I submitted for a creative writing course at the City Lit. It was received quite well, and one of the other students said it was the most accurate description of Santa Monica that she’d ever read. Others liked the dialogue. Me? I still chuckle over the misunderstanding about drive-in movies!
Read MoreWriting the Oulipo: A Taster
This course will look at examples of constraints created by some of the Oulipo’s main proponents, including the Hundred Thousand Billion Sonnets, the Metro Poem, and others.
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Terry, thinking
Language and meaning 2: the need for precision
in Language
Since when has “discreet” meant “small”?
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Conversing, by Terry Freedman
Language and meaning
in Language, News & views
A girl I taught was highly intelligent, very helpful and had a great sense of humour. Unfortunately, though, whenever she disagreed with somebody she immediately flew into a temper, insulted them and told them to go forth and multiply — though rather more crudely than that. I imagine she has a huge following on Twitter these days, as that seems to be the main way of “communicating” for a lot of people.
Read MoreThe primary duty of a translator
When you pick up an English edition of a foreign language book, you have to rely on the good intentions and skill of the translator. But can they be trusted?
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Not sure, by Terry Freedman
Minding our language
Using words correctly is essential. Why?
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Video surveillance: another example of tech-inspired jargon? Photo by Terry Freedman
Technology-inspired words
New words are always interesting, I think, and not just the ones that have been inspired by technology. But before I say any more about that, I feel the need to get something off my chest. Don’t worry, I won’t make this a long post: the last thing I want is people tweeting me to say TL;DR (too long; didn’t read).
Read MoreHow to appear erudite in writing
How can a writer’s choice of words convey a false impression of their knowledge of the topic in question?
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Buzzsaw screenshot, by Terry Freedman
Bad PR jargon, and how to detect it
If you’re tired of people “reaching out” or “circling back” or sending you sales “literature” that bears no relevance to you whatsoever, you will enjoy learning that you’re not alone.
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Click the cover to see the book on Amazon (affiliate link)
Review: A-Z of Storytelling Techniques
As the title suggests, this book comprises 50 “techniques” of storytelling.
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Cure, by Terry Freedman
Signs of the times
Signs in the environment can provide great stimulation for our imagination, and tell us about history in some cases too.
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