Archive for September, 2008

Introducing a Few Broad Guidelines

Of writing, what else?
It was once believed that nobody could teach writing. It was a gift you were born with. Great writers were born, not made. And such other generalizations. While there’s a grain of truth in each of these, experience has taught me that writing can be taught.
I wrote the way I [...]

Word Power

Here’s a test of your word prowess. Tell me the meaning of these words by leaving a comment. No Googling or Wikipediaing.
fo c’ sle
gybe
Davy Jones Locker
amentia
scatomancy

Minimalism or Why I Love Hemingway

Minimalism is one of the latest terms being bandied around in the world of technical writing. Most folks trace its origins to the result of years of research in cognitive studies and learning.

Google Stops at Nothing

More power to Google! Research just got easier.

…we’re launching an initiative to make more old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives. Let’s say you want to learn more about the landing on the Moon. Try a search for [Americans walk on moon] on [...]

Habits of Great Writers

Leo Babauta culls a list of great writers and their writing habits (via). I don’t share the same taste but two of my favourite writers do find a place in Leo’s list.

1. Stephen King. In his book On Writing, King says that he writes 10 pages a day without fail, even on holidays. That’s a [...]

Writers on Writing

Hemingway. Enough said.

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.

A Weakness for Words…mostly

I am a practicing technical writer. Over ten years, my profession has taught, and taught again, and again reaffirmed that writing is very hard work.
The hard in "hard work" refers not to writing but to choice. Choice, in writing as in life, is hard because it exposes you to uncertainty. I originally started this [...]