The text above is from a story on the main BBC website. Notice anything interesting about it? Notice how short the paragraphs are? The BBC uses 1-2 sentences per paragraph—that’s it. Go check for yourself. Click on any story. Their paragraphs are 1-2 sentences and no more. And crisp ones, too. Not the gnarly Christopher Hitchens kind. They…
Better Superlatives
The thing I dislike most about Apple is their overuse of the word, “amazing”. It’s downright criminal. It’d be a good drinking game during new conferences, for sure. We think it’s amazing how amazed you’ll be when you see how amazing our amazing new products are. Amazing. Sadly, that’s not much of an exaggeration. The good news is…
The Difference Between Analogy, Metaphor, and Simile
Many people confuse analogies, similes, and metaphors. Let me help. Analogies compare things so that you can see a relationship between them. There are many ways to do it, but the key thing is comparing one thing to another. Similes do this by saying something is “like” or “as” something else. He’s like a wall. She’s as smart…
Vim, Pandoc, and Happiness
Some days I take Vim’s power for granted. Today isn’t one of those days. I just got done migrating all of my content from shoddily-marked-up “static” PHP and HTML files into my CMS, and the cleanup has begun. The problem is that I’ve been writing articles and posts in various editors and formats (with varying code quality) for…
The Times Machine
From Times Machine: 129 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared. Really cool project.
The Human Font
From Wired: BIC, the office supply company that makes the world’s most ubiquitous ballpoint pen, has launched a website that could prove to be excellent fodder for graphologists and scientists alike. The Universal Typeface Experiment lets anyone, from anywhere in the world, draw the letters of the alphabet and then submit them into a massive database. From each…
The Relationship Between Clarity and Quality
“A turgid and polysyllabic prose does seem to prevail in the social sciences. . . . Such a lack of intelligibility, I believe, usually has little or nothing to do with the complexity of thought. It has to do almost entirely with certain confusions of the academic writer about his own status.” ~ C. Wright Mills
The Differences Between Vi, Vim, and Emacs
Few geek conflicts have the incandescence of the “best editor” debate. Say the words Vim or Emacs in a deeply crowd and you’ll likely hear the sound of Katana safety clasps. But what’s the debate at this point? What are the merits of each? The advantages. The downsides.Let’s take a quick look at the core advantages and disadvantages…
Scott Adams’ Writing Style
Here is a great example of Scott Adams’ writing style. [ http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/cause_of_death_wtf/ ] It’s humorous, obviously, but what hits me the most is its simplicity, clarity, and rhythm.
Aspiring to be a Quality Thinker When Everything’s Been Said
I think occasionally about the value that my writing offers the world. Common questions include, Hasn’t this probably been said somewhere else? Even for original thoughts, what value does an incremental improvement really bring? How much value is there in summarizing wisdom, with a “next steps” component added on?
The Effectiveness of Writing Styles
I think a lot about writing. I’m fascinated by those who do it well, and I wanted to take a moment to capture a few of them here.
The Hacker’s Reason for Avoiding Clichés
Throughout our writing educations and careers we’ve been told that clichés are to be avoided. We’ve been given many reasons, but most reduce to: They dilute your message. Ok, fine, but how exactly? A hacker’s explanation What follows is a computer-centered explanation that I think will resonate with many: Good stories evidently activate the listener’s brain so that…
Butterick’s Typography Book is a Thing of Beauty
I’m going through Butterick’s Typography Book again, and I’m noticing a feeling that’s similar to admiring a perfect workspace, or even doing amateur astronomy. It’s about an effort towards perfection, with keen focus on the experience of all involved. I think it’s an Apple thing as well, now that I think about it. The typography in the book,…
How I Collect and Display Interesting Content I Find Online
[ NOTE: Yahoo Pipes has been murdered, so a lot of this post is now stale. ] Like many others in technology I spend a good amount of time reading news and marking content that I may want to come back to later or share with others. Given the number of sources I consume it’s difficult to do…
Hyphens vs. Dashes
I have a bad habit of using double hyphens as dashes. I am stopping that immediately. Hyphens Hyphens are for joining words together. There were thirty-five of them out there. Dashes A dash is generally for a pause, and is often used as a replacement for parenthesis. I doubt I’d be going–even with the extra incentive–because the pay…
Losing English Majors Costs Us Clear Thinking/Writing
What many undergraduates do not know — and what so many of their professors have been unable to tell them — is how valuable the most fundamental gift of the humanities will turn out to be. That gift is clear thinking, clear writing and a lifelong engagement with literature.Maybe it takes some living to find out this truth.…
Various Written Media Types and Their Expectations of Readers
I am struck by the fact that modern news articles from CNN or BBC are no more than bullet points. They are literally a collection of one to two sentence statements, and the reasoning is clear: anything more and it won’t be read. Isn’t this a damning conviction of modern news readers? Are we so shallow or unable…
Anything Worth Saying is Worth Owning
I’ve been coming repeatedly to a simple conclusion regarding content creation and the use of social services: If something is worth creating, it’s worth keeping within your own control. This includes quick little comments on the world, or sharing interesting links (Twitter), to posting and sharing content through something like Google+. I’ve been blogging since 1999, so I…
Communicating Optimally in Email
The fundamental source of poor email style is the practice of quoting the entire message you’re replying to. If that’s what you do, then it doesn’t matter whether you put your response at the top or bottom. In fact, if you’re going to quote the entire message, top-posting probably is better. But both are poor form. Writing an…
A Bigger Boat
Well, I have published another article after over a year without doing so, and this time it has met with some fairly substantial success. The article was about the problems that many experience with Internet Explorer, and my recommendation to download and try Firefox. It’s been carried on dozens of sites and translated into like 6 languages so…