Vote in the People’s Choice Award for best plain English summary of a science paper
What a terrific initiative!
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2014 at Pros Write
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for Pros Write. My sabbatical, which allowed me to concentrate on research projects, distracted me from posting as much as in past years. (Did you hear that, Will?) Thanks for reading. Happy New Year! Here’s an excerpt: The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year….
Code-switching in written language
We naturally adapt our language based on our social surroundings: we choose different words to describe the same thing when addressing our pals in a pub, our professor at a pub, our professor in class, or our grandmother on the phone. I’ve written about this before as code-switching. When code-switching appears in written language, some folks experience…
Pros lead with language
I teach my first class of the fall 2012 semester tonight: Leadership Communication. The focus includes writing but is not specific to it. Instead, we study how to lead with language (plus some non-verbal behaviors because we’re interested in communication). Because I will be thinking about the topics in this class quite often over the next 15 weeks, some…
Friday fun with malapropisms
I’ve written about malapropisms before. If you want a diversion that involves word play with malapropisms today, try this game from Oxford Dictionaries. Example: The muscles around the stomach are known as the abominable muscles. Answer: Abdominal (‘abominable’ means ‘detestable’). A prospectus is someone who searches for gold. After a long air flight, it is reassuring to get your feet back…
Amateurs accept platitudes about passive voice
“Passive voice is bad,” cry self-proclaimed (but undereducated) writing experts. I’ve known lots of these folks who can’t accurately identify a passive. And very few folks who can accurately define it. And even fewer who can provide amateur writers with more useful advice than this platitude. (In fact, I can’t accurately call it a platitude since…
This terrific post comes to you from Matthew Baines over at Boggleton Drive. Enjoy!
