Monthly Archives: May 2014

My friend Richard Smith and I have been discussing academic writing, he as an academic who writes and me as someone who edits people like him. Richard teaches classics at the Franciscan University. Here’s the latest exchange. FROM RICHARD: On the subject … Continue reading →

An academic friend of some distinction responded to the comments about readers’ limitations in Vocabulary (i.e., Big) Words with a report from his university. During the past twenty years I have had to stop in the middle of lectures and ask — and … Continue reading →

A few thoughts on writing from Dorothy Sayers, taken from two essays in her collection Unpopular Opinions, “Plain English” and “The English Language.” Two notes: 1) Some quotes I include because her images are so good, though as quoted they … Continue reading →

My friend Maureen Mullarkey responded to Gowers Against Jargon (or, to be perfectly accurate, to the email to friends that become the weblog entry) by pointing me to Lionel Trilling’s remarks in The Liberal Imagination: A specter haunts our culture — it is that people … Continue reading →

Two friends, Judy Warner and Todd Speidell, pointed me to Charles Murray’s short article These 9 Words Don’t Mean What You Think They Mean, taken from his new book The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead. All the mistakes he noted were, I … Continue reading →

One can tell the exact truth and still mislead, and in fact tell the exact truth in order to mislead. Tylenol, used in ways people may unknowingly use it, can damage the liver and even kill people. According to Pro Publica, … Continue reading →

I like “word blur,” a term I’d never heard before, and the writer’s explanation in Missing from Christie’s proof of innocence claim: the proof. The lawyer, Randy Mastro of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, released a statement Tuesday, saying, “The governor’s office … Continue reading →

On Sir Earnest Gowers and his Complete Plain Words, one of the books on writing I recommend to people, an article from the Telegraph titled, not surprisingly,  Speak Plainly. Nothing new but some entertaining examples. Gowers hated jargon “above all,” partly because it was … Continue reading →

Very late, but in case  you didn’t see Penguin’s press release about their new series Penguin Now!, here it is. The series will replace all full stops with exclamation marks, as a way of reaching younger readers formed by the … Continue reading →

Stephen King’s rules are directed to fiction writers but most of them apply to every other kind. I endorse them all but would heavily qualify the “You can write!” last two to “You can write! But probably just for your mother.” … Continue reading →