Thank goodness for Grammar Girl’s parody of those awful Head On ads to help explain run-on sentences. Some of my students have had trouble understanding what’s wrong with their run-on sentences. Comma splices and sentence fragments are in there, too. Perhaps this will help.
I don’t care what anyone says—it’s not hard to figure out whether to use lose or loose. If you’re in doubt, try this handy guide, 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling, from the wonderfully evil genius of The Oatmeal (opens in a new window).
(Hat tip to @MeetingBoy)
This is some incredibly valuable writing advice. Too bad that it ended up on the floor instead of in somebody’s paper.
And if you’ve ever smelled a pig barn that needs cleaning, you know why regular shoveling is so important.
It’s the same thing with editing. Okay, so the poop is metaphorical. Still, editing is vital no matter the document or purpose—tech docs, fiction, poetry, college essays, whatever. Step away for a while, even if it’s just an hour. Then come back, pick up your shovel, and get busy. That includes you, too, Perfect and Incredibly Inspired Writer of Masterpieces. Your work usually needs editing worse than anyone else’s.
(Many thanks to the lovely and talented @amandaccarlson for this pearl of wisdom!)
Ira Glass of This American Life reassures creative types that frustration is normal early on. (Thanks to Maria Popova at Brain Pickings!)
Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.
David Shiyang Liu’s kinetic typography brings Glass’s words to life in a way that combines reading and hearing.
My favorite lines:
The most important possible thing you can do is to do a lot of work … because it’s only by going through a volume of work that you are actually going to catch up and close that gap [between your expectations and the quality of your work].
What we create isn’t supposed to be brilliant when we first start out. It’s normal for our early work not to meet our expectations. Just as Anne Lamott counsels us, we have to get through the not-so-good material in order to discover the really good material.
I feel much better now.
“What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” Stephen King j.mp/QaREB8
— Maria Popova (@brainpicker) September 1, 2012
August 28, 1963: The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his I Have a Dream speech as part of the March on Washington.
Nearly 50 years later, style guides point to this speech as Continue reading
Last month, I challenged myself to publish a blog post every day from the 1st through the 30th. It was fun, exhilarating, even mind-numbing—and I posted 34 times in 30 days. While I’ve achieved many goals over the years, I was rather surprised Continue reading
Suw Charman-Anderson: “If there’s a common flaw in self-publishing, it’s that too many books are published too soon.” at.pw.org/N5WrhV
— Poets & Writers (@poetswritersinc) July 3, 2012
Workplace signs are among the funniest I’ve seen. They almost never mean to cause confusion, but when they do, the result makes my day. Or makes me weep for humanity. Or both.
This one is courtesy of my sister, who saw it in a Denver area women’s restroom. Continue reading