: “Every report you ever write from this day until the day you die should start out by saying something nice about the product or service you are reviewing. Then you can get down to business.” Tog —How to Deliver a Report Without Getting Lynched Similar:My Anti-Linkbait Pledge: Cynical Overhyping vs. Simply Being OnlineWhen I…
. Painfully funny small-town satire from The Onion. —Wal-Mart Opens Store in Winesburg, Ohio Similar:I let her tend the rabbits.Great production of a very moving story….BooksHaiku'da Been a Spam FilterLatest weapon against junk e-mail: poetr…CybercultureSears Reshaped America, From Kenmore to AllstateWe just bought a new refrigerator from o…BusinessInmates in a Brazil prison shorten their sentences…
“If anything, the recent expansion of literacy and educational opportunities has increased our access to literature and our enjoyment of it.” J. Peder Zane —What Good is Literature? Similar:Watching Shakespeare With Your KidsMy retired parents and bachelor engineer…CultureCNN Profiles Former White House "Chief Calligrapher"Today was the last day of the manuscript…AestheticsGames Based Learning through Text…
“Today, I’m one of the world’s leading anthropologists, an accomplished archaeologist, and an award-winning novelist. And, at 41, I’m only now becoming aware of the globetrotting rut I’ve been in my entire life. Looking back on everything I’ve seen and done, I can’t help but ask, ‘Is that all there is?’” more satire from The…
Microsoft Word requires at least 30% more keystrokes and 100% more mouse moves to accomplish certain editing tasks than would an optimal word processor. Forbes —Bad Design Can Be Costly Similar:Teaching with iPads: Motivation, Inspiration and Alienation in the AppleverseHere are the slides for the half-day wor…AcademiaA Box With A Hidden Video Camera Documents Journey…
“We are the Gist Generation. We have acquired a taste for hit-and-run, cut-and-paste knowledge. We expect a home page or e-mail correspondence to give us the gist and only the gist—time is money and you’re a click away from an iconographic trash can, so get to the point.” Jeff Barbian Similar:Blender 2.8 Released. Please leave…
This computer game tries something new. “If a character tells you he’ll call you tomorrow, he’s not kidding. You’ll have to wait a day to get his information. Faxes may arrive without warning, and instant messages may pop up onscreen when you least expect them — maybe even while you’re at work.” Wired.com —“Majestic” Invades…
“Organized religion was a primary target of every one of the twentieth century’s regimes of terror. But as is evident in Nazi and Communist terrors alike, organized irreligion (to put it in Royal’s sharp formulation) has proved far more dangerous than organized religion ever was.” Alicia Mosier Similar:Greensburg student wins Shakespeare contest A Greensburg student…
You might assume there could not be a worse time for a field calling itself “Internet studies.” You would be wrong. The Chronicle of Higher Education Similar:How Poetry Helps You Improve Your WritingWhile I’d rather see a reminder that we …Aesthetics7 web design trends you’ll actually see this year and how to survive themContent is…
“Lambert received the e-mail in December, a piece of scrap in the vast electronic junkyard that is the World Wide Web. Regrettably, she says now, she removed the letter’s forwarding markers and unintentionally put her name at the bottom, making it appear that she was the author.” Washington Post —Don’t forward that e-mail just yet!…
“[W]hat could be more scholarly than a nice, authoritative statistic, quoted from a professional journal in the student’s field?” The Chronicle of Higher Education —Telling the Truth About Damned Lies and Statistics Similar:Introduction to The Skin of Our Teeth (optimistic, absurdist metatheater; Thornton Wilder,…https://youtu.be/1okt8MIVTtsAcademiaHow dual loyalties created an ethics problem for Chris Cuomo and CNN…
The longer the company’s annual report, the less successful the company. This isn’t really a technical writing issue — usually companies with bad news to report need a lot of words to explaining themselves. But if this is what it takes to get some pinhead CEOs to appreciate brevity, so be it. Wired Similar:How Copyright…
Danielle Preston —You Know You’re a Technical Writer When… Similar:FaceTime Fun: iPod Touch Rides in Jedi FighterThrough the magic of FaceTime and the ve…AmusingLook at the adorable little tape casette. Adventure International / Scott Adams Inc. spoke…GamesDeath Comes for the Microbot — Flash Fiction by Aimee PicchiBee walked on six spindly legs to the sp…CultureWhispers…
A student of mine makes comments on interactive fiction, garish colors, and dancing text. Jan Carroll —Just For the Record Similar:Don’t Text While Parenting — It Will Make You CrankyThe study summarized in Time Magazine lo…Culture“Your resume is not about you:” Insights from a journalism hiring manager on how to succee…Your resume is not about…
learns something from my freshman comp students. On March 13, 2000, I e-mailed web guru Jakob Nielsen to tell him that six of my freshmen spent 8-30 minutes on his site without finding a plain-text “search” link on the home page. A week or so later, I noticed that Nielsen changed his page, making the…
“[W]hen it comes to writing, whether you’re a seventh grader, a college student, a professor, a beginning copywriter, or an accomplished novelist, a B isn’t good enough.” Kathy Henning —For Writers, Writing Is Never a Waste of Time: Part 2 Similar:Traces of ScribesBook historian Irene O’Daly notes that t…AcademiaI sometimes snark at the @Turnitin interface,…
“[A] society without literature, or a society in which literature has been relegated–like some hidden vice–to the margins of social and personal life, and transformed into something like a sectarian cult, is a society condemned to become spiritually barbaric, and even to jeopardize its freedom.” Mario Vargas Llosa Similar:When the Reporter Becomes Part of the…
The creator of Cliffs Notes has died. Here’s his obituary — although I know you probably won’t bother to read the whole thing. Similar:Facebook shrinks fake news after warnings backfireIn its efforts to combat the spread of f…BusinessLiteracy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?A good feature from the New York Times: …BooksHappy memories of PC…
On the tasteless side, but still very funny: “Some Features You May Need on Your Computer“ Similar:The Abomination of Ebooks: They Price People Out of Reading Random House, which jacked up its eboo…BooksPerchance to Dream: LARPing Hamlet at Castle ElsinoreThis is the concept of Inside Hamlet, an…CultureYork Corpus Christi Play Simulator Screencast (PSim 2.1; D.G.…
“It is our duty, as responsible citizens, to stop the rot. Next time someone touches base with you or moves your goal posts, punch them in the face.” Clint Witchalls —Business and the English Language Similar:The Impact of Google on Our MemorySo what is it that makes us memorize les…CultureDid Google just kill PR agencies?…