: “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:Business as Usual #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 18)…
. Painfully funny small-town satire from The Onion. —Wal-Mart Opens Store in Winesburg, Ohio Similar:Business as Usual #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 18) Quark accepts a lucrative …“If music be the food of love, play on!” I may have mentioned that I have a daughter who d…Touch Me Now: York Plays 2025Unemployment rates for…
“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:“If music be the food of love, play on!” I may have mentioned that I have a daughter who d…Touch Me Now: York Plays 2025Unemployment rates for…
“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:I MacGyvered myself a heat sinkUnemployment rates for recent college grads: Overall, 5.8%; Computer science, 6.1%; Comput…Waiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s…
“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:The Scapegoat by Richard Maples…
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:The Scapegoat by Richard Maples (1957 Sci-Fi Short…
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:“If music be the food of love, play on!” I may have mentioned that I have a daughter who d…Touch Me Now: York Plays 2025How to be a Medieval…
“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:The Scapegoat by Richard Maples (1957 Sci-Fi Short Story)Did you like or share that social media post about two Camp Mystic girls found…
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:Business as…
Danielle Preston —You Know You’re a Technical Writer When… Similar:I MacGyvered myself a heat sinkUnemployment rates for recent college grads: Overall, 5.8%; Computer science, 6.1%; Comput…Waiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo programWhy Even Try if You Have A.I.? Now that machines can think for us, we have to choose wheth…Microsoft Publishes…
A student of mine makes comments on interactive fiction, garish colors, and dancing text. Jan Carroll —Just For the Record Similar:Touch Me Now: York Plays 2025I MacGyvered myself a heat sinkHow to be a Medieval Spectator (Intro to Toronto York Plays 2025)Unemployment rates for recent college grads: Overall, 5.8%; Computer science, 6.1%; Comput…York Corpus Christi…
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:I MacGyvered myself a heat sinkUnemployment rates for recent college grads: Overall, 5.8%; Computer science,…
“[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:The Scapegoat by Richard Maples (1957 Sci-Fi…
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:The Scapegoat by Richard Maples (1957 Sci-Fi Short Story)Did you like or share that social media post about two Camp Mystic girls found in a tree?Business as Usual #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season…
On the tasteless side, but still very funny: “Some Features You May Need on Your Computer“ Similar:I MacGyvered myself a heat sinkUnemployment rates for recent college grads: Overall, 5.8%; Computer science, 6.1%; Comput…Waiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo programWhy Even Try if You Have A.I.? Now that machines can think for…
“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 Scapegoat by Richard Maples (1957 Sci-Fi Short Story)Business as Usual #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 18) Quark accepts…