A handful for your collection
J.P. Beaumont, a character in J.A. Jance’s Partner in Crime, tells this story:
‘So SHIT it was, and SHIT it remains’: What happens when acronyms go wrong?
… Read the full article Phrase tighteners
What’s the proper use of acronyms in writing?
Spell out, explain and illustrate acronyms
How do you handle acronyms in writing?
To communicate clearly:
1. Spell out the acronym. That’s what Alex Blumberg did in the This American Life program “The Giant Pool of Money”:
The thing that got me interested in all this was something called a NINA loan.
… Read the full article How to use acronyms, abbreviations and initialisms
Avoid drowning readers in alphabet soup
Acronyms appear to speed communication. After all, if you can boil a multisyllabic pileup of words down into a handful of letters, that moves information faster, right?… Read the full article
When to use an adjective or adverb
Use them to change, not intensify, meaning
Beware adverbs, counsels The Poynter Institute’s Roy Peter Clark.
Too often, they dilute the meaning of the verb or repeat it: “The building was completely destroyed.”… Read the full article
Why avoid adjectives or adverbs?
They make journalists cry ‘hype’ & more
Why cut adjectives and adverbs from your copy?
Because modifiers:
1. Strike journalists as hype
Writing media relations pieces?… Read the full article
Why cut the marketing fluff from your web page?
Hype reduces reading, sharing — even sales
When “king of usability” Jakob Neilsen cut the fluff from a web page about Nebraska, the neutral web page was 27% more useful.… Read the full article
When to use adverbs and adjectives
‘Applewood-smoked bacon’ just tastes better
Turns out a Southwestern Tex-Mex salad by any other name would not taste as good.
Vivid menu descriptions — “applewood-smoked bacon,” “Maytag blue cheese” and “buttery plump pasta,” for instance — can increase restaurant sales up to 27 percent, according to research by Brian Wansink.… Read the full article
Redefine the way you define terms
5 ways to rethink definitions
When I was customizing an in-house writing workshop for a utility company, I wanted to see whether there was a better way to define kilowatt hour, or kWh, for consumers.… Read the full article
Make tech terms clear
Bring complex, scientific words, phrases to life
How do you make technical, medical and bureaucratic terms clear? Winners of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Magazine Award demonstrate their techniques:
1.
… Read the full articleMake nanotechnology accessible
Model physicist Richard Feynman’s piece
So you think your subject is complex? Try taking on the topic of nanotechnology.
That’s the subject of “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom: An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics,” a classic speech by Richard Feynman, one of the most influential American physicists of the 20th century.… Read the full article