Wordplay

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

Alphabet scoop

Create memorable acronyms

First there was FUBAR: F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition. Now, thanks to the Urban Dictionary, we also have PHOBAR: PHOtoshopped Beyond All Recognition.… Read the full article

Alliterate a little list

‘A spoonful of alliteration helps the medicine go down’

I’m a sucker for an alliterative list.

When a client asked me to write a piece on the 28 languages now available on her company’s technology, I wrote this lead:

Got a list?… Read the full article

Paint word pictures

‘You’ll have your hand on your head with a knot under it’

My grandma and namesake, Annie B. Vrana, was an Oklahoma farm woman and one of the most colorful people I’ve known.… Read the full article

Balance and Power

Win our February writing contest

The sound your’re hearing in that Oscar Wilde quote is called balance. Also known as parallelism, balance works because of the rub between similarity and difference.… Read the full article

Serial monogamy

Why have people fallen in love with this podcast?

It’s been compared to The Sopranos. Before its debut, it ranked No. 1 on iTunes. When its first season was over, fans couldn’t remember what people do who aren’t listening to it.… Read the full article

Balancing act

Three ways to create parallelism

To create balance, you might:

1. Repeat and reverse.

Start with your original idea	Repeat and reverse
It was the best of times	It was the worst of times
It was the age of wisdom	It was the age of foolishness
It was the epoch of belief	It was the epoch of incredulity
It was the season of Light	It was the season of Darkness
It was the spring of hope	It was the winter of despair

2.

… Read the full article

More Wordoids

Readers make up words with this cool naming tool

Have you tried Wordoid? This cool tool is designed to help you find a catchy name for your business by auto-creating new words.… Read the full article

‘Killing me softly’

Use adverbs 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

Transform a name

‘That was so Rob Fordian’

In the December issue, I asked you to transform a name into a descriptor. (One of my clients, I mentioned, had just asked me to “Wylie-ize” part of her website.)… Read the full article