When Joanna Young came across the Pond, she gave me a wonderful gift — a book of Scottish words and phrases. If you love language, it’s well worth reading. I learned that the Scottish language is colorful, full of words that evoke the feeling of their definition, such as swither. I also detected a German […]

Confused Blogger Seeks Clarity
Friday at SOBCon, a few of us were talking about whether every word in a blog post title should be capitalized. Does anybody know?
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Joanna Young asks, What does powerful writing mean to you? Turns out to be a rather challenging question. I tried to define powerful writing as “memorably evocative.” Writing that sticks in my head and evokes an emotion or an impulse or an attitude has power. But when I think of examples, I don’t see […]

Marcus Goodyear left a comment here not too long ago that bears repeating –
It makes me wonder why we never want to share our failures with others–wouldn’t it just give them an opportunity to learn too?
That was weird, because that very idea prompted me to write my April Fool’s Day post, which dealt with a […]

Here’s an official looking piece of email I received today –
Dear PayPal User,
We are sorry to inform you that due to our recent security improvements you must
confirm your account information in order to keep it running in a perfect condition.
You are requested by PayPal to Log In and to verify all the requested information.
Please notice […]

My blogging buddy Joanna Young has graced my blog with another outstanding guest post. Joanna is a freelance writer and writing coach
who helps clients improve their writing, find their voice, build confidence, develop skills, and become part of a community that supports writers in every way. (Mini-testimonial … Recently, she gave me a little help […]

(Even though I’m not eligible for a prize, I decided to post an entry for my nano contest.)
Joanna Young, in her contest podcast-post, actually put her finger on a very important point illustrated in the cartoon - words lead to action.
Now, my tagline is “It’s all about action”. Why? Because well chosen words lead […]

Euphemism - n. The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive. (American Heritage Dictionary)
Handle euphemisms with care. Often, they escalate tension rather than reduce it. For instance, two euphemisms that make my blood boil -
Price adjustment instead of price increase
Layoff instead of […]

Joanna Young’s latest Group Project asks, why your love affair with writing?
I caught the writing bug at a very early age. In second or third grade I remember writing short stories and poems and putting them together in little booklets. I always seemed able to express myself better in writing than by talking, and I […]

Hallelujah! Cliff Atkinson’s extraordinary book, Beyond Bullet Points, instantly converted me from a PowerPoint detractor to a PowerPoint enthusiast.
Why?
Because the BBP method of creating PowerPoint presentations turned my conventional thinking about PowerPoint on its head. And, as the cartoon above illustrates, conventional PowerPoint thinking is woefully inadequate.
We’ve all experienced the boredom of a PowerPoint presentation […]