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The joy of serendipity
No work today. I read the SMS on Monday with surprise, delight and near disbelief. Then I realised the universe had conspired to serve my needs. With less than three hours of sleep on Sunday night, I was thinking, with severely reduced brain capacity, how to get out of taking the long drive to the…
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Can writers be replaced by Artificial Intelligence?
Be afraid. Be very afraid. Stand aside fellow writer as a machine does your work. This is highly possible, and as early as 2018, if writings on the power and glory of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is anything to go by. Machines, I learn, are exceptionally good at writing articles or producing a variety of written…
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How big is your appetite for words?
Browsing through the Huffington Post, I happened upon a blog about strange and wonderful words. When I reached the end of the text, I realised with horror that I have been known to groke on several occasions. Having not packed myself sufficient lunch for a day on site, away from my home office, I’ve been…
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Why is spelling a bee?
This is a question that has been on my mind ever since my encounter with the movie Akeelah and the Bee in 2006, and I was again reminded of it when I saw the term in a recent article. Like many historians and students of language my assumption was that it had to do with…
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Conniption over court appearance: A modern day hissy fit
Last month I received a self-sealing letter in the post. These are usually some or other form of traffic infringement notice. Indeed, it was. But it was red. This was the first time in my life that I had received a fine in red. Reading further, I found the fine showed a photograph of a…
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Why is surgery an operation?
Why is surgery an operation? When asking this question, it brings to mind a scenario in a sitcom. For example, in The Nanny, Fran could be devastated when she learns that Mr Sheffield has to go for surgery. “Oh, an operation,” she might exclaim, explaining to herself that her boss will be going under the…
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Very, very, completely: Keep language crisp and clean
I was alerted to my default descriptive style about two weeks ago. It happened when I ran my own document through spell check prior to a more serious edit and it stopped me at ‘really, really’. I realised these words were redundant and creating unnecessary hyperbole. Recently I finished reading a book where the author’s…
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Words and Phrases: Of Mondegreens and Mishearings
Blame the mishearing, blame the accent, blame the frame of reference – these give rise to mondegreens. “According to the word watcher William Safire of The New York Times, the term mondegreen dates from a 1954 magazine article by Sylvia Wright in which she said she had misheard the folk lyric ”and laid him on…
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What’s missing from the language?
Have you ever paid attention to the ampersand? Did you know that it and similarly formed words are called mondegreens? Newspaper style prefers the use of a full “and” only permitting the use of this mondegreen (oh how titillating is the English language?) in a name such as Fick & Sons or Johnson & Johnson. …
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How to develop your writing style
Usually I write about grammar, but what about style? Grammar, if you know the rules, can with effort and dedication be learnt. Style, however, is unique to the individual. Writing in your own voice almost as you speak, is how you will develop your style. When you build your unique style, you readers will begin…
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