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Category Archives: Words
Have you tried the new reduced whiches and thats diet?
You don’t have to be a professional writer to benefit from making your writing sound more natural. The words which or that are often stodgy and unnecessary. Following Strunk and White’s helpful suggestion – under their banner ‘Omit needless words’ – … Continue reading
Posted in Publishing, Words, Writing
Tagged Communication, George Harrison, Meaning, New York Times, Reading, Strunk and White, Which hunts, Writing
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The pleasures of fine lettercutting in stone
Here’s a lovely thing I was very lucky to be given a few weeks ago. I hope anyone with an interest in words, writing and lettering will enjoy it here too. What is it? It’s a Clipsham limestone square pillar with … Continue reading
Posted in Art criticism, Media analysis, Typography, Words
Tagged Clipsham, Craftsman, David Jones, Letterform, Lettering, Richard Sennett, Samuel Beckett, Stonecutting, Typography, Words
2 Comments
Inventing the future – the earliest mention of the word ‘wordpress’?
Two ifs: if there was a search engine that filtered on the earliest mention of, and if we then looked up ‘WordPress’, we would find this, by James Joyce, from 1939: A bone, a pebble, a ramskin; chip them, chap … Continue reading
Posted in Words, Writing
Tagged Blake, Creativity, Finnegans Wake, James Joyce, Large Hadron Collider, Marshall McLuhan, Murray Gell-Mann, WordPress, Words, Writing
8 Comments
What is the value of words? The euro crisis, Shakespeare and the 2012 Olympics
The current Greece-led euro crisis – #Grexit – may get a lot worse after the second national Greek election on 17 June. A lot (billions of euros) depends on a little (very small percentage differences in voter responses). (I leave … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Media analysis, Words, Writing
Tagged 2012 Summer Olympics, Alan Sugar, BBC, Chris Hoy, Danny Boyle, Elements of Style, London, Meaning, Shakespeare, Words
6 Comments
16 things about white space
1. White space is the name typesetters, typographers and type designers – artists of the black – give to a presence where we might expect an absence. We can, if we choose, see a shape where the mark has not been … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Publishing, Words
Tagged Bridget Riley, Codex, Communication, Em space, En space, Kindle, Media studies, Pilcrow, Punctuation, Shannon, Typesetting, Typography, Whiteread
8 Comments
The psychoanalysis of spelling
The only purpose of spelling is to communicate. ‘Bad’ spelling communicates too, but it gives out a message we don’t want. Or perhaps it gives out a message we do want. So what do we really want? The Spice Girls said they … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Words
Tagged Apostrophe, Bible, Freud, Literacy, McLuhan, Psychoanalysis, Punctuation, Spelling, Teaching, Words
2 Comments
Pop goes the euphemism
I have just been to collect a prescription from the pharmacist, and was asked to wait for 20 minutes ‘while we pop your prescription together for you’. I noticed that the medicine was already in a container in its packaging, … Continue reading
Posted in Medicine, Uncategorized, Words
Tagged Doctors, Etymology, Healthcare professionals, Meaning, Prostate cancer, Sustainability, Words
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The power of words #2: strange and beautiful words
The first of this pair of blogs looked at words of power; this one, Gerard Manley Hopkins-style, discusses words ‘counter, spare, original, strange’. One of my favourite words is egg. What’s good about it? It’s short. And odd. I like … Continue reading
Posted in Publishing, Words, Writing
Tagged Etymology, Meaning, Multiversality, Publishing, Typography, Words
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The power of words #1: words of power
We cannot understand a word unless we know what it means, but our familiarity with it also wears away the meaning. This is the motor that drives the ceaseless creativity of our speech-acts. I started off making a selection of … Continue reading
‘Explicit to the idiot …’
Today, two things in my mind. One, William Blake’s extraordinary letter to the Reverend Dr Trusler (23 August 1799). For background, Blake was always very short of money; Trusler was offering to become a patron of Blake’s printed illustrations and … Continue reading
Posted in Words, Writing
Tagged Blake, Commercial, Communication, Creativity, Multiversality, Music, Shakespeare, Words, Writing
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Propagandum 