http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/?utm_source=rss Writers Talk About Writing Copyright 2010, Thinkmap Inc. All Rights Reserved. en Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/images/common/logo_on_white.gif http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/?utm_source=rss Search for a word in the Visual Thesaurus word http://www.visualthesaurus.com Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2208?utm_source=rss Erin Brenner of Right Touch Editing provides "bite-sized lessons to improve your writing" on her engaging blog The Writing Resource (http://www.thewritingresource.net/). Here Erin offers guidance on a stylistic point of contention, the serial comma. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2208 Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2206?utm_source=rss Wendalyn Nichols, editor of the Copyediting newsletter, offers useful tips to copy editors and anyone else who prizes clear and orderly writing. Here she looks at the common misuse of the word misnomer. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2206 Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2204?utm_source=rss With the advent of the Internet, the tools for writing and publication are available to all. University of Illinois linguist Dennis Baron wonders, is that really such a good thing? Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2204 Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2200?utm_source=rss Michael Lydon, a well-known writer on popular music since the 1960s, has for many years also been writing about writing. Lydon's essays, written with a colloquial clarity, shed fresh light on familiar and not so familiar aspects of the writing art. Here Lydon explores how short words are more potent than long words. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2200 Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2196?utm_source=rss I'm a big believer in the magic of three. You know — the three little pigs, the three Musketeers, the three Stooges. There's something ineffable but magical about a list of three. So, when I had three unrelated people forward me a Wall Street Journal article on the Pomodoro technique in less than a week, well, I took it as a sign. This was something I needed to investigate! Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2196 Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2176?utm_source=rss Michael Lydon, a well-known writer on popular music since the 1960s, has for many years also been writing about writing. Lydon's essays, written with a colloquial clarity, shed fresh light on familiar and not so familiar aspects of the writing art. Here Lydon looks at how writers from Shakespeare to Tolstoy have understood the power of bringing opposites together. Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2176 Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2170?utm_source=rss Erin Brenner of Right Touch Editing provides "bite-sized lessons to improve your writing" on her engaging blog The Writing Resource. Here Erin tackles the tricky distinction between compose and comprise. Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2170 Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2164?utm_source=rss One of my three children is dyslexic, but I taught the other two to read myself. It wasn't hard, but here's the deal — what I taught them wasn't so much reading as it was decoding. That is, I explained to them the various sounds that all the letters in the alphabet represent. For example, the letter e can sometimes sound like "eh" as in pen. But it can also sound like "ee" as in we. Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2164 Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2163?utm_source=rss Wendalyn Nichols, editor of the Copyediting newsletter, offers useful tips to copy editors and anyone else who prizes clear and orderly writing. Here she takes an extended look at the troublesome issue of when to hyphenate compounds. Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2163 Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2146?utm_source=rss Michael Lydon, a well-known writer on popular music since the 1960s, has for many years also been writing about writing. Lydon's essays, written with a colloquial clarity, shed fresh light on familiar and not so familiar aspects of the writing art. Here Lydon explores how metaphors have the power to "fuse fact and fancy." Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2146