This lesson introduces students to modern poetry by letting them construct their own modern poems through a fun Mad Libs* like activity, where they must first supply words and phrases based on parts of speech clues and then plug their words into a poetic format. Then, small groups of students construct their own poetic Mad Libs for their peers based on poems of your choice.  Continue reading...

Looking to brush up on your writing? Check out these how-to guides to help you write stronger, write more descriptively, even write juicier science fiction:

Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively by Rebecca McClanahan

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert Mckee

A smart blog called Dumb Little Man "spent some time digging" through Purdue University's extensive online writing lab and distilled it down to 40 or so handy grammar tips, some with exercises, even. Good work! Check out the list here.

Beer authority Justin Philips was originally a wine guy -- until his epiphany. "I worked in a wine shop in Boston and we started carrying boutique beers," he explains, "And I got hooked." So hooked went to work for specialty beer importer B. United, and is now opening a beer-focused restaurant in Brooklyn, NY, called the Beer Table, which is where we called Justin to ask about these beer-related words:

Head. "Refers to the foam on the top of a glass of beer. Wheat beers are traditionally served with a big monster head that's inch and a half to two inches high and stays around for quite a while."

Stout. "A style of beer, originally a heavily malted, lightweight 'session beer.' A session beer is one you can sit down and drink a lot of - it has low alcohol and is very drinkable."

 Continue reading...

Visual Thesaurus subscriber Sarah Williams runs a busy copywriting company called Wordsmith, based near Oxford, England. When we spoke to her recently, she quipped that "copywriting is a bit like method acting." Hmm, that got us curious. So we asked Sarah to tell us more about her approach to developing her clients' communications. Here's our conversation:

 Continue reading...

So many of us blog. That's the fun of it. Your Uncle Fritz writes a blog about scrimshaw. Your kid's teacher writes a blog about elementary education. Your book club writes a group blog about, well, books. And these heavy duty thinkers write blogs that explore a world beyond their books, lectures and performances:

Lawrence Lessig writes about the culture of the internet and cyberspace law

Edward Tufte has been described as the "Leonardo da Vinci of data" (not a traditional blog, per se, but very much his own approach)

Richard Edelman founded of one of the world's largest PR firms

Musical innovator Moby is also a writer and activist.

I'm often approached by small businesses or organizations that can't afford professional name-development fees. And, frankly, a comprehensive name-development process, from creative brief through extensive legal review, may be more than they need. Entrepreneurs, mom-and-pop stores, and small nonprofit organizations often already have some name ideas. They just need some way to confirm that their hunches are on target.  Continue reading...