To make learning about the Visual Thesaurus easier, it has a "context sensitive" help function. When you turn the help function on, you can roll your mouse over any area of the screen you would like to learn more about, and after a second or two, a "help tip" will appear that explains that function. To turn the help function on, press the "HELP" button on the toolbar. When the help function is on, the indicator on the right side of the "HELP" button will be next to "ON." To turn the help function off again, press the button again, returning the indicator to the "off" position.

We're extremely proud to announce that the Visual Thesaurus now offers accurate, high-quality audio pronunciations for every single word in our database — all 150,000 of them! This was a mammoth undertaking, and the results are unequaled by any online resource, both in terms of quality and quantity. Want to know how to pronounce the names of delicacies like zabaglione or blancmange? How about head-scratchers like phthisis or caoutchouc? In the Visual Thesaurus application, just click on the speaker icon next to the word or phrase you've selected. Or you can right-click on any word shown in the map and select "Pronounce Word" from the pull-down menu. The default setting is for American English, but if you prefer to hear British English pronunciations, you can easily change your audio preference in the application's Advanced Settings.

Let's take a step behind the curtain to see who was responsible for creating these pronunciations. The ensemble cast may surprise you.

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As a devotee of Chinese martial arts and Chinese culture in general, I've been familiar with martial arts stories since the days of David Carradine's TV Show Kung Fu. What I didn't know until I began to read so-called martial arts stories in novel form is that most of the great literary works of China fit into this category, works ranging back a thousand years or more.  Continue reading...

Does Art imitate Life? When the written word is involved it's not always easy to tell. This month in the Lounge, we examine the curious phenomenon of English word patterns that seem to occur mainly in fiction writing.  Continue reading...

What happens when you marry a haiku with a movie? Haikuvies has the answer!

Check out these online sources for literary criticism collections and discussion:

The Valve

Online Literary Criticism Collection

Literary Criticism Sources

Critical Reading: A Guide

...in the immortal words of Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross. No matter what sale you're closing, these books will help you write and communicate persuasively:

Little Green Book of Getting Your Way

Advertising Secrets of the Written Word

The Irresistible Offer

Words that Sell