Feeds
Do You Write Like Stephen King?
You may have already been to the site that offers to analyze your writing and tell you whose style it resembles. Created by 27-year-old Russian blogger and software developer Dmitry Chestnykh, the site operates with an algorithm similar to a spam detector. The current version is based on the English texts of 50 authors including Agatha Christie, Dan Brown, ...
5 Lessons from Pixar
Everyone loves Pixar. Okay, maybe not everyone. Let’s just say everyone except that 10% of the human race who enjoy hating on awesome like I enjoy sipping coffee. Fifteen years ago, Pixar smashed the creative and technical limits of the animated feature film. It would be easy saying they came from nowhere, if it wasn’t for the decade they ...
Is the Customer Finally in Charge?
Businesses work with suppliers, across divisions, and with distributors. In the age of relationships, when the art of conversation has made a big come back, and more and more people have access to search and publishing tools, the answer to the question "who are your customers?" may not be as straight forward. Break any one of ...
Eye tracking and what it means for writers
People look all over the place when they first land on a page. Eye tracking studies have shown people tend to look at websites in an ‘F’ pattern, but it’s not quite that simple. People don’t read what they look at– they scan for keywords People skip almost anything if they can avoid it. They focus on the areas they ...
Final Call
Just a reminder that the group writing project Can Writing Keep Us Well? is running until the end of July, which is Saturday. If you want to take part, make sure you post your contribution by then! The invitation is to share: thoughts, reflections, wishes, past experience, future intention, observation, questions, hopes on: How the process of writing might ...
Craptastic newspeak
Portmanteau: a word formed by blending sounds from two or more words and combining their meanings. All the cool kids are doing it now but that doesn’t mean it’s good, right? Hijacking perfectly good words Take ‘neutraceuticals’ for example. It combines two perfectly good words into one dismal one. Nutrient: a chemical that an organism needs to live ...
Repudiate, Refute, and Reject
How can I resist jumping into the fray over Sarah Palin’s use of the word “refudiate”? Here’s the notorious tweet as it originally appeared: Ground Zero Mosque supporters, doesn’t it stab you in the heart as it does our throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, please refudiate.” Here is the tweet with which it was replaced: Peaceful New Yorkers, pls ...
3 Ways Communicators can Help Businesses Move the Needle Online
Regardless of who should own social media, it looks like marketers have a leg up. They have been experimenting more creatively in the space so far. The Old Spice campaign was the cherry on the top of a series of interesting experiments like the IKEA store opening and the P&G Tampons campaign. That is one way to go ...
Ingenious vs. Ingenuous
Be careful with ingenious and ingenuous. Sometimes a single letter can make a great deal of difference to the meaning of a word. Take, for example, the two words ingenious and ingenuous. Ingenious means clever, original or inventive. It derives ultimately from the Latin word ingenium, which means a natural capacity or talent. It’s the same word from which ...
Pitch one Marketer, Get one Free Day
Catchy title aside, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of first time pitches to join special communities and blogging platforms lately. At a first glance, the business model for most of them seems to be "build it and they will come". Indeed, given the nature of the pitches couched as offers for participation, the plan ...
