I started working before the word processor as we know it today and the graphical desktop became mainstream. In fact, in my first few weeks on the job, I used a typewriter. When I joined The Freeman, a Cebu City-based community newspaper, in 1996, its newsroom was using networked PCs running DOS. It took me… Continue reading Back to basics
Tag: writing-tip
Blast from the past: a comment I posted in 1997
What’s your oldest online posting that is still accessible? Mine was written in 1997. It’s a guest book entry in The Slot, a site that contains a lot of tips for copy editors. I wrote the guestbook entry when I was still with The Freeman. The entry is so old I even signed it as… Continue reading Blast from the past: a comment I posted in 1997
Improving your writing skills: Lessons learned online
The best way to improve your weblog is to improve your writing. No amount of search engine optimization and membership in blog rings can make people regularly read your site if the articles are poorly written. A newspaper editor once said: “the easiest thing for the reader to do is to quit reading.” Some people… Continue reading Improving your writing skills: Lessons learned online
Media doesn’t, media don’t
I changed the title of the post immediately preceding this from “Why mainstream media doesn’t get it” to “Why mainstream media don’t get it.” The word media, according to the Columbia Journalism Review’s (CJR) language corner, is plural. CJR, however, concedes that examples of the use of the word as singular are “practically infinite” and… Continue reading Media doesn’t, media don’t
“Ing” weakening verbs
Apparently it does. See how stronger the headline would be if you say: Ing weakens verbs. Poynter’s Roy Peter Clark writes in his 51st writing tool “Too Many ‘ings’“: Let me offer reasons why ‘ing’ might weaken a verb. 1. When I add an ‘ing,’ I add a syllable to the word. This does not… Continue reading “Ing” weakening verbs
Perfectly timed death
In crime news reports, you’d hear or read victims being brought to hospitals and declared “dead on arrival.” It seem such a perfectly timed death – victims dying on arrival. Of course, what is meant by the phrase is that they were declared dead by doctors when their bodies were brought to the hospital. “Dead… Continue reading Perfectly timed death