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Solving your writing problems since 1998! |
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~ The Write Way ~ Friday 25 February 2000 Free Stuff!
Greetings, This week, I'm going to indulge one of my Pet Peeves ... How many sites have you visited in the past 24 hours that offered you "Free Stuff"? A couple? Dozens? All except Write101.com? Why oh why (oh WHY) do otherwise professional sites use this term? Surely with 800,000+ words in the English language to choose from, it's possible to find a term to describe more specifically exactly what is being offered. The experts are always advising web owners to offer visitors something for free - and rightly so - this is a unique medium of communication. It's fast, widely accessible and almost ridiculously inexpensive when you consider the technology involved - so it should be used for the free exchange of ideas and information wherever possible. If you visit ten web sites at random, you'll find more than half will have a link to "Free Stuff" - regardless of the nature of the site, the link will read "Free Stuff". Looking for graphics? Click on "Free Stuff". Looking for information on black holes or quantum physics? "Free Stuff' will take you to it. Need a dietary plan for diabetics? Try clicking on "Free Stuff". Aargh! Enough "stuff"! "Stuff" indicates a lazy mind - one that can't be bothered spending a second or two scouring the memory banks for a precise term. Think for a moment about what you are offering for free - then use those words to describe this on your link. Your visitors will appreciate knowing that they can find:
Don't make them guess. So dust off the cobwebs and start using a few more words - your visitors will appreciate your thoughtfulness. (And my dentist will love you because I won't be gnashing my teeth as often!!) We've looked in the past at the different ways we indicate the idea of plurality in English - some of these methods are based on the logic of adding S; some borrow heavily from other languages, while still others leave you open-mouthed and gasping at the sheer lunacy of it all! Another way is to use collective nouns Here are some tongue-in-cheek collective nouns (feel free to send me others as you are inspired): An absence of waiters An assemblage of jigsaw puzzlers A billow of smokers A blaze of pyromaniacs A blur of bicyclists A blush of embarrassments A bout of estimations A brace of orthodontists A charlotte of web pages A number of mathematicians A scale of ichthyologists A sprig of vegetarians A sulk of teenagers Chuckle. Aren't they clever? If you've ever fancied yourself as a fiction writer, take a minute or two to read the latest winner in the Bulwer-Lytton Parody competition ... it will boost your confidence no end! Brian sent this punctuation "exercise" after reading a recent issue that dealt with punctuation: Punctuate the following: That that is is that that is not is
not that that is is not that that is not that that is not is not that that is is
that not it it is This week's quiz: From the words in Group B, select from (i) the word which is the closest synonym and from (ii) the word which is the most appropriate antonym:
Last week's quiz: Choose the word closest in meaning to the word in capitals: 1. BRUMAL weather - balmy, WINTER-LIKE, damp, penetrating, depressing 2. A FERINE cry - blood-curdling, cat-like, WILD, mourning, piercing 3. The story was GERMANE - foreign, unknown, believable, fictitious, RELEVANT 4. He was LAMPOONED - SATIRISED, praised, surrounded, caught, struck 5. He was warned against MENDICANTS - liars, ROBBERS, quack doctors, beggars, socialists 6. A NOCENT dose - disagreeable, healing, HARMFUL, useless, narcotic 7. A RISIBLE mistake - pardonable, LAUGHABLE, inexcusable, costly, fatal 8. His wife was a TERMAGANT -QUARRELSOME WOMAN, child-beater, invalid, miserly wretch, only child 9. A SANGUINARY contest - uneven, BLOODY, decisive, doubtful, notable 10.The HIATUS was of short duration - fever, friendship, insurrection, visit, INTERVAL ~ * ~ The ESL Newsletter Network is a little
NON-COMMERCIAL initiative which aims to introduce you to some of the ~ * ~ Just in case you were beginning to think that you could stop reading these Tips, may I direct your attention to these confusing headlines from real life (sent in by Malcolm):
Tautology of the week: Originally I was going to dispense with this segment, but with all the comments I've received from people telling me how they felt, I've had to switch my mental thinking back to the first idea. I read recently about a man who spent three years incarcerated in prison, planning his vendetta of revenge. Here's a Latin phrase for those of you whose pooches have graduated from Puppy Preschool: Sede! Volve! Ecce, Latine scit. (Sit! Roll over! You see, he understands Latin.) Regards, Jennifer To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to WritingTips-unsubscribe@onelist.com or go to the ONElist web site, at www.onelist.com, and select the User Centre link from the menu bar on the left. This menu will also let you change your subscription between digest and normal mode.
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