When office politics gets wild!
YouTube - Watch - IT versus Sales - No holds barred!
Dilbert’s recipe for succinct writing
This is a sequel to my earlier post captioned “Less is More” dwelling on reductionism, brevity and KISS.
This is what Dilbert (Scott Adams) muses in his blog about being brief:
The Day You Became A Better Writer
I went from being a bad writer to a good writer after taking a one-day course in “business writing.†I couldn’t believe how simple it was. I’ll tell you the main tricks here so you don’t have to waste a day in class.
Business writing is about clarity and persuasion. The main technique is keeping things simple. Simple writing is persuasive. A good argument in five sentences will sway more people than a brilliant argument in a hundred sentences. Don’t fight it.
Simple means getting rid of extra words. Don’t write, “He was very happy†when you can write “He was happy.†You think the word “very†adds something. It doesn’t. Prune your sentences.
Humor writing is a lot like business writing. It needs to be simple. The main difference is in the choice of words. For humor, don’t say “drink†when you can say “swill.â€
Your first sentence needs to grab the reader. Go back and read my first sentence to this post. I rewrote it a dozen times. It makes you curious. That’s the key.
Write short sentences. Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence. Readers aren’t as smart as you’d think.
Learn how brains organize ideas. Readers comprehend “the boy hit the ball†quicker than “the ball was hit by the boy.†Both sentences mean the same, but it’s easier to imagine the object (the boy) before the action (the hitting). All brains work that way. (Notice I didn’t say, “That is the way all brains work�)
That’s it. You just learned 80% of the rules of good writing. You’re welcome
Punctuation is powerful!
Cool anagrams!
Dormitory = Dirty Room
Dictionary = Indicatory
Schoolmaster = The classroom
Elvis = Lives
Listen = Silent
Clint Eastwood = Old West Action
Madam Curie = Radium came
A telephone girl = Repeating “Hello”
The country side = No City Dust Here
Evangelist = Evil’s Agent
Astronomers = Moon starers / No more stars
The eyes = They see
The cockroach = Cook, catch her
The centenarians = I can hear ten “tens”
Desperation = A Rope Ends It
The Morse Code = Here Come Dots
The Meaning of Life = The fine game of nil
Slot Machines = Cash Lost in’em
Conversation = Voices Rant On
Butterfly = Flutter-by
Animosity = Is No Amity
Mother-in-law = Woman Hitler
A Domesticated Animal = Docile, as a Man Tamed it
The Railroad Train = Hi! I Rattle and Roar
The Detectives = Detect Thieves
A Decimal Point = I’m a Dot in Place
The Earthquakes = That Queer Shake
Salman Rushdie = Read, Shun Islam
Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one
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Verbiage with a V
Here is the transcript of the grandiloquent verbal hyperbole (interesting though!) from the film, “V for Vendetta
Evey: Who are you?
V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey: Well I can see that.
V: Of course you can. I’m not questioning your powers of observation I’m merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.
But on this most auspicious of nights, permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona.
Voilà ! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.
The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.
Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.
YouTube - Watch - V's intro to Evey
Typing Characters That Are Not on the Keyboard
Excerpts from a “Get It Write” article:
Here are the typing codes for the legal “section” symbol and some of the most commonly used monetary symbols:
Alt + 0167 = § = section symbol
Alt + 0163 = £ = the British pound
Alt + 0128 = € = the Euro of the European Union
Alt + 0165 = ¥ = the Japanese yen
These are the codes for some of the most-often-used international diacritics (including the two mentioned above). Again, just hold down the Alt key and type the four-digit codes using the numeral key pad on the far right of your enhanced keyboard:
Alt + 0224 = Ã = lowercase a with grave accent
Alt + 0225 = á = lowercase a with acute accent
Alt + 0226 = â = lowercase a with circumflex
Alt + 0227 = ã = lowercase a with tilde
Alt + 0228 = ä = lowercase a with umlaut
Alt + 0230 = æ = lowercase ae diphthong (ligature)
Alt + 0231 = ç = lowercase c with cedilla
Alt + 0232 = è = lowercase e with grave accent
Alt + 0233 = é = lowercase e with acute accent
Alt + 0234 = ê = lowercase e with circumflex
Alt + 0235 = ë = lowercase e with umlaut
Alt + 0236 = ì = lowercase i with grave accent
Alt + 0237 = Ã = lowercase i with acute accent
Alt + 0238 = î = lowercase i with circumflex
Alt + 0239 = ï = lowercase i with umlaut
Alt + 0241 = ñ = lowercase n with tilde
Alt + 0242 = ò = lowercase o with grave accent
Alt + 0243 = ó = lowercase o with acute accent
Alt + 0244 = ô = lowercase o with circumflex
Alt + 0245 = õ = lowercase o with tilde
Alt + 0246 = ö = lowercase o with umlaut
Alt + 0249 = ù = lowercase u with grave accent
Alt + 0250 = ú = lowercase u with acute accent
Alt + 0251 = û = lowercase u with circumflex
Alt + 0252 = ü = lowercase u with umlaut
Alt + 0253 = ý = lowercase y with acute accent
Here is a miscellaneous list of other basic characters and symbols:
Read more
Hyphens, en dashes and em dashes
I was browsing about the Nice Dashes plugin for Wordpress, which replaces double-hyphens (––) with the correct character code for an em-dash (—), and also converts single-hyphens to a character code. There I came to know that Wordpress by default converts Triple-hyphens to em-dashes (—), and double-dashes to en-dashes (–).
I also stumbled upon another site called http://stellify.net/, wherein I learnt about the perils of the “auto-hyphenation” feature of Word-processors, whenever a word is broken into different lines. This kind of adding a hyphen breaks hyper links of URL’s.
How wise had I become after reading all these? Pity. I discovered how ignorant I am on this esoteric domain of dashes!! So, I prayed before the altar of the net-gods, to wit, the ever-dependable friends-in-need, Google and Wikipedia. They never let you down, do they!
So, when I started delving deeper into the realms of dashes and things, I got wised up on the nuances of using hyphens and dashes. Instead of me summing up, why don’t you do a bit of leg-work and comb through them yourself!!
Here are the resources:-
“Get it wright” page on en dashes and em dashes.
Happy dashing!!
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About Me
I am S.K!
Ok, what's the big deal, you may ask! But you may miss a good deal if you do not dwell deep into this web site, specially hand-crafted for you. But what about me, the person? Wait, I am not good at making things up. If you stumble upon a good-sounding résumé, please pass it on to me!
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -
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