Jeffrey Selingo wrote a piece called “Why can’t college graduates write coherent prose?” for the Washington Post. He’s right to require more practice, but ignores the need to practice writing that’s appropriate for a screen. Lots of college students can’t write I know. I’ve hired or mentored many of them. Writing skills are spotty and…
The Daily Stormer — the site that sponsored the white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend — has apparently been under attack. It appeared that the hacker collective Anonymous took it over, then the site owners regained control, and then GoDaddy cancelled its domain registration. The GoDaddy part is true, but as I’ll show, the…
This weekend brought white supremacist marches, Nazi salutes, counter-protests and vehicular murder to Charlottesville, Virginia. You probably joined everyone from Orrin Hatch to Justin Trudeau in condemning it. Now what? You’re against racism. Good for you. You posted your outrage on Facebook. A bunch of people who agree with you and are also against hate and…
Today’s question is about the pursuit of perfection — not only how to do it, but when it makes sense. Dear Dr. Wobs: On perfection: how close to 100% error-free can an editor aspire to? What tools can help a mere mortal get a little closer? Martha Pings Perfection is a dangerous goal Dear Martha:…
If your high school or college students are about to go back to school, put a copy of “Writing Without Bullshit” in their schoolbags. (Assuming, of course, that your school isn’t offended by a little plain language.) It’s the perfect antidote to the outdated and ossified methods so many writing teachers use. Start them off…
James Damore, the guy Google just fired for his generalizations about gender, apparently said and did some sexist things in college. It disturbs me how everything in people’s pasts is now part of how we critique their current actions. And there’s a lesson in that for all of us. According to Gizmodo, Damore participated in…
James Damore, a Google engineer, published an internal manifesto about gender and discrimination at the company. He’s either a sexist tech bro or a First Amendment hero bravely proclaiming forbidden truths, depending on your perspective. His generalizations about how women think are the problem here — they’re what got him fired. A fresh look at the…
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and several other government organizations are completing a report on global climate science. Someone leaked a late draft to the New York Times, which published it. The 545 page report is a great case study on how (and how not) to summarize technical information. The executive summary features telling…
Not any time soon. Computers are getting much better at identifying writing problems — passive voice, excessive adverbs, misspelled words, the wrong form of “its.” They’re not so good at suggesting answers. And they’re a long way from understanding conceptual and structural issues. From Jacob Brogan’s piece in Slate, “Microsoft’s Grammar and Style Rules Will…