Blogie Blog

Many people confuse the word ‘diction’ to mean pronunciation or enunciation. What it originally means is the use or choice of words. When one says, for example, “He has good diction”, it doesn’t mean the person referred to pronounces his words well, but that he makes use of the right vocabulary in the proper context.

One of the properties of the English language that makes it so beautiful is that it is rich in synonyms. One day, I was amusing myself with a mental exercise: to see how many one-word synonyms for ‘travel’ I could find. So here goes: tour, trip, voyage, journey, sojourn, odyssey, trek, passage, expedition, flight… On the flip side, the abundance of synonyms makes for difficulty in good diction.

Read on»

When I was in high school, I attended a writing seminar for budding journalists (I thought I was going to become a newspaper reporter, as a fallback career). One lesson from that session that still rings clear in my head is this: Write, Edit, Rewrite. Actually, that’s still followed by more editing before the final copy.

Should this apply to blogging? Read on»

This isn’t new — in fact, I’ve known about this since high school when I attended a journalism workshop. I’m talking about the fundamental guidelines on writing critiques or reviews: “K-K-K”. Or, kick-kiss-kick kiss-kick-kiss. In other words, something positive, then negative, then positive again.

Let’s suppose you’re blogging about another blog. Start off with what you think is pleasing about that site. Highlight the good stuff: What makes it an enjoyable experience reading its posts? Is the design a delight to look at? Is the sidebar (or sidebars, as the case may be) organized cleanly? Does the blog make a whole lot of sense?

Then proceed to what, in your opinion, is that blog’s weak points. What do you think is wrong with it? Perhaps it’s replete with misspellings? It’s confusing to navigate? Whatever it is, be constructive, not derogatory. It’s rarely ever a good idea to be excessively critical of anything. After all, there is always room for change, don’t you think? Read on»

My co-conspirator in The Usual Suspects, Andrew, blogged about Google’s mathematical and financial problem-solving functionalities awhile back. The Google search bar doesn’t only return results of keyword queries, it also spits out sums, quotients, differences, even forex conversions.

My own preferred use of Google’s extended facility is as a look-up tool for vocabulary. That’s right, Google provides an online dictionary service. Try this out for size: the define: operator. Type a word or phrase after that operator, hit the search button, and Google comes back with word meanings, synonyms, actual usage.

I wish, though, that the Did you mean…? function also worked in case you misspelled a word. Read on»

‘Punctuation marks? Those pesky little squiggles that make writing so complicated?’ Well, if you aren’t in the habit of using them, this is probably how you’d feel about punctuation marks. Most people get away with using just 3 kinds: the period, the comma and the question mark. But if you’re serious about writing, knowing how to use more of these written symbols will help you get your message across much more clearly.

Punctuation marks are used to help you organize your thoughts, so that you can convey them in the way that you intend. Conversely, misuse — and especially abuse — of punctuation can result in misunderstanding, in your failure to communicate properly. Or worse: your inability to properly use colons, apostrophes, dashes, etc. could make you look, well, rather lacking in intellectual acuity. Read on»

In whatever language, when you write, it’s always sound practice to do it well. This has been the case in ‘traditional’ media, where we’ve been treated to titillating and immensely gratifying written works of art. Consider the Inquirer column of Conrado de Quiros, for example: he has a way with words that leaves you panting for more. In blogging, on the other hand, the proper use of language is not exactly prevalent. Perhaps it’s due to the nature of blogging that grammatical discipline, for one, is rather lax in this particular medium. Just the same — even though there’s no such thing as a language police in the blogosphere — I believe that being conscious of good writing style goes a long way. Especially if you intend to be a problogger. Read on»

One of my readers recently asked me about my inclination to use accented vowels in my posts. Stuff like ‘vis-à-vis’, ‘über’, ‘résumé’. It’s not really necessary, but to me it looks pretty. So there. She did ask me to teach her how to get these accented vowels (and consonants) to display on web pages. I think I’ll share it with everyone who’ll care to read through. Read on»