The Writers Diet

The Writers Diet The Writer’s Diet The Writer’s Diet By Mark Nichol How does your writing style rate regarding balanced use (or overuse) of parts of speech? An online test will evaluate your compositions for you. The writing handbook The Writer’s Diet: A Guide to Fit Prose has a companion website that features not only a blog (and a newsletter you can subscribe to) but also a test that analyzes writing passages. Naturally, I took a test drive (seven test drives, actually). Choosing some of my favorite essay-type posts on DailyWritingTips.com, I plugged them into the Writer’s Diet Test, which scores content in parts-of-speech categories equivalent to the ones the book’s author, academician Helen Sword, focuses on in the book: verbs, nouns, prepositions, adjectives and adverbs, and what she calls â€Å"waste words† (it, this, that, and there). The test scores on a scale labeled in keeping with the health-conscious them: Lean, Fit Trim, Needs Toning, Flabby, and Heart Attack. One by one, I copied and pasted seven of my posts into the tool and read the results of my writing physical. I was not surprised to see that for the most part, my writing tended to be at the Lean/Fit Trim end of the spectrum. (I’ve been writing professionally for four decades, so I’d better be in good shape.) However, four of the seven cumulative scores were in Flabby territory. Why? My use of nouns was usually restrained, though the test result for one post registered their use as decidedly unhealthy. Apparently, however, I’m living on borrowed time because of an excessive employment of verbs. And though my restraint with prepositions is admirable, and I was generally carefully about not overdoing it with adjectives and adverbs, I did binge once in the latter category. In addition, I was usually pretty good about minimizing the little words that Sword lists as inimical to clear, concise writing, though I had a couple of lapses. What does this mean? Objectively, it means that I should be more alert to avoiding inserting too many of what Sword calls â€Å"academic ad-words†- the adjectives and adverbs ending in -able, -ant, -ary, and the like- that are often used in stodgy scholarly writing. And though I am vigilant about avoiding using expletives (â€Å"it is,† â€Å"there are,† and so on) and repeating the pronouns it and that, I could do better. And especially, it seems, though I often advocate using vivid verbs and minimizing use of forms of â€Å"to be† (is, am, being, and the like), I am remiss in practicing what I preach. You may, after taking the test, argue that you know you’re a good writer and don’t deserve your check-up to result in admonitions to go on a diction diet. Or perhaps, after you slyly copied and pasted a passage from a Work of Great Literature, you scoffed when Tolstoy or Twain, or Faulkner or Fitzgerald, earned â€Å"failing† scores. Sword acknowledges that the test is a â€Å"blunt instrument†: Good writing can earn low scores, bad writing can result in a complimentary result, and titans of literature sometimes simultaneously break the rules of composition and produce masterpieces. (Hello, Samuel Beckett.) Furthermore, the test is not a directive to adopt a prose style of Hemingwayian simplicity. It merely calls attention to areas that may need some attention. Check out the website for an outline of the principles Sword advises that you attend to in order to achieve a lean (or at least fit and trim) compositional composition, or read the book for more details. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:English Grammar 101: All You Need to Know41 Words That Are Better Than GoodHow to Punctuate Introductory Phrases

Econ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Econ - Essay Example The current salary distribution formula gives the player 57% of the revenues. Another problem with the system is that the NBA salary cap is a soft cap. A soft cap allows teams with greater resources such as the L.A. Lakers and the N.Y. Knicks the ability to pay go over the cap and pay additional salaries paid by the owners. The small market teams are seeking a hard cap at a much lower salary base. The owners want a 40% reduction is player salaries. A hard cap would force all teams to spend up to the amount of salary cap. The current salary cap is $58 million dollars. The prices of the salaries are determined by the deal that the player’s union and owners negotiate. The prices of the players are negotiated similarly to what occurs in the corporate world when labor unions negotiate worker compensation with the managers of the firm. The NBA has to reach an agreement by the summer of 2011 in order to ensure there is not a lockout of the season. A lockout would have catastrophic ec onomic effects on the NBA. Players would lose their salaries, the owners would incur in operating losses since fixed cost must be paid without any revenues coming in. The television networks would also lose because they would not have a product to offer to the advertisers.

Expanding small business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Expanding small business - Essay Example Sam was told that the company should have adopted change management methods and planned change policies prior to bringing about change. According to Nelson and Winter (1982) routine interactions within the working environment forms the basis of organizational culture and a predictive pattern emerges. Deal and Kennedy 19820 describe it as â€Å"the way we do things here†. The importance of this routine is gaining importance as has been acknowledged by Cohen et al (1972) and Hedberg et al (1976. Topmost in handling change is to motivate the people to achieve the purpose of the change. This means highlighting the glorious future and contrasting it with the disgraceful past. However it has to be conveyed positively with rewards accompanying results. Effective communication will be required to generate support and participation at all levels. Teamwork and togetherness is the core issue here. To bring about active involvements in the procedure the employees have to be given a vision of the future. The vision requires standing up for fair practices with genuine efforts backed by world class products and to inform the customers that they could depend upon the company to be competitive and more efficient. The objectives are the values the vision creates and the value features are the consistent commitment to quality and service to be provided to the customers. For the change to be effective and for the realization of the company vision it is imperative that all the stakeholders support the various steps all along the way. The attempts have to be genuine and in common interest for benefits all round. The primary requirement is to have the knowledge of all sources of power in the company and to harness them and motivate them to work for a common goal. The ideal is to get them to agree on and obtain a consensus to avoid sudden conflicts of interest midway between any initiatives. It is often

Respond to the question from a theistic world view .evaluate both Essay

Respond to the question from a theistic world view .evaluate both their naturalisic and theistic vew - Essay Example The paper explores â€Å"big† questions raised by laypersons and experts, explained better through Christian Theism than Philosophical Naturalism. How did this world come into existence? Scientist, theologians, and philosophers have spent their lives finding the answer. Various theories and propositions have been presented, and the scientists now agree with the fact that the existence of world came into being from nothing and that it is continually expanding towards a fierce end. The â€Å"Big Bang Theory† is the only possible explanation the Naturalists’ can give for the existence of the universe, which itself is contested in cosmological terms among scientists, providing insufficient answers regarding who was that being that made the Big Bang. The Christians believed all of this, long before scientists, through scriptures in the Bible referring to an â€Å"uncaused, first cause† (God) that caused the universe. The Theists’ answer is the only possible explanation providing coherency and stability to the cosmology of the Big Bang Theory. This is done by explaining an ever-loving God that existed bef ore anything else existed who made this world to show His supremacy, and for people to understand His nature and offer the glad tidings of an immortal life in the hereafter. Naturalists have pondered and presented various vague theories explaining the complex structures and systems involved in the make-up of this universe. Unfortunately, they do not recognize a creator and that is why they are unable to present any plausible explanation. The biological explanations of origin of life are stated through Darwin’s â€Å"Theory of Evolution,† yet it is unable to provide sufficient evidence regarding the physical aspect of its origins. However, the Christian theism explains the harmony in which this universe has existed to be the cause of a creator. The (Genesis 2:7) explains that God has the power to create life from non-living

Character Analysis of Emily Grierson in A Rose for Emily by William Fau

Emily Grierson, referred to as Miss Emily throughout the story, is the main character of 'A Rose for Emily,' written by William Faulkner. Emily is born to a proud, aristocratic family sometime during the Civil War; Miss Emily used to live with her father and servants, in a big decorated house. The Grierson Family considers themselves superior than other people of the town. According to Miss Emily's father none of the young boys were suitable for Miss Emily. Due to this attitude of Miss Emily's father, Miss Emily was not able to develop any real relationship with anyone else, but it was like her world revolved around her father. When her father passed away, it was a devastating loss for Miss Emily. The lines from the story 'She told them her father was not dead. She did that for three days,' (Charter 171) conveys the message that she tried to hold on to him, even after his death. Even though, this was a sad moment for Emily, but she was liberated from the control of her father. Instead of going on with her life, her life halted after death of her father. Miss Emily found love in a guy named Homer Barron, who came as a contractor for paving the sidewalks in town. Miss Emily was seen in buggy on Sunday afternoons with Homer Barron. The whole town thought they would get married. One could know this by the sentences in the story ?She will marry him,? ?She will persuade him yet,? (Charter 173). On the contrary side, Homer Barron, although ironically Emily's only love was t...

Black Holes

Black holes are objects so dense that it is not possible for even light to escape their gravity. There are two main processes continuously going on in massive stars. 1. Nuclear fusion: This process takes place in the stars which tends to blow the star's hydrogen outward from the star's center. 2. Gravitation: This process tends to pull all hydrogen back in the direction it had come. In general, these two processes balance one another until the entire star's hydrogen is exhausted, allowing gravitation to take over and once gravitation dominates, and the star becomes unstable and starts to collapse.Once the star starts to collapse, it does not stop, and the star (and ultimately its atoms) will cave inward upon itself, resulting in the formation of a black hole (Hewitt, 1992). Where is the nearest black hole? The closest known black holes are stellar mass black holes in the galaxy. These black holes have so far only been seen when they are in close contact with another star which is orb iting around them. When jets are produced the systems are known as microquasars and can be observed at many wavelengths, but usually are most distinctive in X-rays (Masters, 2002). What happens if you fall into a black hole?Just because nothing can travel faster than light, nothing can escape from inside a black hole. If a person jumps into a black hole, they won't be able to see anything within the event horizon. The person will see strange optical distortions of the sky around him from all the bending of light that goes on. But as soon as the person falls through, they are doomed. They will die. References Hewitt, Paul G. (1992) Conceptual Physics. 2nd ed. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Masters, K. (2002) Where is the nearest black hole? Curious About Astronomy? Retrieved on 9 November 2007 from http://curious. astro. cornell. edu

The Effects Of Genetic Engineering On The Intelligence Of...

In works of science fiction, such as Star Trek or Gattaca, genetic engineering is a familiar theme. Genetic engineering is â€Å"changing the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved organisms (â€Å"Genetic Engineering†). In the article, â€Å"Can You Make Yourself Smarter?† Dan Hurly explores the process of improving the intelligence of humans with ADHD. If it is possible for one to become smarter through N-back tests, what are the possibilities with genetic engineering (Hurly)? Genetic engineering has contributed much to the world from increasing crop yield to curing diseases, but it should it be used to improve human intelligence? The possibilities are endless, and as a society, we should take advantage of this opportunity. Using genetic engineering to improve intelligence is the correct approach because one day it will be possibly and it will do a world of good. History The first genetic engineering experiment was conducted in 1973 by Herbert Boyer, of the University of California at San Francisco, and Stanley Cohen, at Stanford University. The duo had successfully combined and replicated genetic information from entirely different species also known as recumbent DNA (â€Å"Genetics†). Genetics has made remarkable progress throughout decades of innovation and discovery and will continue to be a bewilderment that is to be solved. The first decade of the 21st century has been one of the most inventive in this fieldShow MoreRelatedSorry But Your Soul Just Died1450 Words   |  6 Pagesand psychological technology have redefined human nature. Bokanovskification, the drug Soma, and the Feelies have desensitized and changed the people’s values in this dystopia. Similar advances such as vitro fertilisation, surrogate motherhood, psychotropic drugs, and genetic engineering have also emerged in today’s society. Unlike the author of Sorr y But Your Soul Just Die, I disagree that psychological drugs, stem cell research, and genetic engineering will send us into a dystopian society. TheRead MoreSocial Networking Sites-Boon/Bane15517 Words   |  63 Pagestowards trusting a technology rather than trusting someone youre in a relationship with, she said. Abbas says while technological solutions such as privacy settings that allow one to hide locations would go some way to alleviating some concerns, human trust issues are difficult to account for. These devices provide you with information on where someone is but it doesnt provide you with information on why theyre there and what theyre doing, she revealed. It doesnt actually tell you whatRead More_x000C_Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis355457 Words   |  1422 Pagesteaching, he is the assessment facilitator for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Community Schools. In his spare time he enjoys reading and hiking. He and his wife have a daughter, Anna, who is a graduate student in Civil Engineering at Cal Tech. JAY DEVORE earned his undergraduate degree in Engineering Science from the University of California at Berkeley, spent a year at the University of Shefï ¬ eld in England, and ï ¬ nished his Ph.D. in statistics at Stanford University. He previously taught at the University