I cannot afford to hire actor Mike McGlone to record a voiceover for my cited argument. So please turn on your television and watch for an ubiquitous ad featuring McGlone impersonating Robert Stack. Remember his penetrating look and sonorous voice. Now imagine him saying: “Can information architecture really save you money? What, you live under […]
Also tagged cited argument, module 3Dallas is home to some of the best architecture in the world. Buildings designed by award-winning architects fill the downtown skyline. It is also home to the National Historic Landmark, Fair Park, which contains the nation’s largest collection of 1930s art deco exposition-style architecture. It has a historic district and an arts district, and it […]
Also tagged module 4, pitchBytesandbricks.com, a blog that explores the relationship between information architecture and real-world architecture and explains their relevance to website and urban design, is a student enterprise that requires external funding to realize its potential. Pamela Livingston, an Interactive Communications student in Quinnipiac University’s online master of science program, is sole proprietor. She seeks $X in […]
Also tagged module 4, proposalZinsser makes a strong case for finding your voice as a writer. I believe him when he says, “My commodity as a writer, whatever I’m writing about, is me.” That is true for writing that has a byline, but not for content that does not. That includes content for popular consumption, including news and special-interest […]
Also tagged module 3 readingAll websites require content management of some sort, even if management consists only of transferring image and text files to a host server for publication using a previously acquired domain name, and then publishing the transferred content so that anyone can access it on the Internet. This technique works well for blogs and other small […]
Also tagged How-to postZinsser makes his point comparing George Orwell’s version of Ecclesiastes with the Bible’s version, but having worked as a technical writer a number of years, I am certain that Orwell’s version would get the OK from higher-ups, and the Bible’s version would not. If a business writer turned in something like the Biblical version, he […]
Also tagged Writing About PlacesZinsser says that writing about places — “beautiful, historically significant places that tourists spend time and money to visit” — is “very hard.” He says that written descriptions of such places are often “just plain terrible” because they rely on syrupy, subjective language and “groaning platitudes.” The descriptions are terrible because they are trite. If […]
Also tagged Writing About PlacesFatuous arguments and one-liners like the pro-choice statement, “An acorn is not a tree,” and the pro-feminist statement, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” pollute public discourse with nonsense. That such drivel finds an audience is testament to low educational standards established in the spirit of inclusion. Now every dullard […]
Also tagged devil's advocateZinsser’s chapter on words was a refresher for me. The “bizspeak” I adopted as a technical writer are just as tired as the “journalese” lingo Zinsser described. Owing to a layoff, I was out of the workforce for a while, but I recall terms and phrases I accepted on protest and others that I really […]
Also tagged module 1