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Monthly Archives: July 2009

Quotes on the use of quotes

  

An apt quotation is as good as an original remark. - Proverb

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations. - Benjamin Disraeli

I quote others only the better to express myself. - Michel de Montaigne

I hate quotations, tell me what you know. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every quotation [...]

Webster’s new words for 2009

 
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition has introduced nearly 100 other new words to its tome – many as a direct result of the digital revolution.  Here is a sampling of the new words related to Internet use and online activities.
 
webisode - an episode especially of a TV show that may or may not have been telecast [...]

Here’s an eye-opener

 
For those who wonder what our young minds, the generations of today and tomorrow are up against, take a look at this most revealing video:  
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY&feature=fvw
 
Did you know that?!
 

Your Wordplay Weapons

 
For writers, there are many weapons at your disposal to ensure the written word is lively and engaging. Here are but a few.
·     Malapropism - a comic misuse of language
·     Neologism - a made-up word
·     Anagram - a word formed by transposing letters
·     Acronym - a word formed by combining first letters or syllables of [...]

On writing…

Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.  — Joseph Pulitzer

Easy reading is damn hard writing.  — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. [...]

Happy Efisga Day, er, Canada Day

 

Have you wondered where the name ‘Canada’ comes from? It’s the Huron-Iroquois word ‘kanata’ which means ’settlement’ or ‘village.’
 
Jacques Cartier first heard it in reference to Quebec City, but soon it was used to describe the whole region. Upper Canada Parliamentarian Thomas D’Arcy McGee argued the adoption of Canada as the name for the [...]