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Posts tagged ‘blogapost2011’

Dec 6

woty
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The Word of the Year 2011

It is the time of the year to select the word or phrase which best defines 2011. What word or phrase reflects the ideas and events which occupied the world this year? How do you select such a word? According to the American Dialect Society, the best word of the year candidates will be: demonstrably new or newly popular in 2011,widely and/or prominently used in 2011, indicative or reflective of the popular discourse, and not a peeve or a complaint about overuse or misuse.

The Oxford English Dictionary has already made its choice. The one word or phrase that characterized the past 12 months is squeezed middle, a phrase first suggested…

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Apr 21

images
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Filter words: Do we need them?

No, I am not talking about the common words such as about, and, from, how, is, it, of, on, or, that, the, when which Google and other big search engines ignore when you type in something. In creative writing parlance, filter words are those that dilutes the reader’s experience through a character’s point of view by putting too many words between the reader and what the character is experiencing.

Janet Burroway, author of Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, writes that ‘…the needless filtering of the image through some observing consciousness [is a failure]. The amateur writes: ‘Turning, she noticed two snakes fighting in among the rocks.’

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