For writers

21 November 2004 · 0 comments

While talking about writing for the web Crawford Kilian refers to verbal viruses—words, phrases, and acronyms that leap from our monitors into our brains. I think that in my case verbal viruses began infecting me back in the 70s and 80s when I was teaching German and English to adolescents. A daily barrage of misplaced [...]

While talking about writing for the web Crawford Kilian refers to verbal viruses—words, phrases, and acronyms that leap from our monitors into our brains. I think that in my case verbal viruses began infecting me back in the 70s and 80s when I was teaching German and English to adolescents. A daily barrage of misplaced apostrophes and incorrect spellings allowed some of them to penetrate my brain.

I was ashamed a few days ago to read my own post to a mailing list which included this defective phrase: with it’s Eudora Tips RSS feed. Where did that apostrophe come from?

Anyway, I mention this because I’ve had a delightful morning reading Crawford Kilian (with thanks I think to Derek Miller for the initial reference). If you write, and especially if you write for the web, then Kilian’s blog is not only a must-read, but an enjoyable read.

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