Three ways to create parallelism To create balance, you might: 1. Repeat and reverse. Start with your original ideaRepeat and reverse It was the best of timesIt was the worst of times It was the age of wisdomIt was the age of foolishness It was the epoch of beliefIt was the epoch of incredulity It was the season of LightIt was the season of Darkness It was … [Read more...] about Balancing act
Creative writing
Read it; feel it
Your brain on description Read the words coffee, camphor or eucalyptus, and the part of your brain most closely related to the sense of smell responds. Read the words bingo, button or bayonette, and they don't. The words you choose not only have the power to change your readers' minds. They can also change their brains, according to new neurological research. "Brain … [Read more...] about Read it; feel it
Haiku masters
Readers offer writing tips in 17 syllables Last month, in honor of the New York City Department of Transportation’s new haiku street safety signs, we asked readers to send us their writing tips in haiku. Here are the best of the bunch: Joanna Foote, communications coordinator and webmaster for the City of Eagan, declares: “Writing with purpose A right hook well … [Read more...] about Haiku masters
Alliterate a little list
‘A spoonful of alliteration helps the medicine go down’ I’m a sucker for an alliterative list. When a client asked me to write a piece on the 28 languages now available on her company’s technology, I wrote this lead: “Whether you speak Chinese or Czech, Korean or Catalan, Finnish or French, Tetra radios speak your language.” Got a list? Why not alliterate a little? “A … [Read more...] about Alliterate a little list
Examples prove the rule
A pint of ‘for instance’ is worth a gallon of abstraction You could just say that in Cleopatra’s time, women had few legal rights. Or you could illustrate that point with an example, as Stacy Schiff does in Cleopatra: A Life: “[I]n a city where women enjoyed the same legal rights as infants or chickens, the posting called upon a whole new set of skills.” They may be the … [Read more...] about Examples prove the rule