Presenting wordbit.com

Posted on February 19th, 2007 by Antoine.
Categories: Writing, Site Meta.

I am proud to unveil my new website, wordbit.com - my latest blog effort using everything I’ve learned here to improve the user experience. I haven’t launched a full-scale marketing campaign yet, so I’m inviting whatever phantom readers I have here to check it out and comment on it. Now, it’s not entirely done yet, but feedback would be great.

Here are some great reasons to switch to wordbit.com:

  • The URL is so much shorter and easier to remember.
  • wordbit.com has a clean look, with lots of white space and larger fonts.
  • Randomly generated banner images…cool!
  • There are a minimum of cumbersome graphics - should be fast loading.
  • There is a resource section for technical writers that you can help build.
  • Focused content and well-written edited posts with substance and a minimum of fluff.
  • If you like what you read here, switch to wordbit.com and stay in touch!

    • Check it out!

    0 comments.

Rhetoric of threat letters

Posted on December 23rd, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures, Writing, Anecdotes.

I while back I got fined for parking at work. Yes, at work. The injustice of the situation hardened my resolve to never pay this fine. After a few softcore letters I received this hardcore final notice, which I kept because it is a fine example of Aristotelian logos, pathos and ethos being used to full effect.

After reading it, I was almost persuaded to pay the fine because I thought I was being sued - at first. I then noticed all the cunningly placed “mays” and decided they were just trying to scare me.

A few months later, the case was handed over to some debt collectors, and they sent me this letter.

Needless to say, I was disappointed. After the previous rhetorical tour de force, this skimpy letter was positively anti-climatic. Not only that, but the grammar is astoundingly poor. Note the quintuplet ellipses. What did they do that for? Why did they have to be so grammatically offensive? After recieving this letter, I was certain I would never be tempted to pay this fine…ever.

(more…)

0 comments.

Toponym of the day

Posted on December 15th, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Writing, Anecdotes, Toponyms.

I’m currently writing a TOEFL textbook for Transglobal Prep school for some extra cash. Ironically I’ll be using the money I make to buy more overpriced textbooks for next semester in Print Futures (It’s going to be an awesome semester, I’m especially looking forward to the tech writing and document design courses).

Anyway, I’ve been hashing away at this 500 page book due next week and came up with some insights. First of all, let me give you some of the unobvious pros and cons of freelancing:

Pros:

  • You can write all day in your pajamas
  • You never have to shave any part of your body…ever
  • You can take as many showers as you want
  • There is no commute
  • You can sleep in

Cons:

  • There’s no gossiping around the watercooler
  • You have to be so self disciplined that…
  • you’ll realize that you’re the worst boss you’ve ever had
  • If you like leaving the house now and again you’re out of luck
  • When you’re done for the day you can’t leave

One slightly interesting thing I discovered while researching the civil war, the American revolution and the tourist attractions of Illinois and Kentucky (don’t ask) was…toponymy. If you don’t know what that is, go to Wikipedia. Also on the Wiki, here is a real example (WARNING: offensive language) of an unusual place name.

I thought I’d start a toponym of the day, where I present the origins of a placename that I’ve come across in my research. Geeky, but what else can I do with all the useless facts that I’m learning?

So, without further ado, today’s placename is…

Winnipeg:

Winnipeg, in Canada, owes its name to the Algonquins. Winnipig was the Algonquin word meaning dirty water, a possible non tribute to the Red River, which flows near Winnipeg (Source: Turnip Smith).

I checked this out, and according to the official Winnipeg website, “the name WINNIPEG has its origin in the Indian Cree name given to the lake 64kms north, meaning “Win”, muddy, “nipee”, water”.

Either way, Winnipeg means dirty water. Sorry guys.

0 comments.

Handsome is as handsome does

Posted on November 16th, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures, Writing.

I’ve just finished a 20 page research project that scientifically tests the proverb “handsome is as handsome does”. I did this by administering a fictional survey to 3421 fictional women online. I showed the control group some profiles of accomplished men and asked them to rate the profiles. I then showed the experimental group the same profiles, this time with ugly headshots attached. The men’s ratings fell. Here is an example of the Likert scale I used:

Check out this website to see a cool face morphing video showing a hyper-masculine man turning into a full blown woman. Awesome.

0 comments.

Weeping over email

Posted on November 9th, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Writing.

After classes today I attended the speaker forum with Sharon Twiss, tech writer for Gemcom. She did a fantastic job of outlining exactly what a tech writer does, something that’s been a bit shrouded in mystery up until now. Her story was inspiring because when she started the Print Futures program, she had just learned how to open up email. She would end up crying in front of the computer screen trying to figure out how to open attachments. She never even considered tech writing because software is boring and tech writing is dry and godless and all that. Sound familiar? She fell in love with it and has been learning ever since. After graduating she became the president of the STC . So, there you go. Do what you love, even if you never thought it possible. Sharon’s story was especially poignant for me because in our presentation yesterday on tech writing, it seemed that, with the exception of maybe…3 people, nobody is interested in tech writing. We really put a positive spin on it though and my powerpoint presentation turned out great.

By the way, I’ve noted the transparent windows on this blog template don’t really work well on Internet Explorer 6. When I have some more time I’ll have to look into that.

0 comments.

My Writing page added

Posted on November 3rd, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Writing, Site Meta.

I’ve started uploading some of my writing to the My Writing page. So far, all I’ve got up there are two memoirs. I’ll put some other stuff up there soon. Stay posted!

0 comments.

Ethics in Journalism

Posted on October 31st, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Writing.

Today we watched a compelling drama based on the true story of Stephen Glass. This 25 year old rising star of New Republic magazine, the in flight mag of Air Force 1, was caught fabricating the vast majority of his pieces. He would go so far as to make up fake voice mails, notes and even a website to corroborate his lies. It’s a great movie called Shattered Glass. After watching the movie, our prof asked us to find Glass’s articles on Academic Search Premier. They were still available, without any mention of them being completely made up.

Unbelievably, Glass signed a major book deal about his experience and hopes to become a practicing lawyer in New York.

0 comments.