Which nouns get the definite article? This question can be tricky.
The Definite Article
Barbie and Gender Bias Language in Tech
Mattel recently faced a barrage of criticism after a blogger excoriated them for the story and language of the book Barbie: I Can Be A Computer Engineer. The book, in Barbie's "I Can Be..." series and published in 2010, has now been discontinued. But it continues to provide an interesting look at how, while some…
Twitter and the Heartbreak of PowerPoint
It's hard to even know where to start. This PowerPoint slide "explaining" Twitter's new strategy statement is amazingly incoherent. What does the Venn diagram mean? What is the difference between the company's scope and their competitive advantages? And what could "objective" possibly mean here? How is "be[ing] one of the top revenue generating companies in…
Fun Idioms from NBC's Constantine
"Leave it out," "The duck's nuts," and "rocket surgery" are a few of the sorts of phrases you get on a show about a Liverpool-raised Londoner living in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bad writing is a deliberate choice. Scholars in the softer fields spout obscure verbiage to hide the fact that they have nothing to say. They dress up the trivial and obvious with the trappings of scientific sophistication, hoping to bamboozle their audiences with highfalutin gobbledygook. Steven Pinker: Why Academics' Writing Stinks The Chronicle Review -…
