Debate is important. It doesn’t always lead us to the definitive answer, but it often takes us closer. Recently, Australia’s Attorney General, Senator George Brandis, suggested – in the Australian Senate – that people should have the right to be … Continue reading
A few years ago, we had a chap on our team who was rightly acknowledged to be ‘Educated’. That’s Educated with a capital E. Malcolm held degrees from three of the world’s top ten universities. He was fluent in Latin … Continue reading
Has the tone of the dissenting voice in public discussion become less civilised, potentially more damaging? Or has it just become easier to ‘hear’ the more extreme voices? Has online comment and the Twitterverse simply brought the conversation that previously … Continue reading
Recently, I overheard a captain of industry complaining that a high proportion of the calls to his overworked call centre should not have been necessary. ‘If customers just read the stuff we send them, they’d already know what they need … Continue reading
The meanings of words change with time. It has always been thus. And to fight it makes little sense. But to recognise it, and to appreciate the implications, well, that is another matter. A few years ago, the most common … Continue reading
Kurt Vonnegut Jr used to tell his Creative Writing students: Use words that I will recognise. (Actually, as an American, he probably spelled it ‘recognize’; but you know what I mean.) There was a professor on the radio this morning … Continue reading
Gavin Ellis, astute media commentator and former Editor-in-Chief of The New Zealand Herald, suggested the other day that ‘list’ articles are just lazy journalism. I agree. But I’m feeling a bit lazy, so here is a list of five things … Continue reading
There was a time when newspaper readers who wanted to comment on a particular news item or opinion piece would sit down and pen a Letter to the Editor. The editor – or more often a sub-editor – would then … Continue reading
My mother – who is old and, therefore, can sometimes pass as wise – reckons that the first TV programme I ever saw was Andy Pandy. Or, possibly, Bill & Ben the Flowerpot Men. She may be right. I don’t … Continue reading
‘Works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain.’ – Samuel Taylor Coleridge