One of my earliest memories of TV is of watching an hour or so of a cricket match. I think the match may have been a test match between England and South Africa – although I can’t be sure. The … Continue reading
To some extent, what we read shapes the way we write. If you read enough clear, concise writing, you are likely to adopt such a style yourself. You may not succeed entirely. But your reader will certainly feel the influence. … Continue reading
For me, one of the hallmarks of good writing is that each sentence, each paragraph, leads the reader to want to read more. This is as true of a commercial pitch document as it is of a short story or … Continue reading
Some of life’s more useful writing lessons are surprisingly simple. Many years ago, one of my classmates discovered the joys of the thesaurus. Overnight his essays became models of the sequipedalianist’s art. He didn’t just replace commonplace words with less-common … Continue reading
I recently had lunch with a chap who is a more-than-competent pianist. At one point during our conversation, I asked him a vaguely technical music question. ‘I’m the wrong person to ask,’ he said. ‘What I know about music theory … Continue reading
Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a plethora of verbs that just didn’t exist back in my school days. And most of these verbs are formed from nouns. Back in those pre personal-computing days, we certainly didn’t email, text, … Continue reading
I had heard of Kurt Vonnegut. It was difficult not to have heard of him. I had also heard of several of his books. I had just not got around to reading any of them. So when, more than 20 … Continue reading
Outside KiwiStreet’s front door, ‘tis now, officially, the season to be electioneering. Up and down the motu, would-be Members of Parliament are scrambling to put their digitally-enhanced mug shots in front of us. They are also rehearsing their promises-writ-large – … Continue reading
The latest round of difficulties in world financial markets reminds me of a time, not that long ago, when we were rather busy helping people with ‘good ideas’ to make those ideas sound attractive to people with money. Some of … Continue reading
Alec Issigonis, the Greek-born British racing driver and designer of the Morris Minor and the original Mini, once observed that, when a committee sets out to design a horse, the result is usually a camel. Well, perhaps. If you are … Continue reading