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15 proverbs from around the world that you should start using ASAP.

15 proverbs from around the world that you should start using ASAP. | Writing about Life in the digital age | Scoop.it
From www.upworthy.com - October 30, 2016 5:08 AM

If you live in America, chances are you've heard (or used) the phrase "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

Most of us know it means, essentially, that you shouldn't make all your plans based on one possible thing happening. But it's kind of a weird phrase, right? Have you ever stopped to wonder where it originated?

Its use in print has been traced to the novel "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes in the early 1600s, although it possibly was mistranslated to an inexact English idiom from the original and may have other roots in Italian phrases.  

Different cultures around the world all have their own similar sayings — proverbs, if you will — that make sense to those who've grown up speaking the language but sound downright odd to anyone who hasn't.

James Chapman is fascinated by these sayings and how they translate across languages and cultures....


Via Jeff Domansky
rodrick rajive lal's insight:
Proverbs are culture specific and culture sensitive. Proverbs are also a condensation of the folk wisdom of a particular country, community or region. It is great fun to study proverbs from around the world because it helps you learn more about different cultures and different ways of thinking! Some proverbs are common across cultures. The proverb, 'empty vessels make noise', has an equivalent in one of the Indian dialects that zgoes'empty husks make a lot of noise.'
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Jeff Domansky's curator insight, October 26, 2016 1:29 PM

Lots of wonderful lessons from the wisdom of these proverbs from around the world.
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Surprising Punctuation Habits of Famous Authors, Visualized

Surprising Punctuation Habits of Famous Authors, Visualized | Writing about Life in the digital age | Scoop.it
From www.fastcodesign.com - February 29, 2016 11:39 PM

Hemingway actually used denser punctuation than Jane Austen, William Faulkner, or Charles Dickens.and the way they use punctuation. Yet how much can the way authors use punctuation really reveal about their style? 

 

Plenty, it turns out.Over on Medium, Adam Calhoun decided to strip eight of his favorite novels down to just the punctuation. The novels he chose were James Joyce'sUlysses, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, and William Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom!...


Via Jeff Domansky
rodrick rajive lal's insight:

That the use of punctuation marks defines the author is something interesting but a well known fact. The use of long sentences, often running into entire paragraphs was distinctive to Ernest Hemingway. Of special importance is the use of punctuation marks in stream of consciousness novels. It is profoundly encouraging to know that people still feel that punctuation marks continue to be importance even in times when we are veering away from fixed rules of grammar and conventions. However to experiment with punctuation marks requires one to be well versed with the rules. Writers are today experimenting with hyphens instead of commas as the hyphen suggests a deepep pause than the comma, and it is visually more appealing. In times when the visual impact is more sought after, the presence of puntuation marks, especially the exclammation mark, the hyphen, and the semi-colon is on the increase, while the comma takes a back seat. It is interesting to see how the English language is evolving from a perceived, nuanced and subtly styled language into a more visual and upfront language.

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Jeff Domansky's curator insight, February 29, 2016 10:38 AM

Writers alert! A fascinating analysis of writers and their punctuation habits. Recommended reading. 9/10
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25 Writing Secrets of Famous Authors

25 Writing Secrets of Famous Authors | Writing about Life in the digital age | Scoop.it
From www.bang2write.com - July 20, 2015 12:16 AM

1) Stephen KingIf you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.

 

2) Suzanne CollinsAll the writing elements are the same. You need to tell a good story… You’ve got good characters… People think there’s some dramatic difference between writing ‘Little Bear’ and the ‘Hunger Games,’ and as a writer, for me, there isn’t.

 

3) George OrwellFor a creative writer possession of the ‘truth’ is less important than emotional sincerity....


Via Jeff Domansky
rodrick rajive lal's insight:

Inspiring words for aspiring writers! I hope the secrets listed in this post will be of great help to all those out there, content writers, ghost writers and those who are working their way through!

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Jeff Domansky's curator insight, July 16, 2015 11:04 AM

Great place to start for writing inspiration
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The Writing Decline: Tweeting, Texting and Horrible Grammar in K-12 School - Brilliant or Insane

From www.brilliant-insane.com - March 18, 2015 5:20 AM
Do 21st-century learners have writing deficits? Is digital learning to blame? This college dean speaks out on America's writing decline.

Via Becky Roehrs
rodrick rajive lal's insight:

Tweeting, and texting have both affected the quality of grammar, but in times when communication has become more important than grammatical rules. We need to get our goals straight, whether we are teaching grammar or communication needs to be re-thought!

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Becky Roehrs's curator insight, March 14, 2015 9:38 PM

Our community college remedial English, Reading and Math courses are full of students who can't write, read or perform arithmetic. It seems to have gotten worse over the last 5 years..  
Nicholas C. Rossis's curator insight, March 24, 2015 11:09 AM

Interesting facts.  I agree that social media have led us to use abbreviations and forget how to write in a more ... traditional way. This could be a niche market!
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“Super Verbs” Add Power & Persuasion to Your Copy - Marketing Words Blog

“Super Verbs” Add Power & Persuasion to Your Copy - Marketing Words Blog | Writing about Life in the digital age | Scoop.it
From www.marketingwords.com - April 4, 2016 4:30 AM

Run or hustle? Eat or devour? Move or scurry? You can boost the power of your copy by amping up the quality of verbs you use.


Verbs show action, and the way you describe that motion can have a dramatic bearing on your readers. Why would you want to fill your copy with complacent words when you can conjure emotions and visual imagery in the hearts and minds of your readers?


Sure, “run” and “hustle” both indicate that someone is moving fast. But “run” is a dull, ordinary verb while “hustle” evokes definite images in your reader’s mind.Hadn’t really thought about it? You should!


You can choose commonplace verbs like “talk,” “make,” and “like,” or you can electrify your copy instead with verbs including “chatter,” “discover,” and “adore.”


Look at these examples to see what I mean....


Via Jeff Domansky
rodrick rajive lal's insight:

Want to add power & persuasion to your copy? Move beyond ordinary verbs to Super Verbs! Super verbs arepersuasive and more effective than their more passive brothers and sisters according to this article. You can see the difference between run and hustle, or even tell or inform.

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Maria Pia Montoro's curator insight, March 30, 2016 9:30 AM

Want to add power & persuasion to your copy? Move beyond ordinary verbs to Super Verbs!
vicky stone's curator insight, April 1, 2016 1:31 AM

Want to add power & persuasion to your copy? Move beyond ordinary verbs to Super Verbs!
Mike Allen's curator insight, April 2, 2016 9:01 AM

Want to add power & persuasion to your copy? Move beyond ordinary verbs to Super Verbs!
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The man with no plot: how I watched Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel

The man with no plot: how I watched Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel | Writing about Life in the digital age | Scoop.it
From theconversation.com - December 5, 2015 9:20 AM

Andy Martin spent much of the past year with author Lee Child as he wrote the 20th novel in his Jack Reacher series. Here he describes Child’s bold approach to writing.

 

Nobody really believes him when he says it. And in the end I guess it is unprovable. But I can put my hand on heart and say, having been there, and watched him at work, that Lee Child is fundamentally clueless when he starts writing. He really is. He has no idea what he is doing or where he is going. And the odd thing is he likes it that way. The question is: Why? I mean, most of us like to have some kind of idea where we are heading, roughly, a hypothesis at least to guide us, even if we are not sticking maps on the wall and suchlike. Whereas he, in contrast, embraces the feeling of just falling off a cliff into the void and relying on some kind of miraculous soft landing.

 

Of course he is not totally tabula rasa. Because he, and I, had a fair idea that the name Jack Reacher was going to come up somewhere in this, his 20th novel in the series....


Via Jeff Domansky
rodrick rajive lal's insight:

I too am a fan of Lee Child and I have read a lot of his Jack Reacher books. They are page turners and have enough suspense to drive the reader on! What surprises me however is to hear how a man with no plot can be such a successful writer. I guess it is about not being straight jacketed by a framework! The opportunities for creativity could be immense, although I would not suggest any aspiring writer to work without a plot. It is like going to teach a class without a lesson plan. This however not to discount some of the most successful teachers who manage very well without a written lesson plan. They however do have a mental plan of what they will do in class. Authors who develop the plot as they write however must have some idea about what they are going to write.

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Jeff Domansky's curator insight, December 1, 2015 1:52 AM

As a huge Jack Reacher fan, I couldn't resist this post. It is the ultimate 'meta-novel': Andy Martin got his own book out of watching a popular author write his latest tome.
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Metaphor map charts the images that structure our thinking

Metaphor map charts the images that structure our thinking | Writing about Life in the digital age | Scoop.it
From www.theguardian.com - July 9, 2015 2:56 AM

Metaphor is not the sole preserve of Shakespearean scholarship or high literary endeavour but has governed how we think about and describe our daily lives for centuries, according to researchers at Glasgow University.

 

Experts have now created the world’s first online Metaphor Map, which contains more than 14,000 metaphorical connections sourced from 4m pieces of lexical data, some of which date back to 700AD.

 

While it is impossible to pinpoint the oldest use of metaphor in English, because some may have been adopted from earlier languages such as Germanic, the map reveals that the still popular link between sheep and timidity dates back to Old English. Likewise, we do not always recognise modern use of metaphor: for example, the word “comprehend” comes from Latin, where it meant to physically grasp an object.

 

The three-year-long project to map the use of metaphor across the entire history of the English language, undertaken by researchers at the School of Critical Studies, was based on data contained in the Historical Thesaurus of English, which spans 13 centuries....


Via Jeff Domansky
rodrick rajive lal's insight:

We work with metaphors all the time, and for teachers of English literature, having a good grasp of metaphors is even more important. But then metaphors are symbols and like symbols, metaphors can cover a large number of ideas and concepts. No wonder therefore that using metaphors can help communicate complex ideas and concepts more effectivley than verbal descriptions or written descriptions that go on and on and yet are not able to communicate the intended information. I somehow connect metaphors with the heading in a mind map.

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Jeff Domansky's curator insight, July 7, 2015 2:57 AM

Huge project by Glasgow University researchers plots thirteen centuries of startling cognitive connections. Purely random but fascinating. Recommended reading. 9/10
Marco Favero's curator insight, July 7, 2015 2:59 PM

aggiungi la tua intuizione ...
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Free Technology for Teachers: Five Ways to Create Word Clouds

Free Technology for Teachers: Five Ways to Create Word Clouds | Writing about Life in the digital age | Scoop.it
From www.freetech4teachers.com - December 9, 2013 9:35 PM

This morning at the Massachusetts School Library Association's conference (a fun conference that I highly recommend) Pam Berger presented some good ideas for working with primary source documents and Web 2.0 tools. One of the ideas that she shared and others elaborated on was the idea of using word clouds to help students analyze documents. By copying the text of a document into a word cloud generator your students can quickly see the words that appear most frequently in that document. Here are five tools that you and your students can use to create word clouds


Via Jeff Domansky
rodrick rajive lal's insight:

This is interesting, word cloud generation! I guess we should try the word cloud generators to make the teaching of vocabulary more interesting. I mean after all learning and memorising the latin roots, and memorising word meanings from a dictionary might be necessary at times, but then it can also be tedious. 

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Jeff Domansky's curator insight, December 9, 2013 2:03 AM

Richard Byrne shares 5 useful ways and tools to create word clouds.
rebecca strohmetz's curator insight, March 9, 2015 12:05 PM

Word clouds seems like a great way to edit a paper and have a good fascinating title for a poster/magazine!
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