A Gentle Blend of Communication Expressway
& Webgrammar's Food for Thought

Judy's Corner

Happy Holidays! After my last newsletter was published, I heard from a number of subscribers, including the talented Debbie Weil http://voxiemedia.com, and another longtime friend, Mari Bontrager. I want to thank Mari for originally recommending Blessed are the Cheesemakers. She also thought some of us might enjoy the Beka Cooper Series by Tamora Pierce.

And before I forget, let me recommend a few more books: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Novel, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Last issue I neglected to mention that we lost a superb writer this year, Elmore Leonard. However, he left us with a legacy, 10 Rules, and if you're a writer, it's worth the read:

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" . . . he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10:
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Rest in peace, Elmore Leonard.

Brain Pickings has a free weekly interestingness digest. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week's most unmissable articles across art, science, design, history, and the usual miscellanea, alongside short highlights from other notable reads.

Longtime subscriber and writer Robin Griffith recently wrote, "Hi There! I know I haven't said much lately, but I wanted you to know, I try to keep each of these, and certainly try to read them in a timely manner. Thank you Judy so much for the resources you have been bringing my way for years now."

Web link for this issue.

Grammar Tip #1

HISTORIC is something important in history; HISTORICAL is anything that took place in the past.

Grammar Tip #2

PEACEABLE: to avoid strife ~~~ PEACEFUL: serene, tranquil

Business Email Tip

List of Salutations Part 3

Organization composed entirely of men - Gentlemen:
Organization composed entirely of women - Ladies: or Mesdames:
Organization composed of men & women - Ladies and Gentlemen: or Gentlemen and Ladies:

It's easy to say that people no longer use "Mesdames," but if you "google" the word, you get over a million results. Keep an open mind. In the next issue, we'll tackle the Signature Line/Block.

Smithsonian To Spotlight Artists With Disabilities

Robert McCloskey sketches for "Make Way for Ducklings"

Modern Women: women artists at the Museum of Modern Art

Michela Mansuino

National Museum of African Art Highlights: These Highlights are created to serve as entry points to explore the diversity of African Art. Please visit us often to see new Highlights or 'mini' exhibitions selected by NMAfA Curators and Staff

Library Thing: Catalog your books from Amazon, the Library of Congress and 690 other world libraries. Import from anywhere.

Autism Often Misdiagnosed In Kids With Genetic Condition

Wisconsin Clothing Store To Cater To People With Special Needs

Crime busters: UC Davis forensics lab uses animal DNA to crack cases

UC Davis experts: Wildfires & Pet Safety: As wildfires continue to burn in Yosemite and other parts of the West, the following UC Davis experts are available to comment.

The League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis

NUTTAB 2010 contains nutrient data for 2668 foods available in Australia and up to 245 nutrients per food.

Matthew Carter. He's arguably the most widely read type designer in the world. Verdana, Georgia, Tahoma, Skia: all ubiquitous, all his.

Making Fonts Proza Typeface

Just a Spot of Color - Full color printing can be expensive. And even when cost isn't a big deal (really?) you don't always need every color in the rainbow to make your point. Black and white can make a statement. Or, try a spot color. Black with a some tints of a single spot color can save money and make an otherwise plain page pop.

Arranging the Page - Methods of composing text and images for desktop publishing

Design on a square grid: Video by John McWade

Why Are Hundreds of Harvard Students Studying Ancient Chinese Philosophy?

Online Writing Center: Structure of an Academic Paper

What is a Visual-spatial Learner? Creative, curious, out-of-the-box thinkers, VSLs learn by intuitive leaps. They remember what they see and forget what they hear. They may forget details but remember the BIG PICTURE forever.

Homeschooling Reluctant Writers and Children Who Hate to Write

Your Brain Map: strategies for accelerated learning

Common Errors In English: Professor Paul Brians

Daily Grammar

Daily Writing Tips: Get a daily grammar, spelling, punctuation or vocabulary tip.

Guide To Grammar And Style: Jack Lynch

Professor Charles Darling's Grammar Site

Theodore Roosevelt Collection Photographs: Amazing collection

Earthworks: land reclamation as sculpture - Symposium sponsored by the King County Arts Commission, 1979

California Digital Newspaper Collection: Over 400,000 pages of significant California newspapers published from 1846 to 1922, including the first California newspaper, the Californian.

The Poweshiek History Preservation Project is a joint effort of the Grinnell College Libraries and the Drake Community Library to preserve the history of the people and places of Poweshiek County. Local residents bring letters, photographs, scrapbooks, ledgers, and other documents that tell the story of day-to-day life in the county to scanning sessions run by the Poweshiek History Preservation Project, and those items are scanned and added to this collection.

A Brief History of House Cats: It may be that "nobody owns a cat," but scientists now say the popular pet has lived with people for 12,000 years

Why Marketing That Includes Cats and Bacon Is the Cat's Meow

Wireless Accessibility Links

Who is this marketing for?

Keep your Customers by Offering a Wi-Fi Hotspot

Facebook Holiday Marketing Tips for Your Small Business

How to Be an Educated Consumer of Infographics: David Byrne on the Art-Science of Visual Storytelling by Maria Popova

Map: Six Decades of the Most Popular Names for Girls, State-by-State: The maps, based on data from the Social Security Administration, show the most popular baby names for girls by state, for babies born from 1960 through 2012.

Why Amazon PrimeAir Drones Transcend Publicity.

When a tiny task is important to the organization

LIKE button for your website without having to go through Facebook

105 sites dedicated to New Media Journalism

Teaching People To Write Requires A Contradictory Approach

Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block

What to include in a cover letter

How to Write A Cover Letter

I invite all my Webgrammar subscribers to join us by going to the subscription page or by sending an email to
commexpy-subscribe@ossweb.com

How to find Judy's websites

Editing & Writing Services (Biz site w/writing tips blog)
Office Support Services (Original biz site w/more personal blog & ezine)
Webgrammar for educators, writers, editors, researchers, librarians, etc.
Digifeld (Complimentary redigitized photography by Judy Vorfeld)
Judy Vorfeld's personal website

ARCHIVES FOR ALL EZINE ISSUES beginning with 2012 are now combined into one ezine: eCommunication Food for Thought in the Communication Expressway index:

Current Index and Archive: Communication Expressway

Archive: Webgrammar's Food for Thought

TO SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) TO eCOMMUNICATION FOOD FOR THOUGHT go to http://www.ossweb.com/ezine.html

Facebook - Google+ - Twitter - LinkedIn

AWC

Copyright Judy Vorfeld