Techniques

Writing accurately about exponential functions

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged mathematics writing on by

“The number A is exponentially greater than the number B!” What does this mean? Nearly nothing. If it has a meaning, it’s that there’s some number x such that Bx = A. But that’s true of any two numbers, as long as they’re both greater than 1 and A > B. Please don’t use that expression in your writing.

You could also say that A is “linearly greater” or “quadratically greater” than B. They’re just as true and just as meaningless. “Exponentially greater” sounds more impressive because exponential curves rise really fast. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of cases followed something close to an exponential curve. But a single data point doesn’t establish a curve.
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HTTP and HTTPS: A quick guide for Web writers

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged HTTP HTTPS SSL TLS on by

Every URL starts with a protocol, a name which identifies how it should be processed. The name is followed by “://”. On the Web, it’s almost always either HTTP or HTTPS. The protocol name is followed by the character sequence “://”, to the annoyance of people entering it on a phone or tablet. The browser may let you leave it out when typing, but it has to guess it for you. When you create a link in an HTML page, you always have to include the protocol, e.g., https://www.example.com.

The difference between the two is that HTTPS provides security and HTTP doesn’t. An HTTPS link uses the TLS (transport layer security) communication protocol, which often goes under the obsolete name of SSL. In common usage, SSL and TLS mean the same thing. It gives you three advantages over plain HTTP:

  1. It encrypts the data in transit in both directions. Anyone intercepting the data will find it effectively impossible to tell what information is being sent back and forth. They can, however, tell what domain you’re communicating with.
  2. It verifies the identity of the domain you’re getting data from. With an HTTP connection, someone in the middle (e.g., a public Wi-Fi hotspot) can impersonate the domain.
  3. It prevents alteration of data in transit. Only the holder of the TLS certificate can encrypt the data correctly. Any attempt to alter it will only turn it into gibberish.

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Accents and dialects in writing

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged accent dialect writing on by

A lot of would-be authors don’t understand the difference between an accent and a dialect. An accent is a way of pronouncing words. A dialect is a way of choosing and arranging words which characterizes a subgroup of a language’s speakers. Writing in a dialect is legitimate in fiction or when quoting real people. Trying to write an accent is usually a mistake.
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Getting links right

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged HTML writing on by

Links are important in blog posts and Web pages. They give support to statements and lead the reader to further information. They make the page more valuable and trustworthy in the reader’s eyes. Broken links, on the other hand, make a page look dubious and outdated. A writer needs to pay special attention to get the links right.

Anatomy of a URL

Links are URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). They consist of a protocol, normally HTTP or HTTPS, plus a domain and a path. They may also contain parameters. For the article you’re reading, the protocol is HTTPS, the domain is garymcgath.com, and the path may vary depending on how you’re viewing the piece. The protocol is a mandatory part of the URL. garymcgath.com is not a URL, and putting it into a link will work only if the server is kind enough to fix it for you. https://garymcgath.com is a URL with an empty path. https://garymcgath.com/blogging is a URL that points at my blog.
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Misused musical terms 3

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged msuic writing on by

Musical imagery adds a lot to writing when it’s done right. The only trouble is that so many writers get it wrong. They misunderstand the terminology or the capacities of the instruments. Music is a big part of my life, so it especially bothers me when references to music are full of mistakes. Here are a few pointers which could be useful.
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