Writing

Use the right statistic

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged statistics writing on by

Mark Twain talked about “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Lying with statistics isn’t always intentional; sometimes a writer doesn’t understand their meaning or applicability.

Recently I saw a news article on the COVID-19 infection rate in northern New Hampshire. It reported a higher positivity rate than in previous weeks. That doesn’t tell us anything about whether infections are increasing or decreasing, though. If the positivity rate goes up, it could mean one of several things:

  1. More people are infected.
  2. More of the people who are infected are getting tested.
  3. Fewer people who aren’t infected are getting tested.

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Some less-known benefits of private browsing

This entry was posted in Techniques Tools Writing and tagged Internet privacy software on by

Most browsers give you the option of browsing in a private window. The name may vary; Microsoft Edge calls it inPrivate, and Chrome calls it Incognito, Whatever it’s called, it sets up a temporary window or tab and discards your cookies and browsing history when you close it. You’ll see warnings everywhere about its limitations. If you’re an NSA whistleblower, you’ll need much better protection to avoid being caught. But here I want to talk about some benefits that aren’t often discussed. They’re especially handy when doing research.
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You aren’t a virtual person

This entry was posted in Writing and tagged usage vocabulary on by

You don’t lose reality by communicating at a distance. You don’t become a “virtual” person. I wrote about this a year ago, but the silliness hasn’t abated, so I want to make the point again.

An online gathering of people can appropriately be called a “virtual” gathering. They aren’t really coming together; they get the effect of it through technology. The people participating, though, remain real. You’d think that after over a century of telephones, everyone would grasp that people can be real without being in the same room.
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What is irony, and how can writers use it?

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

Irony is one of those things we know when we see it, but it’s hard to pin down if you’re asked to explain. Merriam-Webster gives two definitions: (1) the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really think especially in order to be funny. (2) a situation that is strange or funny because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of what you expected.
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Search engine tricks for researchers

This entry was posted in Techniques Tools and tagged Google research search Startpage on by

On several occasions, when I’ve researched a topic that has just hit the news, search engines have shown me nothing but news articles on commentary on that event. Usually it’s 20 versions of the same syndicated article. Finding background information becomes nearly impossible. Google’s weighting heavily favors recently added or changed pages.

Fortunately, if you know Google’s options well, there are ways to get around this. They also work with Startpage, which is an independent privacy-protecting front end to Google. I recommend Startpage, if only to avoid Google’s diddling with your search results based on what it knows about you. Startpage recently dropped its advanced search page, but you can still do everything it let you do.
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Abusing the nominative 2

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged grammar writing on by

Alexander James Adams has a song which is quite nice yet makes me grate my teeth. Its refrain is “There’s only the music between you and I.” An occasional grammatical violation in a song is OK, but one that occurs in every verse is painful. There are plenty of good rhymes for “me.”

When a pronoun follows a preposition, it has to be in the accusative case, also called the objective case. “With me.” “To them.” “Behind her.” The favorite grammatical error of snobs is to use the nominative case instead.
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Don’t treat your readers like children

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged bowdlerization writing on by

In an alarming development, the US National Archives has slapped warnings of “harmful language” on the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. The source makes it especially disturbing; archivists should stand strongly against scaring people off from important documents.

Update: According to some sources, the National Archives stuck this warning label on all the documents in its online catalog, which is sloppy and makes the warning useless. As an analogy, if you rate all movies R, you might as well rate none of them R.
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Disagreement isn’t refutation

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged logic research writing on by

Websites with an agenda to promote will claim that someone has “refuted” a claim when all the person has done is express a contrary view, with or without supporting evidence.

Refuting a claim or argument means showing that it’s invalid. It doesn’t require proving that the contrary position is true, but it requires thoroughly knocking the props out from under a claim. Here are some ways to refute an assertion:
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