For fans of usage guides

[ktinkel]

A good essay on the usefulness of guides to English usage by a programmer, no less, found at Tom Moertel’s web log: “A coder’s guide to usage guides (and why you ought to use one (http://blog.moertel.com/articles/category/good-stuff)” (dated 7/19/06).

On the strength of his comments, I just sent off for a copy of Garner’s Modern American Usage, a book he recommends. I will let you know what I think when I see it.

Moertel also has a nice entry on coffee, another one of my pet topics. Most of the rest of his blog gets pretty technical, but he also has entries on photography, food, and rants, though they were not especially compelling. But he obviously has a ranging sort of mind.

[George]

"Thus the burden of making our world understandable and relevant to others rests upon our own shoulders. To carry the burden, we must be able to communicate complex ideas, share the full depth and beauty of our creations, and help others see that the things we devote our lives to are worthy and fascinating. In sum, we need to invest in our writing skills."

Dang, if he has this objective, he is giving a lot of weight to having a user guide. I can think of a lot of other type matters he should be studying to have writing skills. Nowadays, being able to communicate effectively seems like a lost art completely....uh, until one considers commercials.

In just a minute the commercial gets to the point with such an impact it makes the sale. What money does to a person's thinking!!! Investing in writing skills is essential to shaping our world through ideas, but understanding the commercial is an excellent place to end up on how that is done. I've had to do my own study on that. Any good manuals there??


George