Tag Archives: writing

What Samuel Johnson has to offer the
news business

By Julie Starr | Published: September 21, 2008
It strikes me as timely to ponder this, from British essayist and lexicographer Samuel Johnson: What is written without effort is, in general, read without pleasure.
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Modesty Blaise, split infinitives and style guides

By Julie Starr | Published: April 25, 2008
It's not every day you find a joke about split infinitives in the opening sentences of a novel. But Peter O'Donnell provided just that when he transformed Modesty Blaise (think Emma Peel combined with Lara Croft) from a cartoon character into a full-flesh master criminal turned special agent extraordinaire in the opening book of a series.
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Keep it short, sharp and to the point

By Julie Starr | Published: February 19, 2008
The ever-readable Paul Bradshaw kicked off a series on online journalism basics recently with the importance of brevity - both for writing and for multimedia. It's a good point that can't be made too often so here it comes again
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A rant about …

By Julie Starr | Published: February 10, 2008
What is it with these websites hooked on the dangling ellipsis? You know what I mean: a headline, half a sentence then... Here's a classic from TVNZ's TV On Demand offerings.
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