http://www.bloggercises.com/ Bloggercises en Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:56:00 GMT Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:56:00 GMT info@bloggercises.com info@bloggercises.com http://www.bloggercises.com/writing-word-count/ In a media interview recently, Alexander McCall Smith excitedly told the reporter, "I've written 3,000 words today." It is a number which will make the more painstaking writers green, and... http://www.bloggercises.com/writing-word-count/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/writing-word-count/ Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:56:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/philip-parker-publishing/ Philip Parker has more than 100,000 books listed under his name on amazon.com, and claims to have published more than 200,000 in total. Parker is a marketing professor at the... http://www.bloggercises.com/philip-parker-publishing/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/philip-parker-publishing/ Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:24:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/clich-finder/ Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Orwell's edict, a fundamental rule of good writing, is about cliches. The... http://www.bloggercises.com/clich-finder/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/clich-finder/ Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:28:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-redundancies-4/ This is a simple exercise aimed at helping you become a better writer. The exercise is not difficult. It is not a test. The aim is to foster the habit... http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-redundancies-4/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-redundancies-4/ Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:37:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/wild-words1/ Autoantonym A word which has two meanings, one being the opposite of the other. One example is cleave, which can mean to stick together, or to separate. Another is sanction... http://www.bloggercises.com/wild-words1/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/wild-words1/ Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:12:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/common-words/ It is a remarkable fact that, while English has more than 400,000 words, more than half of all writing in English consists of just 100 words. Here are the 100... http://www.bloggercises.com/common-words/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/common-words/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 06:25:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-writing-with-a-finetipped-language/ Further musings on language. English is the vocabulary king. It has far more words than French, Spanish or German. It has more words than any alphabet-based language on Earth, and... http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-writing-with-a-finetipped-language/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-writing-with-a-finetipped-language/ Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:01:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/dictionary-thesaurus/ Good writing is due 33 percent to skill, 33 percent to a good dictionary and 33 percent to a good thesaurus. Oh alright, if you are going to challenge me... http://www.bloggercises.com/dictionary-thesaurus/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/dictionary-thesaurus/ Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:59:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/language-make-it-sing/ Barry Marshall and Macfarlane Burnet have three obvious things in common: they are Australian, they have won Nobel prizes for science, and they know how to make words sing. Frank... http://www.bloggercises.com/language-make-it-sing/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/language-make-it-sing/ Sun, 07 Dec 2008 06:04:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/apostrophe-use/ This will be about the shortest lesson on apostrophes you will see; it will be in the plainest language; and by the end of it some of the mystery of... http://www.bloggercises.com/apostrophe-use/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/apostrophe-use/ Sun, 07 Dec 2008 04:30:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-apostrophes/ I had a friend, a woman of wit, charm and intelligence. She was about 50 years old when I met her, and she was successful in business and in life... http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-apostrophes/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-apostrophes/ Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:03:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/split-infinitive-lesson/ Take an infinitive and split it and listen to the howls. How dare you commit such a crime against the English language, they will cry. It is a common complaint... http://www.bloggercises.com/split-infinitive-lesson/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/split-infinitive-lesson/ Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:38:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/writing-style-guide/ Great writers are born in moments of mystery when the stars and planets are serendipitously aligned and the ghosts of Dante, Goethe and Shakespeare are having a drink in a... http://www.bloggercises.com/writing-style-guide/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/writing-style-guide/ Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:12:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/clich-exercise/ Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Orwell's edict, a fundamental rule of good writing, is about cliches. The... http://www.bloggercises.com/clich-exercise/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/clich-exercise/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:08:00 GMT http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-spelling-5/ It is not hard to become a good speller. All it takes is a little practice. Look at the words below. They may or may not be spelled correctly. Write... http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-spelling-5/#comments http://www.bloggercises.com/bloggercises-spelling-5/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:59:00 GMT