One of my favorite writing tools is Word Counter 2.1, from Supermagnus Software. http://www.supermagnus.com/mac/Word_Counter/ The price? Free. The value? To quote a popular credit card company, “Priceless.” If you’re like most of my students, you’re asking yourself, “Doesn’t every word processor include a word count function? What’s the big deal?”…
Tag: writing
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/) is one of the two websites I check when I have a writing related question. The other is the Tameri Guide, of course, since Susan and I tend to add content to Tameri based on our experiences writing and teaching. I…
One of my colleagues has been working on a novel for decades. Yes, decades. Another writer I know has revised a script for at least a decade. I have piles of unfinished and neglected ideas, some two decades old, but I don’t have completed works that I have rewritten or…
I have been reading The Birth of Satan, a history of Satan in the three major monotheistic faiths and the rise of Satan as a literary and artistic character. The authors emphasize the Christian and Jewish traditions, since those have had the greatest effect on the mythology of Satan in…
I advise avoiding pronouns when possible because most writers “tangle” the text. Though the writer knows what is intended, the readers end up confused. I’ve wasted too much time as a reader trying to determine what “those” and “these” were replacing in a paragraph. Other languages can still create their…
There are two types of organization we should address for students struggling with academic writing assignments: process organization and document organization. Reminder: This blog entry is part of an ongoing series. Writing-related topics I am addressing include: organization, audience analysis, supporting arguments, and mastering genre norms. If you have specific…
I am updating what might be described as an academic website. Reading for research reminds me that too many academic works are “overwritten.” I thought about compiling a list of complaints, but there are too many to catalog and rank. Instead, I’ll highlight some of the most annoying traits of…
I have outlined two projects with Mariner Software’s Contour 1.2 and remain uncertain about the product for several reasons. The program is marred by sloppy spelling errors in manuscript templates and a rigid approach to story plotting that falls short when writing a complex story or screenplay. What you are…
I am a believer in outlining and planning before, during, and after the drafting process for most long forms of creative writing. Generally, I’m always searching for a way to better organize my thoughts. As a writer, this means I experiment with various outlining and “story plotting” tools. Two popular…
I read a fair amount of non-fiction. My interest in human nature, a good thing for any writer, leads me to read texts on history, religion, philosophy, and psychology. Unfortunately, most non-fiction depends on readers being interested enough in the information to ignore the structural deficiencies of the text. This…