Quotations About Books, Writers, and Writing

Credit: http://www.derosaworld.typepad.com

Yesterday afternoon, during a strong tropical cloudburst, and casually surfing the Web, I stumbled upon an interesting blog post written by S.L. Hoffan.  Mr. Hoffan is a blogger, copyeditor and proofreader in the Washington, D.C. area.  He’s the author of the blog dubbed, Eagle-Eyed Editor.

In his own words, “I blog about anything involving books, authors, writing, editing, proofreading and social media. Visit Eagle-Eyed Editor often to laugh and learn!”  I’ve visited his blog now and then, and most of the time, I have a good read.  He mixes content with good humor, which I certainly appreciate.  In order to be healthy you need to laugh.  No doubt about that; just ask your doc.

In one of his posts, Hoffman came up with an interesting list of literary quotations  about books, writers and writing which I enjoyed.  Some of them are genuinely witty, while others, well…,  I could just brush off.  Understanding that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, I decided to include all of his selections to share with you guys today.    Pick the ones you like and delete the ones you dislike.  Deal?  Here we go.

1. Groucho Marx — “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
2. Neil Gaiman — “You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is that we notice when we’re doing it.”
3. Henry Rollins — “I’ve always seen it as the role of an artist to drag his inside out, give the audience all you’ve got. Writers, actors, singers, all good artists do the same. It isn’t supposed to be easy.”
4. Toni Morrison — “The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.”
5. Beverly Cleary — “Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.”
6. C.S. Lewis — “You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
7. Madeleine L’Engle — “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
8. Salman Rushdie — “A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it or offer your own version in return.”
9. Steven Wright — “I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.”
10. W. Somerset Maugham — “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are.”
11. Alexander Pope — “True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those who move easiest have learned to dance.”
12. Maynard James Keenan — “For me, life is writing and I can do it anywhere. It doesn’t matter where I am. I listen. I write. I live.”

In my humble opinion, quotation #12 is the cherry on the cake.  If writing, books, and writers are your cup of tea—have a good time!  Good Day.

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Is it Proper to Leave One Space or Two Spaces After a Period?

I studied typing for three years when I was in high school at Insituto Pan Americano in Panama City, Panama.  That was in 1963-1965.  In order to graduate, we had to type at least 55 words per minute, which was pretty fast, considering that there were no electric typewriters back then.  I recall I had an old but efficient Underwood typewriter.

After all these years, I’m still a good typist.  Don’t have to look at the keyboard and use all my ten fingers to type.  These typing skills were a great advantage when I went to work and personal computers began to emerge and no secretaries were assigned to my job.  I had to do it all.  No problem, I knew how to type my own reports and letters.

Back then the rule was to leave two spaces after a sentence.  If you left only one spaces, you were deducted ten points from the final score and that wasn’t good for your grades.  So after three years of using the rules, it was embedded in my brain, that after a sentence, I had to leave two spaces, and that was that.

Last week I found an article in the Cloud, that this rule was wrong.  The correct way of typing was to leave only one space after a period.  What?  Was I wrong for almost five decades?  Apparently I was.  This is what I found out.

“Can I let you in on a secret? Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and unarguable wrong.  And yet people who use two spaces are everywhere, their ugly error crossing every social boundary of class, education, and taste.

The people who study and design the typewritten word decided long ago that we should use one space, not two, between sentences. That convention was not arrived at casually. James Felici, author of the The Complete Manual of Typography, points out that the early history of type is one of inconsistent spacing.  Hundreds of years ago some typesetters would end sentences with a double space, others would use a single space, and a few renegades would use three or four spaces. Inconsistency reigned in all facets of written communication; there were few conventions regarding spelling, punctuation, character design, and ways to add emphasis to type. But as typesetting became more widespread, its practitioners began to adopt best practices. Felici writes that typesetters in Europe began to settle on a single space around the early 20^th century. America followed soon after.

Every modern typographer agrees on the one-space rule. It’s one of the canonical rules of the profession, in the same way that waiters know that the salad fork goes to the left of the dinner fork and fashion designers know to put men’s shirt buttons on the right and women’s on the left. Every major style guide—including the Modern Language Association Style Manual and the Chicago Manual of Style—prescribes a single space after a period. (The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, used widely in the social sciences, allows for two spaces in draft manuscripts but recommends one space in published work.) Most ordinary people would know the one-space rule, too, if it weren’t for a quirk of history. In the middle of the last century, a now-outmoded technology—the manual typewriter—invaded the American workplace. To accommodate that machine’s shortcomings, everyone began to type wrong. And even though we no longer use typewriters, we all still type like we do. 

The problem with typewriters was that they used monospaced type—that is, every character occupied an equal amount of horizontal space. This bucked a long tradition of proportional typesetting, in which skinny characters (like I or 1) were given less space than fat ones (like W or M). Monospaced type gives you text that looks “loose” and uneven; there’s a lot of white space between characters and words, so it’s more difficult to spot the spaces between sentences immediately. Hence the adoption of the two-space rule—on a typewriter, an extra space after a sentence makes text easier to read. Here’s the thing, though: Monospaced fonts went out in the 1970s. First electric typewriters and then computers began to offer people ways to create text using proportional fonts. Today nearly every font on your PC is proportional. (Courier is the one major exception.) Because we’ve all switched to modern fonts, adding two spaces after a period no longer enhances readability, typographers say. It diminishes it.

“A space signals a pause,” says David Jury, the author of About Face: Reviving The Rules of Typography. “If you get a really big pause—a big hole—in the middle of a line, the reader pauses. And you don’t want people to pause all the time. You want the text to flow.”

Is the rule of place one space after a period is arbitrary? Sure it is. But so are a lot of our conventions for writing. It’s arbitrary that we write shop instead of shoppe, or phone instead of fone, or that we use ! to emphasize a sentence rather than %. We adopted these standards because practitioners of publishing—writers, editors, typographers, and others—settled on them after decades of experience. Among their rules was that we should use one space after a period instead of two—so that’s how we should do it.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve decided that I won’t abide by the rule of one space after a period.  Even if I wanted to, I know it would be impossible to do so.  My brain just won’t bulge.  I’m sorry, but I will be a renegade blogger and two spaces will persist in my blog.  For this I deeply apologize, but for this old dog, learning this new trick is just not possible.  Good Day.

Source:  Space Invaders.  Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period by Farhad Manjoo – Slate Magazine.

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The Inspirational Commencement Speech of Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman, English author. Credit: the age.com.au – Justin Mcmanus

Surfing the web in my quest to improve my skills in the proper use of the English language, I happened into an inspirational speech addressed to the 2012 graduating class of the Philadelphia’s University of the Arts on May 17, 2012 by Neil Gaiman.  Everything he said made perfect sense to me.  It was not only what he said what struck me, but the suave way he said it with an exquisite British pronunciation.  The eloquent speech reminded me of the famous lecture given by Steve Jobs to the students of the University of Stanford in 2005.  Both are extraordinary pieces of oral communication with very deep thoughts to mediate upon.

Neil Richard Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theater and films.  His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels such as Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book.

In the speech, he discussed the value of ignorance stating, “If you don’t know it’s impossible, it’s easier to do.”  He also stated there there was nothing wrong with making mistakes.  Instead he said, “Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes make glorious and fantastic mistakes.  Break rules.  Leave the world more interesting for your being here.  Make.  Good.  Art.”

Perhaps most importantly, Gaiman reiterates the importance of simply making good art:

“When things get tough, this is what you should do: Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician—make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by a mutated boa constrictor—make good art. IRS on your trail— make good art. Cat exploded— make good art. Someone on the Internet thinks what you’re doing is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before —make good art.”

For your ready reference, below is the commencement speech which I found at YouTube.  Its duration is 19 minutes and 55 second, but every second is worth its price in gold.  I strongly recommend viewing it, if you are interested in squeezing the juice out of life.  This is it.  Good Day and Best of Luck.

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Lingua Franca´s Statistics

Yesterday, Wednesday, April 18, 2012, Lingua Franca reached the landmark of 800,000 page hits after four years and three months.  Even as we speak, the number has increased to 800,310 and counting.

I started my blogging activities in a platform called LiveJournal and kept it for four years.  Then on January 1, 2008, I moved to WordPress.  Both platforms shaped my taste for blogging, writing and photography.  Little did I know, that I would reach thousands of readers around the world.  People are reading Lingua Franca in countries, which I can’t even find on the map.

This is what I wrote on LiveJournal when I moved to WordPress.  The blog post was called, “The End of the Road”:

“LiveJournal was the first blogging platform I used when I was getting my feet wet with blogs. I had no idea what “blog” meant but I had an open mind and was willing to learn.

For more than four years I’ve been posting daily entries into Epiac’s Place trying to please my readers, and at the same time, learning the English language. As you probably know, my native language is Spanish. It has been a rewarding intellectual ride. As I gathered more experience, I realized that LiveJournal was not the best platform for my growing blogging needs. That took me to WordPress where I opened a blog dubbed Lingua Franca. This blog was started on January 1, 2008.

I decided to keep Epiac’s Place as a backup blog in case WordPress would crash or something like that. It happened to me once with a blogging site called WordCharm. So far, my experience with WordPress has been extra-ordinary. Everything I need is there at the tip of my fingers. In my humble opinion, it’s the best blogging platform available today on the Internet.

In view of the above, I have decided to mothball Epiac’s Place and keep on posting my daily entries at Lingua Franca. I take this opportunity to thank the staff of LiveJournal for all their guidance and support during the four years I used their software. It was an exciting blogging education. To my readers, I encourage you to switch to Lingua Franca by clicking here. You will find the same type of content you have been reading here.

Thank you very much once again, and I shall wait for you at Lingua Franca. Good Bye and Welcome!”

The top ten countries where Lingua Franca is read are:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Panama
4. Canada
5. India
6. Australia
7. Philippines
8. Germany
9. Malaysia
10. Netherlands

I’m very happy using WordPress and plan to stay here for a long time.  The platform is like good wine, it gets better with time.

Today is a very special day for me since I’m getting closer to my goal of reaching one million page hits.  I still have 200,000 page hits to go. As you probably know, Lao-tzu (Chinese philosopher)  once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.”  or something like that.  I’m on my way, step by step; day by day.

I wish to thank Abe Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln Blog) and Don Ray (Chiriqui Chatter Blog), both veteran bloggers, for being my sources of inspiration and gently ushered me to splash into the exciting waters of blogging.

I hereby wish to thank each and everyone of our readers wherever you are, for taking the time to read our daily blog posts.  Without your interest, Lingua Franca would be more barren and desolate than an Arabian desert.  I can’t thank you enough.  Good Day.

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Poem: A Naughty Computer Spell Checker

A little poem about computer spell checkers for your enjoyment on an early tropical morning.  With a spell checker like this, who needs a dictionary?

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Source:  Bits & Pieces

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Polishing the English Apple

(Credit: hph2@Photobucket.com)

If you have blogged for a while, you know the frustration of trying to find out if the word you’re about to write is correct or not.  If it’s correct–great.  If not–your credibility will slowly flow to the bottom of the drain.

Online spellers are of great help, as well as dictionaries, encyclopedias and thesaurus.  But it always helps to turn to your old textbooks or Web sites online to refresh your English rules.  This year I promised myself to focus on the English language like a hound dog.

Some words are so close to others in spelling or meaning that they create confusion.  For this reason, it’s a good idea to study the most common word mix-up’s, to avoid problems that confuse writers everywhere. If you can conquer these common problems, your blog will shine like a ripe Washington apple.

Here are some frequent offender words.

1. Affect and Effect:

To affect is to produce an effect. Still confused? Affect is usually a verb meaning “to impact or influence.” It might help to remember that “a” is for action and “e” is for result.

Examples:

Affect: Will the new tax laws affect my company?
Effect: Many believe the effect of overplaying violent computer games is negative on your young children.

2. Accept and Except:

Accept is a verb, meaning to take willingly. Except is a preposition, meaning “other than.” Remember the phrase “I will accept any food except spinach.” The words “accept” and “except” are in alphabetical order in that sentence.

Examples:

Accept: President Barack Obama will accept the Nobel Peace Price early this year.
Except: I will eat any vegetable except spinach, they’re too bitter.

3. Conscience and Conscious:

Many well-educated people stumble over this one.  Conscience is a noun, meaning  a feeling of shame when you do something immoral.  It’s your sense of right and wrong.   Conscious is an adjective, meaning knowing and perceiving; having awareness of surroundings and sensations and thoughts.

Examples:

Conscience: The Welsh pirate had no conscience about his extreme cruelty.
Conscious: The small girl remained conscious during the whole operation.

4. It’s and Its:

The apostrophe in “it’s” poses a real problem for some people.  Many people think of possession when they see it.   But it’s is a contraction, meaning “it is” or “it has.” It might be helpful to think of the possessive pronoun its in a group with “hers” or “his.” No apostrophe.

Examples:

It’s: It’s important to make that deposit today, before the check gets to the bank or it will bounce.
Its: By an impulse of instinct every mother will protect its young ones.

5. To and Too:

This is probably the most common problem pair, but once you get the difference, it seems so simple.   To is a preposition that indicates location or direction, but it also can be used in front of a verb to make an infinitive, like “to work” or “to study.” On the other hand, Too is an adverb meaning “excessively” or “additionally.”   This word indicates “an additional amount.”

Examples:

To: Tonight I’m going to study for the final exam.
Too: I told my mother it would be too difficult to swim the 100 yards of the pool.

If you wish to be more proficient in the usage of the  English language, kindly click the link at the end of this post for more information.  Good Day.

Source:  Confusing Words – About.com

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Clearing Up the Confusion in English

Maybe some of you who are studying English as a second language, may be  having a hard time grasping the language.  Others don’t.  I guess some persons have a natural-born disposition to learn languages, while others like me, struggle to learn the rules of the game.

Some words are so close to others in spelling or meaning that they cause confusion, time after time. For this reason, it’s a good idea to study the most common word mix-up’s, to avoid problems that irritate writers everywhere.

Just to dissipate some linguistic confusions, I’ve selected a few English words that are often used incorrectly .  The next time you want to use them, you’ll know exactly what they mean and you won’t  fall into the pitfalls of improper English.  Here we go.

1. Affect and Effect: To affect is to produce an effect. Still confused? Affect is usually a verb meaning to impact or influence. It might help to remember that a is for action and e is for result.

Examples:

a.  Affect.  Will the new medicine affect me?

b.  Effect: The magnetic effect was greater when the rod was lengthwise.

2. Accept and Except: Accept is a verb, meaning to take willingly. Except is a preposition, meaning other than. Remember the phrase, I will accept any food except spinach. The words accept and except are in alphabetical order in that sentence.

a.  Accept:  I cannot accept the argument of this book.

b.  Except:  I’ll drink anything, except rum.

3. Conscience and Conscious: Have you ever been present when somebody fainted? It’s scary, because nobody knows which word to use. It’s that bad. Seriously, many well-educated people stumble over this one! Conscious is an adjective, meaning aware, awake, or sometimes on purpose. Use this one if somebody faints. It might help to think of other state of mind words that have the same ending, like serious, or delirious. Conscience is your sense of right and wrong. It rhymes with sense.

a.  Conscience:  After he killed the man, his conscience wouldn’t let him sleep at all.

b.  Conscious:  After he fell down on the sidewalk, he was always conscious.

4. Fewer and Less: If you can get this one right, you’ll be ahead of most of the English-speaking population. You’ll hear this mix-up all over the media. Few and fewer refer to objects that can be numbered. Less refers to a quantity of something non-specific. It might help to think of less as a lump word.

a.  Fewer:  Fewer birds migrated to Panama this year.

b.  Less:  Because of the drought, the cows produced less milk.

5. It’s and Its: The apostrophe in it’s poses a real problem for some people. Many people think of possession when they see it. But it’s is a contraction, meaning it is or it has. It might be helpful to think of the possessive pronoun its in a group with hers or his. No apostrophe.

a.  It’s:  At these prices, it’s impossible to make ends meet.

b.  Its:  He was so angry, he pounded its own body.

6.  To and Too: This is probably the most common problem pair, but once you get the difference, it seems so simple.   To is a preposition that indicates place or direction, but it also can be used in front of a verb to make an infinitive, like  to eat or to swim. Too is an adverb meaning excessively or additionally. Either way, this word indicates an extra amount. Just think of the extra o in too.

a.  To:  I have to go to work every day.

b.  Too:  You’re coming from your friend’s  parties too late.  I have to talk to your father about it.

7. Whose and Who’s: This is a tough one for me.  Again, the apostrophe in who’s creates confusion, because it tricks people into thinking it indicates possession. It doesn’t.  Who’s is the contraction for who is while whose is the possessive form of who.

a.  Whose:  Whose turn is it to pitch the ball to the catcher?

b.  Who’s:  Who’s going to tell her parents about the accident?

If you can learn how to use these problem words correctly, you’ll certainly make a greater impression on your  readers. Your blog will stand out and look so much more professional when you avoid common mix-up’s like it’s and its. Remember that practice makes perfection.  Good Day.

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To Hyphenate or Not to Hyphenate, That is the Question

Another confusing area of the English language, is the use of dashes, hyphens and right parentheses.  This was pointed out by a dear reader of Lingua Franca. I told him it would be part of my yesterday’s homework.

For some reason, writers and editors have a tendency to overuse hyphens.  They won’t lose an opportunity to put these horizontal characters in their work, even if they don’t need them.

Below are thirty words that should not be hyphenated, even though you will find them split in half in many Web sites. Maybe at one time these words were hyphenated, but they aren’t any more.

backstabbing
breakup (noun)
breathtaking
comeback (noun)
counterintuitive
downright
hobnob
latchkey
mainstream
midweek
nevertheless
newfound
nighttime
nonetheless
nonstop
overdo
overexpose
overpriced
overrated
oversized
postpartum
preteen
rendezvous
roundup (noun)
secondhand
sidekick
sightseeing
sourpuss
straightforward
woebegone

I’m keeping this list handy.  It’s a good writing reference for my future posts.  How skillful are you with hyphens?  Good Day.

Source:  30 Words That Don’t Need a Hyphen – Terribly Write

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Understanding English

During my English classes with Miss Florence McLaughlin at the Farm #8 School in Changuinola, Bocas del Toro during the Jurassic Period, I paid little attention to punctuation.  My main interests were composition, grammar, verb conjugation, and spelling.  I don’t know why, but punctuation seemed so insignificant.  As I plunged deeper into the language, I knew I was dead wrong.  Punctuation is just as important as all of the above.

Below are some common mistakes many people make when they write in English.  Let’s take a look:

1. Apostrophe for Plurals

This mistake is particularly common among foreigners who are learning English as a second language.  The apostrophe is used to form contractions (e.g., It’s going to rain) and to indicate possession (e.g., John’s laptop is gorgeous, but never to form plurals.

Wrong: The bear’s will come tonight to eat our food.

Right:  The bears will come tonight to eat our food.

2. The Comma Splice

When a comma is used to separate independent clauses, there must be a conjunction connecting them. If we decide not to use the conjunction, then we need to place a coma splice. You can  use a period instead of the comma, or by adding a coordinating conjunction.

Wrong: The computer is exactly what I need, I’m going to buy it.

Right. The computer is exactly what I need. I am going to buy it.

Right: The computer is exactly what I need, and I am going to buy it.

3. Quotation Marks for Emphasis

In English, quotation marks are are mainly used to quote speech, sentences or words.  They can also be used to denote irony.  They should not be used to create emphasis.  If you want to emphasize a word, use the boldface type and not the quotation marks.  I often make this mistake and promise to be more careful in the future.

Wrong: This bicycle  is “broken”!

Right: This bicycle is broken!

4. Multiple Punctuation Marks

If you want to write correctly, avoid mutiple punctuation marks, like exclamation points or the ellipsis (which should have only three dots).  I see this mistake almost everyday when I surf the Web.  Exclamation points are not used that frequently in business and formal writing. If your text is loaded with them, you probably should review it.

Wrong: This photograph is beautiful!!!!

Right:  This photograph is beautiful!

Wrong:  The old lady looked at me with deep sadness……..

Right:  The old lady looked at me with deep sadness…

5. Punctuation Outside the Quotation Marks

In American English, other punctuation are included inside the quotation marks, even if it is not part of the quotation itself. British English, on the other hand, places punctuation that is not part of the quoted sentence outside of the quotation marks.

Wrong in American English: My eldest son said, “I’m going to skate tonight”.

Right in American English:  My eldest son said, “I’m going to skate tonight.”

6.  The Use of Commas After Introductory Elements

Sometimes we want to give an introduction or provide a background to a certain sentence. That is fine, but don’t forget to place a comma after that introductory element.

Wrong:   Before going out to take photographs he made sure his batteries were charged.

Right:  Before going out to take photographs, he made sure his batteries were charged.

Remember that proper English is not only being careful with your grammar, typos, spelling or composition.  Punctuation is also part of the equation of good English written communication.  Good Day.

Source:  Six Common Punctuation Errors that Bedevil Bloggers – Daniel Scocco

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Lingua Franca’s New Content for 2010

For the last two years I’ve written posts based on what I like, and so far, the readers’ response has been favorable.  However, this is not fair.  I should write based on the reader’s preferences, instead of my own.  The truth of the matter is, that the customer is king.

Based on the above, I have decided to request your feedback of what themes you would like to be in included in future posts of Lingua Franca. I’ll do this by setting up a poll with suggested topics.  This will give me a good idea of what you’re interested in reading.  If I concentrate on those issues, I could meet your expectations; and if I work hard, enough, I could even exceed those expectations—fingers crossed.

Here we go.

I you have any further suggestions that you would like me to take heed for next year, please let me know.  Remember, that “customer is king”. Good Day.

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