“It’s just like playing in the world’s biggest sandbox.”
“It is a bond that links the generations together.”
“You get to be a part of history and the future.”
What are these people talking about?
They’ve written one sentence to explain why they do something. Can you guess what it is? (more…)
You may be very good at expressing your opinions, especially when you want to change someone’s mind.
What you may not know is that if you truly want to change someone’s mind, you have to stop thinking about your opinion and start thinking about your audience.
This tutorial, with a free infographic to download, will show you very clearly the difference between writing an opinion and writing to persuade an audience.
Writing or expressing an opinion is all about what you like; convincing another person to do something is all about what they need to hear to be persuaded.
Here’s an infographic that shows the difference between writing an opinion and writing to persuade. After the infographic, I’ve included a short writing exercise you can do quickly. My writing class just did it, and they had fun sharing their ideas about alligators, snow leopards, snakes, and so forth. (more…)
A drone being flown by remote control by an amateur crashed into a skyscraper in Manhattan, reeled to the sidewalk below, and struck a man.
Worried tourists atop the Seattle Space Needle called police when a drone buzzed the Needle and then returned to a nearby hotel.
This article reports that a groom was hit with a flying UAV at his wedding, and one crashed into spectators at a sporting event.
Motherboard.com reports that the DJI Phantom, the most popular commercially available drone, is a (more…)
Perhaps you’ve heard about young Brittany Maynard. She was 29, pretty, vivacious, married, a former teacher, and terminally ill with a very large cancerous brain tumor.
(more…)
Hyperbole is a lot of fun to read and to write.
But what is it?
Hyperbole (hi PER bo lee) is exaggeration, as in “He was as hefty as a whale” or “Her whining voice so electrified the air that it knocked migrating geese off their course.” To read examples of this figure of speech, click here.
Just so you know, this figure of speech is also called a writer’s device and a literary device. And, just so you also know, “writer’s device” and “literary device” mean the same thing. The first is from the writer’s perspective; the latter is from the perspective of a student studying literature.
Here’s an example of hyperbole from Lee Child’s Personal in which he describes one of the bad guys: (more…)
Writing tools for all ages!
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