Author Archives: Robert Basil

To slough and to slither

The xkcd webcomic is very entertaining. (h/t language log)

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Business Communications course ‘in a box’ – terrific resource

My colleagues at Kwantlen Polytechnic University have been really rising to the occasion during the pandemic, in all ways. I’m especially impressed, as an editor, by how prolific and intelligent their publishing ventures have been. Here’s another super-helpful one. My … Continue reading

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Flagging the #tags

It’s not just the photos available for viewing and sale by the Magnum Agency but how they are tagged: Magnum Photos, one of the world’s most celebrated photographic agencies, is to re-examine the content of its archive of more than … Continue reading

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RIP Geoff Nunberg

I aspired to rise to the level of acumen, clarity, and courtesy of this marvelous linguist, knowing of course that I could never get close. Listen to some of Nunberg’s commentaries for NPR’s “Fresh Air” program. — 22 August: The … Continue reading

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Editing for a civil society

Friend of No Contest Communications Chet Wisniewsiki, a principal research scientist at Sophos, woke me up with this short thread earlier this week:

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On collaboration

Richard Rogers upon meeting Lorenz Hart for the first time:  “I left Hart’s house having acquired in one afternoon a career, a partner, a best friend and a source of permanent irritation.” Their song “My Funny Valentine” is something of a … Continue reading

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The root of beauty …

… is boldness, wrote Pasternak. “That is what’s brought us to one another.” Apropos: After Wolfgang Pauli had given a colloquium on some ideas related to particle physics, Pauli said to Neils Bohr: “You will probably think that what I … Continue reading

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“Business Writing for Everyone”

My summer 2020 first-year students will be getting their textbook for free – Business Writing for Everyone, put together by my colleague Arley Cruther’s. It’s a wonderful resource that will make my teaching better without a doubt. Arley’s “Adaptation Statement” … Continue reading

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Journalism needs a better metaphor

NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen writes that “exposure” is a “metaphor that increasingly misleads. I refer to the image of ‘exposure’ as a description of what the press does, should do, or isn’t doing well enough. To expose wrongdoing, incompetence, … Continue reading

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