Stretch Your Mind with Palindromes
Palindrome is complex concept.
For our purposes of writing well, consider a palindrome a word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, or poem that reads the same backwards or forwards. Then realize that palindromes show up in other sciences and arts too: math, acoustics, and music to name a few.
Hüsker Dü‘s concept album Zen Arcade contains the songs “Reoccurring Dreams” and “Dreams Reoccurring,” the latter of which appears earlier on the album but is actually the intro of the former song played in reverse.
Back to letters…
“Mom” is a palindrome. Short words simplify the idea. Look at these…
- Dad
- Level
- Redder
- Racecar
- Diefied
Notice that, for palindromes, punctuation doesn’t count. Capitalize any letter; place spaces and punctuation marks anywhere. Consider letters exclusively. Check out these short sentences:
- Rise to vote, Sir.
- Name now one man.
- Never a foot too far even.
- Pull a bat, I hit a ball up.
- Yawn a more Roman way.
Quirky, fun, weird: yep. But…
4 Reasons to Avoid Passive Verbs in Your Writing
Every first time someone asks me “What do you think of my writing?” I worry a little.
People are sensitive. We equate our writing with our personal, inner value. A writing critique seems to equate to “Since he doesn’t like my writing, he doesn’t like me.”
Don’t worry: I like you even if I despise your use of passive verbs. I expect too many passive verbs in every writer’s writing and I’m right… almost every time (even with me).
Say something.
Talking proves that we use an active voice. I bet you used more active verbs than passive ones.
When we turn from speaking to writing, somehow we switch. We fill pages with passivity. We don’t speak like that, but when we get ours hands on a pen or a keyboard, we fill space… too much space.
Passive verbs are great for filling space.
Or, said another way (and to sneak in an example of better writing)…
Passive verbs fill space.
Why Avoid Passive Verbs?
- They’re boring.
- They’re inaccurate.
- They are used to make sentences much longer than they need to be.
- They are important.
See?
Each of the reasons above use a passive verb: are. The first two hide it in a contraction, but it’s there.
Hello Writing Well World!
Twice. This blog has thrived; then I erased it. Thrived and erased.
So it goes…
I wrote about politics and web design, martial arts and healing powers. Politics, at some point, bore me; it’s all the same, year after year. Web design intrigues me; it gets better and better looking. Martial arts and healing arts are my forte. Really.
All of it, at least in terms of the internet, requires writing.
The new face of SRS Blog focuses on writing well.
On occasion, we’ll dip into other subjects.
Enjoy.
