People have a horrible tendency to write nonsense in press releases. Hype words and frankenquotes make them almost unreadable. People often use words like science loanwords ‘quantum leap’ wrongly.
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Motherfoucault! How to write better academic papers
“Academics get paid for being clever, not for being right.”
— Donald Norman
The worst academic writing is notorious for using complicated words, impenetrable theories and name dropping. It makes academia feel like it’s a closed shop or religious cult where you can’t get on unless you know the secret handshake and use the right jargon.
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How to write like a hacker
The world of computer hackers can seem as alien as ancient Greece or nuclear physics. But it’s worth trying to understand the geniuses behind the internet as well as the mindset of the minority of hackers who turn bad. Who knows, perhaps you’ll discover your inner geek?
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Geeks: how to write for a non-technical audience
‘Two peoples divided by a common language.’
George Bernard Shaw said this about the British and the Americans, but the same can be said of anoraks and suits. Writing for a non-technical audience is a skill often lost on the geeks among us, but I’m happy to provide a cheat-sheet.
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