I’ve been banging this drum for some time now—and it appears that the eggheads are finally on my side. From a paper co-authored by Jan Fields, senior lecturer in economics at the School of Economics and Finance, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand:

We have shown that writing matters. Making the writing easier to understand causes economists to evaluate academic papers more positively. This finding has obvious implications. To improve your chances of publishing well, you can work on your writing by, for example, spending time polishing your paper and paying for language editing. These efforts are likely to be particularly valuable if you find writing challenging.

Bonus! Appendix B, “Language Editing Guidelines for Experiment,” which begins on page 38 of the paper, contains some pretty helpful information on how to write more clearly—or, in the words of the authors, “so that an expert who has 10 minutes to evaluate the paper will understand it more easily.”

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I felt pretty good about the state of the world after reading this piece over at Axios this morning.

No, really—I mean, if 98.5 percent of the U.S. population isn’t watching Fox News or MSNBC on an average weeknight, then maybe there’s hope! Maybe we’ll survive after all! Maybe…

Yeah, never mind. We’re still doomed.

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So it’s International Women’s Day today. If you’re curious as to what it’s all about, I recommend not visiting the official website, where instead of being inspired by real women doing real things, you’ll learn that “gender parity is forged through synergy” and be encouraged to #BreakTheBias. (There’s even a #BreakTheBias pose, which looks suspiciously like something Deadpool, Wolverine, Black Panther, and Wonder Woman have all done at one time or another.)

Think I’ll just celebrate by watching one of my favorite women—Lisa Bella Donna—live in the studio. Then maybe read some Jorie Graham this evening, preferably while drinking a Hanky Panky.

One thing you can be certain I won’t be doing is striking any sort of pose. Unless “Vogue” comes on the radio.

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With apologies to the missus, who professed to be “oogling” something this morning,* the correct word is ogle, pronounced oh-guhl.

I bring this up because ogle is already a bit…problematic, shall we say? According to my copy of the OED, it means to eye “amorously, admiringly, or lecherously.” There’s a lot of daylight between those words, so I’m not entirely sure how one can safely use ogle in a sentence without at least the tiniest possibility of creating misunderstanding.

Merriam-Webster even goes so far as to suggest that ogle could mean “greedy or interested attention,” e.g. “Courtney ogled the breakfast burrito.” But I for one would choose another verb.

*Not me. I swear.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

Color me shocked: Everything we in the West think we know about China’s famed Shaolin Temple dates all the way back to…the 1970s. And we have the TV show Kung Fu to thank for that.

What’s more, the former school for Secular Disciples “licenses its name to anything and everything, even including instant noodles, coffee, take-out foods, tea, car tires, beer, and cigarettes, pulling in untold volumes of cash.”

Can I admit to being a little disappointed? I generally dig Brian Dunning’s work over at Skeptoid—particularly when he’s calling B.S. on questionable legislation or Gwyneth Paltrow’s “nonsense products”—but I sometimes feel like the cold, hard light of truth, when he’s shining it on cool stuff like aliens and pyramids and the Great Kentucky Meat Shower, makes the world a little less interesting and mysterious.

As a college friend of mine used to say, “If ignorance is bliss, then stupidity must be ecstasy.”

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

While my official title is “senior copywriter,” part of my job involves editing or proofreading others’ words—work that has done little to restore my hope in the American education system.

The worst offense—by far—is random capitalization. It’s bad, folks. I see people writing things like “The Company saw a 3% increase in revenue last year,” and “I earned a BS in Mathematics,” and “CK is President of the local chapter of the Donnie and Marie Fan Club.” (For the record, it’s company, mathematics, and president.)

Look, I understand that all the rules—and all the exceptions to all those rules—can be a little daunting. So just remember this one: Proper nouns (particular people, places, or things) are capitalized. Common nouns aren’t. That’s it.

So:

Courtney traveled to San Diego via Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner.

In this example, Courtney is a particular person who went to a particular place aboard a particular company’s particular conveyance (note that names of ships, trains, aircraft, and the like are usually italicized).

Swap all those proper nouns with common nouns, though, and you’ll get something like:

The woman took the train south.

See the difference? When it’s just a rando hitching a ride, the only thing you capitalize is the first word in the sentence.

If you find yourself questioning whether it’s a common or a proper noun, ask yourself if it’s the name of something or just the thing itself. If it’s the former, capitalize away. If not, don’t you dare hit that “shift” button.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  comments(2)

With nothing but a steady hand and a squirrel-hair brush, Mark Court does what no one else can. And when you consider that he’s doing it on cars that start at more than $300,000, his one-of-a-kind skill is even more remarkable.

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Werner Herzog: “Mankind’s problems started the moment humans abandoned a nomadic existence, became sedentary, and began building permanent settlements.”

Note: If you’ve already seen all of Herzog’s films—and even if you haven’t—do yourself a favor and get a copy of his book Of Walking in Ice.

Note on the previous note: If you’re wondering who’s behind the sublime music in those films, it’s Popol Vuh. Start with In den Gärten Pharaos (1971).

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