For the past 20 years, Oxford University Press has chosen a word of the year to sum up the zeitgeist of the previous 12 months. In 2024, they chose two words that describe one concept: ‘brain rot’. The publishers noted that ‘brain rot’ could be found as early as 1854 in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, the author’s reflections on living
‘Tsundoku’ is a Japanese word that describes the accumulation of a pile of unread books. It is a hybrid word from ‘dokusho’ (reading books) and ‘tsunde-oku’ (pile of things). It also brings to mind a ‘tsunami’ which tends to give readers like me nightmares similar to a popular cartoon depicting a person who has met their demise under a pile
As the name so vividly suggests, clickbait is a combination of annoyingly tempting videos, news ‘facts’, must-have knowledge and uncovered secrets – content all designed to lure you to click through to a web page and scroll on and on, inevitably while you swim through streaming margins of never-ending advertisements. Have you ever skimmed pages of someone’s childhood memories before
If you work for a company that has in-house writers who produce corporate content, you may have heard them quizzing: “Why do I need a professional proofreader when I can just use a work colleague or other friend to check my work?” This underlines a common misconception that a professional proofreader is something of an obstacle or enemy – when
It was definitely a writer braver than me who used as his novel’s title, For Whom the Bell Tolls. This phrase, lifted from a poem by John Donne, can cause writers to break into a cold sweat, seeing the word ‘whom’ hovering menacingly in print.
If you have ever tried a pudding recipe, you will understand that baking is both an art and a science – with results that can be heavenly ego-boosting or as disastrously deflating as an interrupted soufflé.
When quizzed on the difference between American and English humour, Stephen Fry said: “Comedy is the microcosm that allows us to examine the entire difference between our two cultures.”
The snow has melted and the daffodils are up. That can mean only one thing – time for the annual spring clean! Your wardrobe is one issue, but how long is it since you refreshed your reference collection?
It’s not only high-profile projects that can benefit from a proofreader.
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