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We're Humans Too Word of the Day : personnel
This noun suffered a setback in frequency when human resources became the term of art for departments responsible for employment, but it lives on in military contexts to distinguish it from materiel, and to designate people required or desired for a particular task.
How to Make Money Writing for the Web
My company, Articulate Marketing, helps big tech companies communicate better about their products and services. A large part of my work is writing editorial-style content for websites. My credentials are my work for HP, Microsoft, eBay and others. In the past couple of weeks, several people have asked me for advice about becoming a web copywriter, so here it is.
For Younger Writers
Books to inspire young writers to tell their own stories. The Young Writer's Companion Writing Magic What's Your Story? Live Writing
Dictionaries Roll Out New Words
Dictionary publishers don't get too many opportunities for creating PR buzz, but one surefire way of getting some attention is to announce the new words (and new senses of old words) that have been added in the latest update to a particular dictionary. In the past few days there have been new-word announcements for two major dictionaries, one in the US and one in the UK: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) and the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (also in its 11th edition, coincidentally enough). Let's take a look at what they're adding.
Legal Eagles
Lawyers and language don't have to be adversaries. Some blogs to help transcend legalese. The Party of the First Part Legalwriting.net Set in Style The (New) Legal Writer
Vocabulary Instruction: The Non-Amorphous Shape of Word Knowledge
The other day, my two teenage sons cajoled me into watching a movie they both find tremendously amusing. The film is not new. It's called Kangaroo Jack, and features Christopher Walken playing a small-time thug named Sal. Although Sal is the head of a bumbling crime family, he feels very insecure about his word knowledge, and throughout the film he is seen making a desperate attempt at self-improvement through the use of a tape-recorded vocabulary tutorial. In my favorite scene, a soothing female voice on Sal's tape player defines the word amorphous — having no shape or form, and then directs Sal to use the word in a sentence. Sal responds with this beauty: "After Joey Clams got whacked, his head was amorphous."
Mailbag Friday: "Hot Dog"
Welcome to the latest installment of Mailbag Friday, our new feature for answering readers' questions about word origins. For this special Fourth of July edition, we have a very timely query from Jason B. from Wilmington, DE. "I've heard a lot of stories about the origin of 'hot dog.' What's the frank truth? I await your answer with relish."
When You Reeeaaallly Want to Say Something
How can the Visual Thesaurus help students replace trite words of emphasis with "words strong in themselves"?
Capitol Words
Want to find out Topic A in the U.S. Congress on any given day? Check out Capitol Words, which computes the most frequently appearing word in the daily record. While Congress is out of session, you can browse through previous hot topics.
Web Usability and Copywriting: Making Your Visitors Feel at Home
A website is a strange beast — it is your reception area, your office, your shop, your brochure, your catalogue... And all without being able to walk into it, sit down in it, touch it. But just as you wouldn't want your customers to get lost on the way to a sales meeting in your offices, or to leave your shop in frustration because they can't find the goods they're looking for, so it is crucial that the visitors to your website can find their way around your website and get to where they want to go as easily as they can follow a sign, open a door, reach onto a shelf. The science of designing sites that work for visitors is known as usability.
Pitching Your Novel
How do you get a novel published? Some books to help you perfect your pitch. The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit Making the Perfect Pitch Give 'Em What They Want How to Publish Your Novel
Found in Translation
"Circumstances almost compel us to learn English, and this lucky accident has given us the opportunity of access into the richest of all poetical literatures of the world." It sounds like an idea that could be expressed today, but it was in fact written almost 75 years ago by a great artist who is our guest this month in the Poetry Corner.
Book Review Blogs
The book review sections of major newspapers are branching out to the blogosphere. Washington Post: Short Stack New York Times: Paper Cuts The Guardian: Books
Skedaddle, Scadoodle, Skidoo, Skadoosh!
In Sunday's Boston Globe I fill in for Jan Freeman, who writes a regular language column called "The Word." My topic is a silly new word that appears in the movie "Kung Fu Panda": skadoosh. It came from the fertile mind of Jack Black, voice of Po the Panda, who was inspired by an equally silly old slang expression, 23 skidoo. And skidoo probably came from scadoodle, which in turn is a variant of skedaddle. Whew!
The Visual Thesaurus Crossword Puzzle: June Edition
There's an extra-fiendish twist to this month's crossword puzzle. Figure it out and you could win a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt!
Introducing... The VT Spelling Bee!
We're very pleased to announce a brand-new feature: the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee! Taking advantage of our high-quality audio pronunciations, we've created a quiz that will sharpen your spelling skills and expand your vocabulary. And as everyone here in the office can attest, the quiz is downright addictive.
Acting American
Which British television actors are best at pulling off American accents? Readers of BBC's Radio Times give cheers to Hugh Laurie of "House" and jeers to Michelle Ryan of "Bionic Woman."
A Contretemps over Newspaper Vocabulary
The "Letters to the Editor" section of the Los Angeles Times has featured some heated discussion about what kind of vocabulary is suitable for printing in a newspaper. And no, this doesn't have anything to do with the "seven dirty words" famously satirized by the late lamented George Carlin. Instead, it's about some moderately challenging vocab items that you might expect to find on a Visual Thesaurus word list.
Are Newspapers Dying?
Journalism experts grapple with how the newspaper industry can survive the digital age. The Vanishing Newspaper Digital Journalism -30-: The Collapse of the Great American Newspaper Digitizing the News
Jane Austen Blogs
The cult of Jane is as strong as ever. Take a stroll through these blogs for all things Austenian. Jane Austen Today Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict Austenprose Jane Austen's World Austen-tatious
Those Who Do Not Know History Are Doomed to Fail English, Part II
Okay, y'all, last month's column wore me out. So I turned off the interweb, rested my mouse-clickin' hand, and took a nap with Julie Andrews' wonderful memoir, Home, on my chest. Now, as I promised, I'm back with more resources to help teachers get their students to grasp literature through historical context.
Mailbag Friday: "Bamboozle"
Welcome to a new feature on Word Routes: Mailbag Friday! This is where we answer your questions about the origins and evolving usage of words and phrases. If you've got a burning question, just click here and we'll do our best to address it in a future installment of Mailbag Friday. First up is Lisa W. of Smyrna, DE, who writes: "Our youngest son earned the nickname 'The Bamboozler' at an early age, for his uncanny ability to outwit his unsuspecting parents. That got me thinking, where does the word bamboozle come from?"
Pop Vs. Soda
Forget about red states and blue states... what really divides Americans is whether they call carbonated beverages pop or soda. (Or coke if you're in the South.) Check out the detailed maps on The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy to see where the battle lines are drawn on this contentious question.
Roget's Legacy: Thesaurus as Tool, Thesaurus as Crutch
In part one of our interview with Joshua Kendall, we explored how his new book The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus illuminates the mental world of Peter Mark Roget, a man who escaped the disorder of his personal life by creating a very orderly thesaurus. In the second and final installment, Josh discusses the publication of the first edition of Roget's Thesaurus in 1852 and the lasting legacy of his monumental reference work, both for good and for ill.
How to Self-Edit
Successful writers of fiction need to master the fine art of self-editing. Here are a few books to help you clean up your prose. Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing Self-Editing for Fiction Writers Write Great Fiction: Revision And Self-Editing
Thinking about Tim Russert, Red States and Blue States
The untimely passing of Tim Russert, host of NBC's Meet the Press, has led many to reminisce about his lasting influence on political reporting. Some obituaries mentioned that Russert has been credited with popularizing the terms "red state" and "blue state," to refer to states favoring Republican or Democratic candidates. Though Russert's memorable analysis of the twists and turns of the 2000 presidential election no doubt played a significant role in popularizing the "red/blue state" designations, the history of the color coding is surprisingly complicated.

Below, you'll find extensive information on leading thaisoft dictionary articles and products to help you on your way to success.

Back To The Copywriting Basics
By Mark Laing, Sat Dec 10th

You've probably read lots on effective copywriting strategies,how to utilise keywords, and various tricks of the trade formaking sure your copywriting is as effective as possible. Thisis good stuff ... anything that results in a better website isworth reading and absorbing.

However, before you learn to walk, you need to learn to crawl.Before you begin focusing on the technical aspects ofcopywriting, it's a good idea to get a handle on the basics.

With that in mind, here are a few things to keep in mind whenyou're pecking away at your keyboard, trying to come up witheffective copy for your site.

* Catch your visitor's attention right away. They'll be gone intwo seconds otherwise. * Keep it short. Keep it simple. Keep itto the point. * Along the same lines, focus. Don't try to do toomuch with one article or one page of copy. You're not a novelist- you're selling your services or product. * Use the activetense ... don't say "the product can be bought by clicking onthis link", say "click on this link to buy the product". * Don'tuse jargon. You're writing to inform, to convince and to sell,not to confuse. * If you have a choice between a small word anda big word, use the small word. * Keep a at hand, anduse it. * Know your audience. If you're targeting universityprofessors, you won't write the same kind of copy you'd aim atskateboarders (unless your target audience is skateboardinguniversity professors - in which case you've got problems). *Keep the tone consistent. If you're writing using an informal,conversational style, don't switch in midstream to a formallegalistic style. It'll throw your readers off. * Tell thetruth. Not only will

We're Humans Too Word of the Day : personnel
This noun suffered a setback in frequency when human resources became the term of art for departments responsible for employment, but it lives on in military contexts to distinguish it from materiel, and to designate people required or desired for a particular task.
How to Make Money Writing for the Web
My company, Articulate Marketing, helps big tech companies communicate better about their products and services. A large part of my work is writing editorial-style content for websites. My credentials are my work for HP, Microsoft, eBay and others. In the past couple of weeks, several people have asked me for advice about becoming a web copywriter, so here it is.
For Younger Writers
Books to inspire young writers to tell their own stories. The Young Writer's Companion Writing Magic What's Your Story? Live Writing
Dictionaries Roll Out New Words
Dictionary publishers don't get too many opportunities for creating PR buzz, but one surefire way of getting some attention is to announce the new words (and new senses of old words) that have been added in the latest update to a particular dictionary. In the past few days there have been new-word announcements for two major dictionaries, one in the US and one in the UK: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) and the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (also in its 11th edition, coincidentally enough). Let's take a look at what they're adding.
Legal Eagles
Lawyers and language don't have to be adversaries. Some blogs to help transcend legalese. The Party of the First Part Legalwriting.net Set in Style The (New) Legal Writer
Vocabulary Instruction: The Non-Amorphous Shape of Word Knowledge
The other day, my two teenage sons cajoled me into watching a movie they both find tremendously amusing. The film is not new. It's called Kangaroo Jack, and features Christopher Walken playing a small-time thug named Sal. Although Sal is the head of a bumbling crime family, he feels very insecure about his word knowledge, and throughout the film he is seen making a desperate attempt at self-improvement through the use of a tape-recorded vocabulary tutorial. In my favorite scene, a soothing female voice on Sal's tape player defines the word amorphous — having no shape or form, and then directs Sal to use the word in a sentence. Sal responds with this beauty: "After Joey Clams got whacked, his head was amorphous."
Mailbag Friday: "Hot Dog"
Welcome to the latest installment of Mailbag Friday, our new feature for answering readers' questions about word origins. For this special Fourth of July edition, we have a very timely query from Jason B. from Wilmington, DE. "I've heard a lot of stories about the origin of 'hot dog.' What's the frank truth? I await your answer with relish."
When You Reeeaaallly Want to Say Something
How can the Visual Thesaurus help students replace trite words of emphasis with "words strong in themselves"?
Capitol Words
Want to find out Topic A in the U.S. Congress on any given day? Check out Capitol Words, which computes the most frequently appearing word in the daily record. While Congress is out of session, you can browse through previous hot topics.
Web Usability and Copywriting: Making Your Visitors Feel at Home
A website is a strange beast — it is your reception area, your office, your shop, your brochure, your catalogue... And all without being able to walk into it, sit down in it, touch it. But just as you wouldn't want your customers to get lost on the way to a sales meeting in your offices, or to leave your shop in frustration because they can't find the goods they're looking for, so it is crucial that the visitors to your website can find their way around your website and get to where they want to go as easily as they can follow a sign, open a door, reach onto a shelf. The science of designing sites that work for visitors is known as usability.
Pitching Your Novel
How do you get a novel published? Some books to help you perfect your pitch. The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit Making the Perfect Pitch Give 'Em What They Want How to Publish Your Novel
Found in Translation
"Circumstances almost compel us to learn English, and this lucky accident has given us the opportunity of access into the richest of all poetical literatures of the world." It sounds like an idea that could be expressed today, but it was in fact written almost 75 years ago by a great artist who is our guest this month in the Poetry Corner.
Book Review Blogs
The book review sections of major newspapers are branching out to the blogosphere. Washington Post: Short Stack New York Times: Paper Cuts The Guardian: Books
Skedaddle, Scadoodle, Skidoo, Skadoosh!
In Sunday's Boston Globe I fill in for Jan Freeman, who writes a regular language column called "The Word." My topic is a silly new word that appears in the movie "Kung Fu Panda": skadoosh. It came from the fertile mind of Jack Black, voice of Po the Panda, who was inspired by an equally silly old slang expression, 23 skidoo. And skidoo probably came from scadoodle, which in turn is a variant of skedaddle. Whew!
The Visual Thesaurus Crossword Puzzle: June Edition
There's an extra-fiendish twist to this month's crossword puzzle. Figure it out and you could win a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt!
Introducing... The VT Spelling Bee!
We're very pleased to announce a brand-new feature: the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee! Taking advantage of our high-quality audio pronunciations, we've created a quiz that will sharpen your spelling skills and expand your vocabulary. And as everyone here in the office can attest, the quiz is downright addictive.
Acting American
Which British television actors are best at pulling off American accents? Readers of BBC's Radio Times give cheers to Hugh Laurie of "House" and jeers to Michelle Ryan of "Bionic Woman."
A Contretemps over Newspaper Vocabulary
The "Letters to the Editor" section of the Los Angeles Times has featured some heated discussion about what kind of vocabulary is suitable for printing in a newspaper. And no, this doesn't have anything to do with the "seven dirty words" famously satirized by the late lamented George Carlin. Instead, it's about some moderately challenging vocab items that you might expect to find on a Visual Thesaurus word list.
Are Newspapers Dying?
Journalism experts grapple with how the newspaper industry can survive the digital age. The Vanishing Newspaper Digital Journalism -30-: The Collapse of the Great American Newspaper Digitizing the News
Jane Austen Blogs
The cult of Jane is as strong as ever. Take a stroll through these blogs for all things Austenian. Jane Austen Today Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict Austenprose Jane Austen's World Austen-tatious
Those Who Do Not Know History Are Doomed to Fail English, Part II
Okay, y'all, last month's column wore me out. So I turned off the interweb, rested my mouse-clickin' hand, and took a nap with Julie Andrews' wonderful memoir, Home, on my chest. Now, as I promised, I'm back with more resources to help teachers get their students to grasp literature through historical context.
Mailbag Friday: "Bamboozle"
Welcome to a new feature on Word Routes: Mailbag Friday! This is where we answer your questions about the origins and evolving usage of words and phrases. If you've got a burning question, just click here and we'll do our best to address it in a future installment of Mailbag Friday. First up is Lisa W. of Smyrna, DE, who writes: "Our youngest son earned the nickname 'The Bamboozler' at an early age, for his uncanny ability to outwit his unsuspecting parents. That got me thinking, where does the word bamboozle come from?"
Pop Vs. Soda
Forget about red states and blue states... what really divides Americans is whether they call carbonated beverages pop or soda. (Or coke if you're in the South.) Check out the detailed maps on The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy to see where the battle lines are drawn on this contentious question.
Roget's Legacy: Thesaurus as Tool, Thesaurus as Crutch
In part one of our interview with Joshua Kendall, we explored how his new book The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus illuminates the mental world of Peter Mark Roget, a man who escaped the disorder of his personal life by creating a very orderly thesaurus. In the second and final installment, Josh discusses the publication of the first edition of Roget's Thesaurus in 1852 and the lasting legacy of his monumental reference work, both for good and for ill.
How to Self-Edit
Successful writers of fiction need to master the fine art of self-editing. Here are a few books to help you clean up your prose. Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing Self-Editing for Fiction Writers Write Great Fiction: Revision And Self-Editing
Thinking about Tim Russert, Red States and Blue States
The untimely passing of Tim Russert, host of NBC's Meet the Press, has led many to reminisce about his lasting influence on political reporting. Some obituaries mentioned that Russert has been credited with popularizing the terms "red state" and "blue state," to refer to states favoring Republican or Democratic candidates. Though Russert's memorable analysis of the twists and turns of the 2000 presidential election no doubt played a significant role in popularizing the "red/blue state" designations, the history of the color coding is surprisingly complicated.

you avoid being sued, but you'll achievecredibility. This translates into long term profitability. Trustus. * Similar to the last point, don't exaggerate. Kill thesuperlatives and the exclamation marks. Let the reader decide ifthey're excited or not. If you've done your job, they will be. *For website copy, use bullets and point form, and break up copywith subheads. Short attention spans and monitor-inducedeyestrain make this essential. * Forget word counts and paddingyour copy. Say what you have to say - if it only takes 150 wordsto get your message out (or 75, or even 25), that's a goodthing. You've made your point, and your reader can move on andbuy your product or service. * After you've finished writing,read your copy out loud to yourself. You'll be surprised at howmany mistakes you'll catch this way. It also lets you know ifyour writing has a natural flow to it. * Don't fall in love witha particular phrase or paragraph, no matter how great it sounds.Ask yourself, 'does it fit into the objective of my copy?' Ifthe answer is no, kill it. * Don't be happy with your firstdraft. Edit, rewrite, and edit some more. On the other hand,you're not following in the footsteps of Hemingway ... don'toveredit or overanalyze, or you'll never finish the job. * Whenyou're done, be receptive to constructive criticism. Let othersread your work before it goes online, and if they point outmistakes, rewrite.

Following the above advice will go a long way to ensuring yourweb copy is readable and does what it's supposed to do - promoteyour business.

About the author:Mark Laing is a copywriter and the content creator forhttp://www.graphicsandwords.com , a website featuring graphicdesign and copywriting resources for newslettereditors/publishers, webmasters and other creative professionals.