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Writing sketches

Explore sketches, drawings, and illustrations that simplify ideas related to Writing.

The Repeated Word Illusion using "I love Paris in the the Springtime" with a repeated "the" set in a pyramid layoutThe Repeated Word IllusionWhat is chiasmus? Illustration showing JFK's quote "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" arranged as A-B-B-A symmetry of thoughts.ChiasmusF-Shaped Reading of content on the web from eye-trackingF-Shaped ReadingThe writer's in the writing, the artist's in the art visual showing a red writer writing red words in a book, and a blue painter painting a canvas of The Wave in blueThe Writer's in the Writing. The Artist's in the Art.Word spectrum examples and explanation showing what is a word spectrum as gradations of description and examples of different word spectrums for size, frequency, talk volume, intelligence and tasteWord spectrumMe or I illustration: explaining when to use me or I through an example with owners of a cottage lending a bike to Nicky and me, and Nicky and I then cycling to a beach down a winding road.Me or IRAS Syndrome illustration: Redundant Acronym Syndrome shown with a person using their PIN Number in an ATM MachineRAS SyndromeThe Pyramid Principle - Barbara Minto: a muddled message of a burst water main becomes clear that the school is closed when someone uses the pyramid principleThe Pyramid PrincipleFortnightly: a person considers whether 'biweekly' really means "twice a week" or "every two weeks" and resolves to use fortnightly for "every two weeks" in the future.FortnightlyAnadiplosis illustration. Yoda speaks his famous lines: Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering—on a dusty desert planet with two moonsAnadiplosisBraille reading and writing system: the letters of the alphabet in english braille showing how it's constructed from 6 dotsBrailleWhen to use advise vs advice, licence vs license, practice or practice explained. Fellow devising a device as a way to illustrate how Devise, Advise, License, and practise (with an s) are all verbs in British English and device, advice, licence and practice (with a c) are all nounsAdvise vs advice and other s and c'sWhat does pleonasm mean? An unexpected surprise seeing a personal friend in a museum with exact replicas and free giftsPleonasmThe first draft is always perfect: A person creating multiple drafts of a sketch before reaching the one that hangs on the wallThe first draft is always perfectHappy Talk Must Die example: explained with an example web page with lots of useless happy talk and a person thinking blah blah as they look for the payments buttonHappy talk must dieShort Words Are Best illustration: A quote by Winston Churchill, about how using short words is best, appears next to an iconic portrait of the man himself wearing a Homburg hat and bow-tie, whilst smoking a big cigar.Short words are bestThe Rhyme As Reason Effect illustration: whilst on a stroll, one friend shrewdly convinces the other about how aphorisms that rhyme tend to be more believable, by including a rhyme in their statement. The Rhyme As Reason EffectMicro-Editing Redundant Words illustration: A list of frequently used phrases in web copy is shown, with redundant words highlighted in red. A good reminder when writing these image captions! Micro-editing redundant wordsWhat is Ablaut reduplication example explained: showing zig-zag, hip-hop, and splish-splash-sploshAblaut reduplicationBy Monkeys writing principle explained: on the left, representing passive communication, a group of monkeys climb all over a typical office work station causing havoc; seemingly without much productivity. On the right, representing active communication, a diligent worker sets to fixing a software bug. There's no sign of those pesky monkeys. By monkeysOrdering adjectives in English example - opinion, size, age, shape / colour, origin, material, purposeOrdering adjectivesCapitonym illustration: a large turkey and a map of the country Turkey shows how adding a capital changes the meaningCapitonymAcronym vs initialism illustration: comparing the acronym laser—pronounced as a word— and the initialism FBI—pronounced by saying the lettersAcronyms and initialismsMatrix of spelling and sound showing the place of homonyms, homographs, homophones, heteronyms, synonyms and antonymsHomonyms, homographs, homophones, heteronyms… Inverted pyramid writing illustration: giving a rowing sports example from the most important at the start to the details laterInverted pyramid writingWhat is Muphry's Law example explained: a reviewer of a manuscript makes a spelling mistake in their reviewMuphry’s LawHow to speak plainly illustrated by Owl-speak and Pooh-speak from Winnie-the-PoohHow to speak plainly, by Pooh BearRewrite to avoid click hereKnow your dashes, em dash, en dash and hyphen and when to use each with examplesKnow your dashes: the hyphen, en dash and em dashContranym explainedContranymQuotiquette: The etiquette of quotingHeteronym illustration with the examples: present, windy, read, and close Heteronym: spell it the same, say it differentlyTry a mindmap travel journalTry a mindmap travel journalOnly quote quotesStationary and StationeryOmit unnecessary wordsThe difference between compliment and complement explained with someone complimenting a shirt and a wine complementing a cheeseCompliment and ComplementThe best writing is re-writingWhen to use Affect vs effect: one person affects another by pushing them into the water. The effect is a big splash.Affect. Effect
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