Tag Archives: Writing

Dashes

Posted on 2023-03-15 by jcs

It will not be news to Irreal partisans that we here at Irreal are enamored of em-dashes. Some say that they are seldom used but I love em-dashes and probably tend to overuse them. Back in the dark ages before … Continue reading →

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Rich Stevens

Posted on 2022-06-15 by jcs

One of my heroes, perhaps my greatest hero was Rich Stevens. The other day, someone posted a link on reddit to a Salon article about Stevens published a year after his death. It made me remember my huge debt to … Continue reading →

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Structuring Writing as a List

Posted on 2022-03-20 by jcs

Posting to Irreal everyday means I do a lot of writing and spend a lot of time thinking about how to structure a few words into an intelligible whole. Over at DYNOMIGHT there’s a post that takes an interesting view … Continue reading →

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Words and Ideas

Posted on 2022-02-13 by jcs

Paul Graham has a new essay up that discusses words and ideas. It’s an interesting piece that reminds me of one of my favorite quotes. The quote from Daniel Boorstin—a University of Chicago historian and the 12th Librarian of Congress—is … Continue reading →

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More on Webster’s Revised Dictionary

Posted on 2022-01-08 by jcs

Last week, in Draft 4 Revisited, I remembered James Somers’ wonderful article on You’re probably using the wrong dictionary. The right dictionary, it turns out, is Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828) but you really need to read Somers’ … Continue reading →

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Draft 4 Revisited

Posted on 2022-01-01 by jcs

It’s New Years day and a lot of you are probably in no mind for an over stimulating rant on one of Irreal’s hobby horses or perhaps even a technical discussion so, instead, I offer a reprise of one of … Continue reading →

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Red Meat Friday: The Oxford Comma

Posted on 2021-12-24 by jcs

There’s a particularly odious type of reprobate who refuses to use the Oxford comma. A subset of the type can claim ignorance as a mitigating factor but, sadly, the majority of the transgressors do so with full knowledge and understanding … Continue reading →

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Red Meat Friday: Spaces After a Sentence

Posted on 2021-10-08 by jcs

Today’s Red Meat Friday is about the “correct” number of spaces after a sentence. Irreal has written about this before, most recently here, but all of you were familiar with the controversy long before Irreal opined on the matter. Oddly, … Continue reading →

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Book Publishing with LaTeX and Pandoc

Posted on 2021-03-17 by jcs

Dan Grec was a software engineer who gave it all up for adventures of a different kind. Now he drives his Jeep all around the world living the life he’d always dreamed of. He’s also published a couple of books … Continue reading →

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The Webster 1913 Dictionary

Posted on 2020-10-04 by jcs

If you’ve been around for a while, you may remember my Draft #4 post from 5 years ago. That post explained why you’re probably using the wrong dictionary and why the correct dictionary is the Webster 1913 + 1828. The … Continue reading →

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