Insights
For over a decade we have been sharing our expertise through our bimonthly newsletter, the Red Pony Express.
Latest insights
Featured insights
For over a decade we have been sharing our expertise through our bimonthly newsletter, the Red Pony Express.
Ever wondered why we call it a trailer when it comes before the movie? Or why we refer to anonymous or unknown people as John or Jane Doe. These and many other topics to do with language are the heart and soul of A Way with Words, a podcast that’s all about ‘language and how we use it’.
In his ode to a particularly Australian style of Christmas, Paul Kelly gave a recipe for How to make gravy (‘Just add flour, salt, a little red wine / And don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang’). For Christmas lunch, I will be in charge of the Christmas ham, as well as making the seasonal drink using Adam Liaw’s delicious cherry chinotto cordial recipe. All of this got me thinking about the art and science of writing recipes.
In broadcasting, you’re instructed to avoid ‘dead air’. If you’re applying for a job, you may be dreading the question about that gap in your resumé. Why are we so scared of a little blank space?
The tower of unread books on my bedside table is growing. And with it, my guilt. I consider myself a ‘reader’, not someone who smugly displays books but never cracks the spines!
By going back to a novel written more than 20 years earlier and annotating it by hand with what she liked and what she would now change, author Ann Patchett offers a fascinating insight into the creative writing process.
PowerPoint’s inventors imagined a simple aid to verbal communication, yet now it has mutated into its own genre and embedded itself in the DNA of corporate and government communications. Is PowerPoint doomed to an eternity in the icy depths of workplace ennui?