It’s been over two years since I went freelance and everybody says that it takes about that long to get yourself properly up and running. So how am I doing? Pretty good. There are things that are going well, and things that I definitely need to improve on. If you’ve been toying with the idea,Read more about Freelancing, it’s not for everyone, but I think it’s for me[…]
I’ve delved into the ever-changing nature of languages a little before on this blog (see here) but a chance find in a Welsh charity shop, for the bargain price of 50p I might add, has had me swimming back upstream into the earliest origins of the tongue I know best. A book for the beginnerRead more about A quick dip into English past[…]
An unexpected plus of freelancing has been that I’m constantly dipping into very different technological worlds that I wouldn’t know about otherwise. There is so much new stuff out there, it’s mindboggling… I have to be selective and just pick a few things that have caught my non-expert eye. A quick whistle-stop glimpse of interestingRead more about Ten technologies to watch out for[…]
News cycles being what they are, there is a risk that this week’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report will create a stir for a few days and then humanity will continue destroying the planet as usual. This might be cynical, but the science has been unequivocal for decades, yet the world has marchedRead more about 12 years to save the planet – or fiddle while Rome burns[…]
I must have read or written thousands upon thousands of press releases in my time and I’m constantly amazed at how many releases make basic errors that reduce their chances of getting attention. Years ago, many newsrooms would place the fax machines conveniently above the bin, as ‘real news’ was that sourced by the journalists.Read more about 10 tips for better press releases[…]
One of joys of having your own blog is that it prompts you to write. So far, I’ve blogged on profession-related issues but I thought I’d strike out in a different direction just for the sheer joy of it. Archaeology was my first love, and despite not being plucky enough to opt for a careerRead more about Cheddar Man – a fascinating step in the human journey[…]
TV and radio journalists often pride themselves on being able to skewer their slippery politician victims and expose their half-truths, omissions, and economies with the truth. For many years, politicians retreated into repeated soundbites, in the hope that however foolish the interview, the bit that got on the news would be the thirty seconds ofRead more about Is the blog you are reading biased? (Part 3)[…]
It is an instinctive thing for native speakers of English to order adjectives in a certain way, but difficult to explain to non-native speakers. We might say ‘an attractive lawyer’, or ‘a female lawyer’ but when we put the two adjectives together we will say ‘an attractive female lawyer’ not ‘a female attractive lawyer’. ItRead more about Why is it ‘brave new world’ not ‘new brave world’?[…]
Actually, I don’t put photos of my dinner on Facebook, but I suppose what I am asking is how far should we integrate our personal and professional lives across our various social media channels? How much we share about our lives at work is always a personal question, most of us share a lot withRead more about Should I put a photo of my dinner on LinkedIn?[…]
English is such a tricky language to pronounce if you only have the written word to go by. Often not only are the letters in the words unhelpful in arriving at a pronunciation, but the same letters in the same combination are pronounced differently. I mean, there’s bough that rhymes with cow, rough that rhymesRead more about How do you say it??[…]