A logline is a brief summary of a story that is designed to hook the reader. Ideally, it is one sentence long. I recently entered another writing contest, where the challenge was to write a logline. Not just any logline, but a really bad logline. The rules were it had to be one sentence and […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. We’ll never know if there was any connection, but when my son, Dan, was playing college hockey, he began experiencing lower back pain. The common advice to “take it easy and rest” was not helping, so we embarked on a more intentional course of action, pursuing every nonsurgical recommendation provided. […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Last month I shared that our house took a minor lightning hit, resulting in the need to call our satellite television provider and telephone/Internet provider. The satellite provider understands how to provide great customer service; the phone company does not. Though my business line was unaffected, our home phone had […]
Each weekday I’m treated to a new vocabulary word that arrives via email. It is called “A Word A Day” and is provided by author, speaker, and linguaphile (word lover) Anu Garg. Starting 1994, the subscriber list is now over a million strong. Although the words shared have little chance of being added to my […]
In sports, such as the Olympics, results are often ascertained objectively by quantitative measurements, such as time, distance, or score. Other competitions are determined in a more subjective manner based on the qualitative opinions of judges. To help screen out possible bias or bad judgment, multiple judges are used, with the highest and lowest scores […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I’ve been thinking a lot lately about customer service via the telephone, even more so than usual. There are some things that I am excited about, while others are a concern. On the negative side, consider a large telecommunications company that provides cell phone, Internet, and long distance. Another is […]
I’ve been wanting to talk about writer’s block for quite some time, but I don’t know what to say. Actually, I do know; it’s just that I don’t want to irritate readers because I don’t think I’ve ever truly had writer’s block. That doesn’t mean everything I write flows effortlessly and without delay. It doesn’t […]
Use Customer Communications to Strengthen the Business Relationship, Not Ruin It By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Back in the days when I had a physical phone line, my provider changed names. I’m still not sure if this was the result of new ownership or merely a rebranding effort. Regardless, there was much hype surrounding this news, […]
Check out the I write like website (iwl.me). The premise is simple. You paste some you work into a text box and click “analyze.” The site will then tell you what famous author you write like. It is most interesting, but I’m not sure if it is much more. In testing a half a dozen […]
There are reportedly fourteen punctuation marks. Unfortunately, the lists I consulted do not completely agree. Some include “braces” while others list a “slash.” With consensus on the other thirteen, that makes a possible total of fifteen punctuation marks. Here are my thoughts on all fifteen: Comma: I use them, more then I should, and always […]