A couple of literary devices

A question of literary devices was raised by kid prepping for the English Regents. Looking for a comprehensive list, I found http://literary-devices.com. I like the contrasting terms: polysyndeton and asyndeton. The former is the term for adding in conjunction even where they usually would be absent, like "Tom and Dick and Harry," if you want to stress each one separately rather than presenting them as a collective unit. Asyndeton refers to dropping the conjunction for greater impact as in the expression, "Reduce, reuse, recycle." That could also account for the memorable quality of "We came, we saw, we conquered."  

Beautiful marketing

"The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw." Havelock Ellis's statement fits Dove's "real beauty" marketing campaign, which you can read about in my latest CMOsite post.

Do you picture a robot as your audience?

Writing for Robot Readers: assessing automated assessment. My latest post for Internet Evolution at http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=1402&doc_id=243299&piddl_msgid=633439#msg_633439

A possible solution for the perennial parking problem.

 See my latest post for All Analytics on the combination of analytics and pricing put into effect to ease congestion caused by people in search of an available parking spot.

Just me and my keyboard

Do you consider writing a solitary activity, one that exemplifies the writer as an artist figure who stands alone, outside society? Or do you see it as the product of more than your mind alone? These are some of the questions that arise in my post: http://uncommoncontent.blogspot.com/2012/04/working-alone.html

Hopefully

I am old enough to remember being taught not to confuse "hopeful" with "I hope" or "we hope." I was also taught to draw a distinction between "healthy," which is what we hope to be, and "healthful," which was the correct term to describe the foods and activities that would contribute to our health. Ever hear anyone describe a low-fat diet as "healthful" today? No, people call it "healthy," and talk about eating "healthy" all the time. People also rarely use the term "hopefully" to mean "with hope," as they are usually using as a short form of "may it be so.

" A Washington Post article on the AP's official stamp of approval on the adjective "hopefully" functioning as "“It is hoped, we hope,” as it had to succumb to popular usage gave rise to an article in The Atlantic tthat argues that no regrets are necessary. Key quotes from the WP: "After all, 'English was created by barbarians, by a rabble of angry peasants,' McIntyre says. 'Because if it wasn’t, we would still be speaking Anglo-Saxon.' Or worse, French."
 Key quote from the Atlantic: "What this means is that in language and in clothing, there is no single standard any more, except at publications that rely steadfastly on a style guide and have the resources and skilled copy editors to enforce it. Often the issue is not the garment or the word, but how the wearer or user carries it off.

"This is the argument of those who take the attitude of anything goes, so long as meaning is effectively conveyed, against language purists who believe in preserving forms and Latin structures -- the type of people who are offended by split infinitives. I fall out somewhere in between the two extremes of these positions.

Measuring data

What women want according to analytics. My latest post at AllAnalytics.
 Though jeans that fit properly do not make the top 10 list, apparently they are enough of a concern to warrant high tech scanning for measurements of the body to correlate with that of the garment.  That's what my latest CMOsite post is about.