Author Archives: Robert Basil

You talk just fine?

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Robert Basil

When teaching oral communications to my students, I don’t feel comfortable critiquing those who speak in “uptalk,” that habit of ending sentences with a rising inflection so that declarative sentences sometimes seem to sound like questions. To me that would … Continue reading →

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“More bad writing” …

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Robert Basil

… presented courtesy of our friend Jonathan Mayhew’s superb blog, Stupid Motivational Tricks: Scholarly Writing and How to Get It Done.” It is a lovely post that ends with this poignant sentence: “There are more objectionable sentences here that I … Continue reading →

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Changing Norms

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Robert Basil

Reuben Fischer-Baum of Jezebel has made a wonderfully entertaining GIF that presents six decades of the most popular names for girls, “state by state.” He writes: Baby naming generally follows a consistent cycle: A name springs up in some region … Continue reading →

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The copyright robots

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Robert Basil

There is a wonderful story on NPR this morning, “Record Company Picks Fight – With the Wrong Guy,” about Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, who was threatened by an Australian record label called Liberation Music with a copyright-infringement lawsuit after he posted … Continue reading →

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Mediation and Mindfulness

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Robert Basil

We chose to name this initiative No Contest Communications to highlight our vision of the collaborative workplace, where feedback is gratefully welcomed and usefully shared. Communication and imagination shouldn’t be contests. Conflict is inevitable, though, of course. When people within … Continue reading →

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Dogma versus Rules of Thumb

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Robert Basil

Language Log is an always stimulating group blog on language and linguistics, with posts that range from earworms and usage advice to research tools and sociolinguistics. The comments sections are as illuminating as the posts themselves. A recent post called … Continue reading →

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Revision : Heterovision

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Robert Basil

I tell students and clients they shouldn’t take feedback on their work as personal critiques. “You are not the words on the paper on which your reports are printed.” This seems like a straight-forward point, but even seasoned editors tend to forget … Continue reading →

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“The Canadian Style”

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Robert Basil

Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) is the nation’s official publisher and our largest translation organization. It also publishes a wonderful online style guide and a collection of writing and editing tools that will handily assist students and teachers, authors … Continue reading →

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Making your own career rules

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Robert Basil

Radhika Nagpal, a computer science professor at Harvard, has written a wonderful piece called “The Awesomest 7 Year Post-Doc or: How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Tenure Track Faculty Life.” It’s about maintaining good emotional hygiene in the academic environment. … Continue reading →

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A couple of final notes on mentoring

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Robert Basil

My posts below summarize and respond to the superb presentation given by Erin Dick at the International Association of Business Communicators World Conference in Manhattan last month. To be honest, I had intended on *missing* this presentation, believing there was little for me … Continue reading →

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