Nelson was born with the umbilical cord around his neck, causing oxygen starvation to his brain. He was slower in learning during the early years of childhood and his parents were encouraged to place him in a school for children with special needs. The parents were disappointed with the results, or rather the lack of … Continue reading Learning the wrong lesson
Learning
Foreign to Familiar
The Delta flight was leaving on time. Three of us were strapped in, one next to the other, each finding it easy to make small talk. As the plane lifted off, so did our burdens of office work. We were off to Glorietta, New Mexico, for a week-long conference, and our minds were filled with … Continue reading Foreign to Familiar
Don’t tell your Mom
The teacher told her class: “Your parents probably won’t understand what we’ve been talking about, so it would be better if you didn’t tell them about it.” One of the students in that class was the teenaged daughter of a co-worker. I could tell that her Mom was not impressed when she talked about it … Continue reading Don’t tell your Mom
Effective Words
It is not a simple thing to learn how to use words to say exactly what one wants to say in the most effective way possible. But the words themselves should be simple. Here is some of the best writing advice I have come across. The first two were written by Canadians, the third by … Continue reading Effective Words
The right and wrong use of statistics
[This is an article I wrote a year ago for The Business Bulletin.] A few weeks ago I went into a small town branch of the Royal Bank of Canada with a cheque received for some translation work. The cheque was in US dollars and I asked the teller to convert it to Canadian dollars, … Continue reading The right and wrong use of statistics
Show, don’t tell
Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the sensation of being rained upon. E. L. Doctorow
Why a child should not be king of the home
There are widely divergent views on child training in North America – ranging all the way from a laissez faire attitude (let the child alone and she will figure things out on her own), to the harsh disciplinarian (if you want a child to learn how to behave you need to spank him once a … Continue reading Why a child should not be king of the home
The Editorial Burden That Weighs on the Author
This is the title of an excellent article on the need for editing, posted today by C.S. Lakin. Every aspiring writer should take this seriously, including myself. We have a natural tendency to be blind to the flaws in our own writing. You will find the article here.
Tongue-tied no more
I was painfully shy in my younger days. The only child of older parents, I wandered the hills of our farm anddeveloped a lively imagination but felt inhibited in communicating with adults or in a large group. In high school we had to give speeches once a year. I was good at researching and preparing … Continue reading Tongue-tied no more
A sense of wonder
There are sober and serious Christians who object to C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books and Tolkien’s Hobbit books on the ground that they are not real life stories. To which I would ask “Is this visible world all there is to real life?” Children are aware that there are unseen forces influencing the events around them. … Continue reading A sense of wonder
Flatlander Faith 