Book Review: See What I Mean by Kevin Cheng

The following book review was originally published in Technical Communication, Volume 60, Number 2, May 2013, the Society for Technical Communications' quarterly magazine.

See What I Mean: How to Use Comics to Communicate Ideas
Kevin Cheng. 2012. Brooklyn, NY: Rosenfeld Media. [ISBN 978-1-933820-27-9. 202 pages, including index. USD$39.00 (softcover).]

Storytelling is great for conveying information in a memorable way. Comics can make storytelling even more effective through images. See What I Mean shows you how to present business information using comics. Cheng writes, “Comics are like a Trojan horse for information” (p. 165).

See What I Mean is written for non-artists and the comics uninitiated. It starts with an overview of what comics are and how to read them, such as what a gutter is and the order to read speech bubbles. Then it details how to make comics. Cheng creates an example comic that describes the purpose of Square, a new credit card reader for smart phones. Finally, Cheng goes over how to use comics for business. Each chapter starts with an overview comic. These comics are good examples of his method.

If you give someone this book to convince them to use comics, I suggest starting them with Chapter 8, “Applying Comics.” Start with this chapter to get an idea of how you want to use comics, and then apply the ideas learned on your own work. I make comics in my spare time and wanted to get ideas about using comics in my day job. Chapters 8 and 9 were the most helpful. Also, the table of contents and the overview comics make it easy to find your information if you are not sure.

Cheng is an enthusiastic writer with an obvious passion for comics. Most of the book is spent on creating comics. Cheng is encouraging to the non-artist, but he might spend too much time convincing you that you can draw. If you are that reluctant, I do not think any amount of text will convince you. Because there are already so many great books on creating comics, I was hoping for more information on how comics can be used specifically with business.

Cheng discusses a number of benefits to using comics. Relatively speaking, creating a comic does not take much time. The skills are easy to learn. You can work with tools as simple as a pen, sticky notes, and stick figures to create a story that readers relate to. “By reducing the amount of detail in a drawing, you can encourage your reader to relate personally to what’s being presented” (p. 24). And the restrictions of the format, such as length, can help you present your idea in a concise way.

People are finding that comics are a good way to no only help them retain information, but to get them to read it in the first place. “. . .a senior user researcher at Adobe, used comics to convey her research findings...she found that more people actually spent time reading her findings” (p. 168). People will actually read our content if we format our business information to be enjoyable or entertaining.

Blacksad

Blacksad, written by Juan Diaz Canales and art by Juanjo Guarnido
Published October 20, 2010

At Stumptown last year, Abe picked up Blacksad from the Darkhorse booth. The lady there gave it such praise, he couldn't resist. And it was worth him having to carry another hardback in his backpack for hours.

The art is by Juanjo Guardino, who worked at Disney in Paris for a while, and you can telll. Amazing art in the great classic-style Disney illustration. I kept thinking of 101 Dalmations because of the style and the actual setting. Subtle watercolors add to the nostalgia. The characters are all animals with people bodies (essentially).  And Disney animal faces they are. Those expressive eyes! It was a little disconcerting to see my childhood-memory style used for such adult themes, but damn it looks good.


The book actually contains three stories that follow the cat John Blacksad. His life kinda sicks, bu he does help some people. The characters are all essentially caricatures of themselves, in a good way. Seems like a method that Eisner could get behind - the animal heads are like shorthand to the type of person we are dealing with.

The only negative I had is that the women were less animal than the men. I often couldn't tell you what animal they were supposed to be. I can always tell with the men. The women also had earrings where their human ears would be instead of on their animal ears. But these are minor complaints even though they really bugged me.

Anyways, by the end, all I wanted was more. Warning, though. These guys pull no punches and really use this animal shorthand to discuss some painful topics from that era (and now unfortunately), like racism and war crimes. Like Maus, the animal metaphors are a good way to soften teh blows into more easily managed chunks.

I assumed based on the date of the publication that I shouldn't expect more. That would be too much to ask, wouldn't it? NO! There is another one that came out this July. I will definitely be grabbing it when I can.

I like it enough, I drew a little bit of fan art.

I also did some practice by copying some of the faces in the book. Seriously good stuff - I am not that good.

Review: Understanding Color

The following was originally published in Technical Communication, Volume 59, Number 3, August 2012.

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Understanding Color: An Introduction for Designers

Linda Holtzschue. 2011. 4th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
[ISBN 978-0-470-38135-9. 259 page, including index. US$65.00 (softcover).]

Color plays a part in everyday life; designers specifically choose many of the colors. I remember learning about color in third grade; the teacher put the three primary light colors on the overhead projector to prove that color mixes differently as light than as paint. Understanding Color expands on those classes, explaining basics like the color wheel, to more complex issues like the bezold effect and fluting.

Understanding Color covers everything from what makes color to how color interacts to how designers work with color. Most of the book is about color basics, which can be a mind-boggling topic. More than one person has had a hard time wrapping their mind around light. I learned a few interesting facts. For example, the possible effect of mathematical harmony on having seven colors for the ROYGBIV (red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet) color wheel even though most people cannot distinguish indigo. “Despite his genius, Newton was a product of the seventeenth century. He may have elected to include seven colors because the number corresponded to the musical notes of the diatonic scale” (p. 135).

Holtzschue’s explanations are thorough to ensure that you use the same vocabulary. She defines that “Lamps are the principal man-made light source. ‘Lamp’ is the correct term for a light bulb. The fixture that holds the lamp is a luminaire” (p. 22). You can always have the glossary to use if you forget what a term means when it
comes up later.

Many graphics illustrate each point. Two illustrations of leaves, one blue/green and the other red/orange, illustrate that “analogous color groupings contain two primaries but never the third” (p. 75). Nearly every page has some graphic illustrating a recent idea that while not always referenced or adjacent to the related section, the caption does clearly define them.

The book’s last two chapters contain information about how color applies specifically to designers. The most important point is that “printed colors, for example, are not exactly the same as product colors; designers strive only to get the closest possible match” (p. 189). Much of the information is on the history of how designers have used color, and this is where Holtzschue discusses how to work with monitors. Yet, it seems a big oversight to not cover color-blindness in a book on color for designers. She may have skipped this information since the book does not cover how to use color. Holtzschue does explain the history of color theory and the expansiveness of the field.

I would have liked information about how to apply the various color ideas in design. A PDF workbook is available that includes a lengthy supply list and involves plenty of variation.

Understanding Color is a great place to start learning about color. It contains the information you need, how color interacts, before you start learning about color theory, and how to use color interactions for an end result.

Comic Review: Octopus Pie

Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran (There are no stars in Brooklyn (2010), and Listen at home (2011))

I got both the Octopus Pie books at the same time, which you saw a while ago if you follow me on Twitter (@lunavalse). I have seen her at a number of cons on panels and found her interesting. She has an interesting take on the web comic. She waits until a whole story line is complete (they aren’t super long) and then posts the whole thing at once. As a reader, I am not a fan of this style but that is because I am a horrible creature of habit and like to check my web comics on a set schedule by day of the week.

Anyways, I saw a comic of hers that someone linked to, Sarah Beacon on Sauceome if I remember right – I think it was a comic about peeing on a bike or something, but that sounds gross and not quite right. Anyways, I saw the comic and laughed really hard and went home and bought the books.

Octopus Pie is about a post college girl, Eve Ning, and her friends. Eve is so snarky so I quite enjoy her. Actually, she story style reminds me a lot of Questionable Content. Eve even reminds me of Faye a bit. So we follow them through their lives and they are about where I am now, or actually a few years ago, so it is really relatable for me. Hannah, an acquaintance from preschool, ends up moving in with her and they become friends. She is quite active and an instigator of lots of the commotion in the stories. Eve seems like she would quietly sit about her apartment at all times without the hyper Hannah to get her off her butt (like me). Hannah’s beau, Marek, is a great counter piece to Hanah, help provide a ground point for her. Hannah appears to still be in college, but it doesn’t come up.

The first book was more like a long meandering story even though they both have chapters. I think I noticed the chapter sections more in book 2 because she also included text describing the story: her forethoughts and afterthoughts. This included answer some questions and responding to comments that readers had when the story was originally published online. Nothing specific, but just general responses to trends she noticed, like explaining confusing points and characters.

Over the course of the first book – the art style changes. It starts out very smooth and exact. I am assuming this is digital inking. It looks great. Then towards the end, there is a story that changes to a reedy style, perhaps a nib pen. The lines are jagged and less precise. Then the next story switched to a thicker more varied line. I would guess a brush. These are probably horrible guesses but they have the looks I associated with each of those tools. I prefer the original style, but the final style she seems to have ended on is still nice.

Regardless of her line style, her character design is fun and varied. The characters have a wide range of sizes and genders and backgrounds and it is really fun to watch them all interact and piss each other off and have fun together.

I pounded through these two books in about 4 days (I did other stuff too). I adored them and I am so sad they are over. I can’t wait for the next one, whenever that will be. I want more even months later. More!! I definitely recommend these. You can even read them for free on her website, but if you like them, you should buy something from her because they are so great. She’s also got posters and shirts.

Comic Review: Hollow Fields

Hollow Fields by Madeleine Rosca

Seven Seas, 2009, $14.99

I got this book a long time ago, so I don’t really know what drew me to it, but I would assume the cute cover with the great colors.  This one is manga, I think. It follows the right to left pattern and everything. I often don’t like manga. For example, I started reading Nana and couldn’t even get far enough in to meet the second Nana. That one may have been particularly brutal, though. Brutal = ridiculously girly.

Fan art of Stinch

Hollow Fields is about a school for budding evil mad scientists – kids about 9 or 10 years old. Like a grade school or something. A normal kid accidentally gets lost and wanders into the mad scientist school without realizing. With a little help from her one friend and a little luck, she makes it through by the skin of her overly sweet teeth. In the end notes, the creator points out that she made the main popular mean girl blonde because she originally had black hair and there were too many people with dark hair. So she says instead of blonde, she has lavender hair so she doesn't fall into the blonde mean girl cliche. In the black and white art… That made me laugh. J

The story was also cutesy, maybe more cutsey than the art even. When I read it consistantly, I liked it. I put it down in the middle for almost a year, but when I picked it back up, I got right back into it.  Sometimes, it was too childish. The headmistress was forcefully sneaky, saying things like "That thing I don’t talk about" and the "secret to hollow fields" over and over even though she was in a secluded room with the person she worked on "the secret" with. The evil was also very cliché. Really, there was just lots of cliché. But with the cliché was a lot of interesting story idea that kept me enjoying it and let me get past all the cliché.

Most of the characters are girls. They are powerful and smart. The only two main fellas have their strengths – they are very smart – but that is about it. They are whiny and have a very hard time accomplishing their goals because their hands are tied by rules and bad luck.

I thought the character design was great, and as much as I often don’t enjoy manga stories, I do often like the style. It was very cutesy, but in an adorable way. Okay, sometimes it was too much. But this is a story about 9 year old or so so cutesy is appropriate.

The layouts were sometimes hard to follow. But again, this might have been a translation thing from having to switch to the right-to-left organization. I have read other manga, like Vampire Hunter D, but not enough to be used to it yet.

I bet a 10 or 11 year old girl would like this a lot. The four most main characters are all girls. While I was reading it, I was sucked in, but that’s not saying much because I had the same reaction to Twilight. Maybe that is just my reaction to guilty pleasures. If I think about it, I could take it or leave it, but while I am reading it I can’t put it down.

P.S. I did my sketches for INKtober last night, but I haven't scanned them yet. I will post them tomorrow.

Comic Review: Gingerbread Girl

Gingerbread Girl by Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin

Top Shelf Productions, 2011, $12.95

I got Gingerbread Girl because I had a vague impression that it had been the hot item for this year’s Stumptown Comic Fest, which makes sense as it was published this year by a Portland cartoonist and it is set in Portland, OR. So when I found it at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, I thought I’d at least flip through it and read the back. The art was endearing to me – a simple character style with a realistic background. And the story summarily wrapped up on the back cover was overwhelmingly intriguing. It went in the pile (along with a collection of Harvey Pekar, Freakangels (Abe’s great pick), and Chew Vol. 2).

Art: 4 stars

I enjoyed the art immensely, such smooth, fluid lines and the two tone as far as I remember (I have since lost the book somewhere in the apartment already). I really like the style with cartoony people and realistic backgrounds. The cartoony people are easier, quicker, to read and readily provide a canvas for varying emotions. Coover’s style is sort of like Julia Wertz in that juxtaposition of cartoony people and realistic backgrounds, but sweeter with softer lines as opposed to Wertz’ stark, hard lines. Coover’s style fits the story well. The pigeon at the beginning and end is particularly charming.

Story: 4 stars

Boy, will Abe hate this. It is one of those stories that goes about its business until it just stops rather than ends. By “ends,” I mean satisfactorily wraps up the storylines and characters. That was certainly not the case with Gingerbread Girl. And fortunately for me, I love that type of story. It kind of continues on in your head for a ways. This could have been a prologue to a much longer, far stranger story. It’s almost just a practice in character development. And they do it in a really interesting way by having the reader follow a variety of characters to explain their point of view on the main character. It is quite a weird set of view points since half of them don’t even know her. But as you read, each character fleshes out not only themselves, but the main character in some fashion.

Overall: 4 stars

Grab it now if you love pointless meandering stories about people who are slightly off. Off what, I can’t say. I am really glad we bought this book.

Comic Review: Creature Tech

Creature Tech by Doug TenNapel

I grabbed this bad boy from the library after reading Ghostopolis. I really enjoyed Ghostopolis and was bummed Ratfist, TenNapel’s web comic, was ending soon (it is done now, but iw till be an actual book by next year), so I got my Doug TenNapel fix here. Great choice.

Art: 4 stars

As much as I enjoyed the art in Ghostopolis and Ratfist, Creature Tech in black and white was stunning. You can really see the strength in his inking. I adored his sketchy yet detailed and precise facial expressions. The cover is mostly acid green and black – quite striking and one of my preferred color palettes in grade school. So I was almost disappointed that it was black and white inside, but it only took a couple of pages for me to stand back and say, “Whoa. That is inking.” I may have drooled a little.

Story: 4 stars

Another great story from Doug TenNapel. The story is about a smart, kind-of douche guy who gets sent to some government facility hidden in a small middle-America town to work on deciphering/cataloging artifacts the government has found. Of course, things go wrong, but it is all just this other guy invested in the dark arts being another kind of douche.

The story worries a little on religion for a bit. It involves a well-known religious artifact, but the characters actually discussing religion seemed forced, like he felt it had to be there since the religious artifact was there. It was more just odd than off-putting or distracting. Simple side notes to the story.

Again, the main character isn’t the most likeable fella. But all the characters are interesting enough with both flaws and strengths,  and the story is so wacky it is probably good that the characters, even the wacky characters, are fairly normal – except the one who brings about all the wackiness to start with. It is a nice balance. Yes, I think wacky is a nice, single description for this bizarre story.

I do wish he had gone into more detail about the love interest. I didn’t really understand the point of why she was there. I mean, I don’t think everything has to be explained and purposeful, but she had so much potential. I was really disappointed I didn’t get to learn more about her.

Overall: 4 stars

A liked this even better than Ghostopolis. The art was better, or at least more striking, and the story was more available to adults (less full-on kids’ jokes) and yet still fully accessible to your non-idiot kids. In a few years, I may have to go buy this. All this review writing has made me want to look through it again, but I had to return it to the library.

Abe also did a review here.

Comic Review: Ghostopolis

I read Ghostopolis by Doug Tenapel because I have been reading and enjoying his web comic, Ratfist. I really just grabbed it and didn’t read about it before reading the book. Though Abe warned me that it was published by Scholastic so it really is a children’s book, which is good to know but doesn’t taint the book at all.

Art: 4 stars

I enjoy the art in Rat Fist. I actually enjoyed the art in Ghostopolis even more. The art style is vibrant and active. I think the main difference is the colorist. As much as I enjoy the colors in Rat Fist – it is very appropriate to the story – I enjoyed the colors in Ghostopolis even more. The colors are vibrant but not garish.

Story: 4 stars

Again. I really enjoyed it. It is definitely a children’s story with some jokes slapped in like a made-for-tv kids movie. Sometimes they took me out of the story, but fortunately there are few of them. And I laughed at pretty much all of them. (What a dork, haha.)

The characters are funny. The main dude is not very likeable, but that seems to be the point. Benedict Arnold made me laugh every time he came up. All I had to do was see his hilariously portrayed face. I really enjoyed a lot of the characters and wanted to see much more of many of the secondary characters.

Unfortunately, the ending was abrupt and weird. Perhaps even preachy. It felt like there should be so much more story. It reminded me of the Wizard of Oz, but if after saving the scarecrow it had dawned on Dorothy to click here heels and head home. It is like he had a page limit he couldn’t go over and the first ¾ of the story took longer than he anticipated. It was a bit of a let down after getting to know and enjoy the characters so well in the first part.

Overall: 4 stars

Definitely recommend. Based on Abe’s suggestion, for not much younger than a 10 or 11 year old. I wouldn’t say it has much more complex ideas than the first Harry Potter. The story discusses death and time travel, sort of. It’s a little sad, but not horribly so.

I was really happy with this and would like to find more books by Mr. Tenapel. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite creators. It sounds like the Rat Fist web comic is wrapping up, so I really hope he starts up a new one when he is done. He has an interesting art style and ponders interesting ideas in his stories. It was an interesting story and I am glad I read it.

You can read Abe's review here. Some fan art from yours truly.

Ghostopolis fan art by ~lunavalse on deviantART

Green Lantern movie

Well, Abe had to work late the other day so I decided to pick him up and watch Green Lantern while I was waiting. I went in with horrible expectations based off the reviews I had started reading (and then stopped to miss the spoilers). I even brought some books as a back up for something to do if I was so bored I had to walk out. But I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, it wasn't a great movie by any stretch of the imagination. It would have been good-looking cgi if it had been the 90s.

What I didn't like? The glowing costumes were dumb. Especially the painted on neck collars and mask. I didn't like that the mask went down his nose, but I looked it up and that is really how he was designed. Doesn't make it less stupid. And the painted on parts of the costume made sense since they are energy from the ring. Still looked dumb. And the main lady actor wasn't great. She pulled me out a couple times with her bad acting. At least Ryan Reynolds was consistent. I think consistency is more important than occasionally good. And there was some story stuff that didn't make sense, but I think that was because they wrote it with the intention of it having at least one sequel. Which is rarely a good idea.

But I kept my expectations low and tried not to over analyze while I was watching it and just enjoy it. But really, Josie Campbell on CBR has a review that is pretty much the one I would write. :)

Also, I actually enjoyed it enough that it has been on my mind so I doodled this today, very much inspired by the wonderous Kate Beaton:

Comic Review: Blankets

Anyone who reads about comics has most likely read about Blankets by Craig Thompson. Since I have read about it so many freakin’ times, I decided to finally read it myself. It is a pretty dense book, an autobiography from when he was in high school and a bit of grade school. It was not quite what I expected, but I didn’t really have much expectation.

Art: 4 stars

The art was functional. It was a style meant to tell a story. And it did that very well. The style changed to fit the story while still remaining consistent. An admirable feat, now that I think about it. At times, the art was strikingly beautiful. There are pages or panels that I could see framed on the wall, particularly the snow and the trees.

Story: 4 stars

It didn’t amaze, but it amazed me more as Abe and I discussed it.  The story is sweet and slow, worth a read. Thompson’s book covers his first falters with god and his first love and how his relationship with god and his girlfriend affect each other. I’m not a religious person. Most of the issues that bring about his quandaries and qualms were what made me become not religious in grade school.  So I have a hard time identifying with his problems. I also didn’t date in high school, so 0 for 2 there.

He seems like a bit of a drama queen, at least as the story is told, and a bit of a fire bug. But maybe I am overreacting as someone who never gets rid of anything. Granted, he is a teen. Lots of teens are fire bugs and drama queens. He is quite passionate. I did find myself wondering how much of the story was exaggeration. I did not really like the girlfriend because she was so contradictory, but she is really a tragic character. There isn’t a way out of her situation and that makes for this back and forth trying to find the right answer.

I found it thought provoking. All of the characters seem pretty tragic, which is even sadder in an autobiography. He never directly writes about it, but he seems to have been in almost as bad a situation as his girlfriend. While hers was all about her environment and not really directed on her, his was all directed on him, physically and emotionally. Instead of showing the abuse on himself, he more hints at it by showing his inability to protect his brother from the same fate. She couldn’t leave her family in the lurch; he could leave but he was so young and lost. Some of the past he reveals leaves me wondering how this book affected his relationship with his family. It is heart-crushingly real at times.

Overall: 4 stars

I would recommend Blankets. It is an interesting story, though sad, and I read through the whole thing. I bet it would be more poignant for people who have struggled more than I have with their faith.

Abe also reviewed Blankets.

Comic Review: Koko Be Good

Abe and I found Koko Be Good by Jen Wang at Stumptown Comic Fest 2011. Jen was sharing a booth with the creator of Anya's Ghost, which also looks good but she didn't have it for sale yet. We also got the most beautiful blue poster of a couple wearing deer skin and mushrooms (not wearing the mushrooms). It is a lovely picture. Jen's art is really beautiful. The cover of Koko Be Good is what pulled us in. Jen even signed it for Abe. I read it while I was on vacation with my mom a few months ago. Oddly enough, there was a review in The Bloomsbury Review that week.

Art: 4 stars

Just as the art and the poster promised, the art is beautiful. It looks like she is inspired a bit by manga. While that is not always my cup of tea, I think she made use of some of the techniques like the small star people for the scenes of extreme or powerful emotion. I think it worked but if you are not used to that style, if can be off putting. She also has a tendency to color people with lightly red noses, which I find to be one of the most endearing things you can do in art.

Story: 4 stars

The story is a slice of life style. It follows a conservative follower guy who seems a bit lost with life and a weird girl who is bursting with so much confidence and bravado she doesn't know what to do with it all. She doesn't know what each day will bring and he is following his older girlfriend as she works towards her dreams. The two randomly meet and become friends. Over the course of their friendship together, they learn a lot about how to live life and temper each other's personalities so they are not debilitating single minded; he learns that he counts and she learns other people do, too. There is a really sad secondary story, too. Their speech flows naturally. Sometimes it is a bit over the top for Koko, but it seemed appropriate for her.

Overall: 4 stars

I would definitely recommend Koko Be Good. It is such a sweet story with sad tones and that really is one of my favorite types of story. However, Abe was not such a big fan because nothing really happens. I can understand why he felt that way, but I like stories like that. That might explain my fondness for mini comics, which also seem to go nowhere.  I think it is ripe for a sequel; I am not sure if one is intended. 

Book review: Own the room

I wrote a review of Own the Room: Business presentations that persuade, engage & get results by David Booth, Deborah Shames, and Peter Desberg. The review was originally published in Technical Communication, Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011.

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We have all heard the adage “show, don’t tell.” That is the basic premise of Own the Room. Instead of repeating the stodgy, conservative style of business presentations full of bland facts and figures, the authors recommend enlivening your presentations with stories and surprise. The authors are an actor, a director, and a psychologist, all of whom bring their expertise to their modern presentation style.

The book reads as if the authors were giving a presentation, switching speakers in each chapter. Although unclear at first, this method lets them deliver personal and entertaining anecdotes. To explain your movements during a presentation, says Booth the director, for example, “if I want to shake the actors out of complacency or flat line readings, I change the blocking” (p. 169).

Own the Room offers a lot of useful information and entertaining stories, including pointers for making each stage of your presentation more interesting: Grab your audience’s attention at the start, use appropriate anecdotes to maintain surprise and intrigue, and drive your point home at the end. The authors include many specific examples of speeches using both their method and the conservative style so you can compare and contrast. They also make many interesting similes, such as how picking a team to give a presentation is like constructing a string quartet: “As in music, we are attracted to counterpoint” (p. 151).

Although most of the book can help you gain confidence, the authors devote a chapter to overcoming stage fright. Part of overcoming stage fright is being well prepared. After explaining the four stages of stage fright, they suggest cures such as breathing exercises for managing your anxiety and “changing your behavior, which is directly under your control” (p. 133).

One improvement would be a recap at the end of each chapter. For example, it would be useful to have lists of the roles a presenter can take, with related page numbers. Although the headings are easy enough to find, quick reference lists would make navigation easier.

All in all, I find the suggestions workable. For example, anecdotes are better for explaining “why” because we “tend to believe anecdotal evidence over facts and figures” (p. 52). And surprise engages your audience because (as Steven Johnson says) “researchers now believe that there is an entire neurochemical system in the brain devoted to the pursuit and recognition of new experiences” (p. 48). I plan to apply the authors’ approach to creating more engaging tutorials and e-learning.

Book review: Origins of the Specious

I wrote a review of Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language by Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman. The review was originally published in Technical Communication, Volume 57, Number 3, August 2010. This has been my favorite book that I reviewed for them so far.

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Who hasn’t had a vicious argument about the proper use of a word or whether English is a malleable language? Maybe that’s just me. But if language is your game, Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language is your book. It’s a blooper highlights reel of English, explaining fables from the myth about the number of Eskimo words for snow to the misconception that all double negatives are incorrect.

Origins of the Specious discusses these misuses and myths with a wry sense of humor. It even includes some lightly dirty humor, such as a bit of history on the Yiddish word putz. When discussing that newspapers were “abuzz” about two Oxford dictionaries giving the okay to willy-nilly split your infinitives, the authors comment, “It was a slow news week” (p. 17). In explanation for why the word ain’t is no longer considered acceptable language, they say, it “got too big for its britches” (p. 49). An entire chapter that had me snickering is “Lex education: Cleaning up dirty words.” If you want to bore the curse words out of unruly children (or inform it out of them, depending on their disposition), you might read them this chapter.

The authors use humor to get a basic idea across: English is a liquid language (regardless of how thick we would like that liquid to be). Throughout the book, they say that English is changed by “the people who actually use the language day in and day out” (p. 43), that is, all of us. My favorite example is the hunt for a single “all-purpose pronoun for people that can be masculine or feminine” (p. 141). We all know how frustrating it is to write around “he/she” and “he or she.” But try as we might, no word has successfully taken hold of this empty space. Thon made a valiant effort in 1858 but fell by the wayside. Regardless, it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Occasionally, their humor can get a bit harsh, but in a teasing way. With regard to the literal meaning of “beg the question,” which Aristotle originally used in 350 BC, they say, “It’s time for the purists to get a life—one in the twenty-first century” (p. 182). In another example of harsh but humorous reprimands, they say, “If you think ‘octopi’ is classier than ‘octopuses,’ go stand in the corner” (p. 184). Away I went.

At times, this book had me laughing out loud for the dorky language jokes. And if it doesn’t provide enough information for you, the bibliography in the back provides 30 other resources. I definitely recommend Origins of the Specious for language junkies with a good sense of humor.

Book review: Blogging for Fame and Fortune

I wrote a review of Blogging for Fame and Fortune by Jason R. Rich. The review was originally published in the Technical Communication magazine (for the Society for Technical Communication) Volume 57, Number 1, February 2010. I have a few more reviews already published that I will also post here.

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Blogs are a popular, inexpensive form of entertainment. Blogging for Fame and Fortune addresses starting a blog with the intention of building a large audience, which can be a means to fame or fortune. For Jason Rich, “the term blog... includes traditional text-based blogs, photo blogs, audio podcasts, vlogs (videobased blogs), and webcasts” (p. 1). As a technical communicator, you probably know most of this information. But if you’re brand-new to blogs and are just looking for a starting point, this book could be your Blogging 101 textbook.

The information in the book divides into three major sections: starting a blog, achieving fame and fortune, and lessons learned. Each chapter contains an almost overwhelming amount of tips and warnings, some of which are useful. For example, the chapter about driving traffic to your blog includes how “to add functionality that allows your blog’s visitors to submit your blog entries to Digg” (p. 168). Digg is a Web site where users submit and vote on Web content.

Over half of the book is about starting a blog. You find a review of what you need before you start blogging: the format and the appearance. Rich explains the hardware, software, and blogging services needed to start your blog, as well as creating content, for example in vlogs.

Rich’s specific lessons on gaining fame and fortune really come down to marketing. His suggestions boil down to two actions: tell people about the blog, whether through e-mail or social networks or some other means; and use search engine optimization (SEO), including key words. To use SEO, Rich suggests using the online tutorials available through each search engine.

To show lessons learned, Rich first describes mistakes to avoid, such as “not taking into account how your blog will impact your personal and professional life outside of cyberspace” (p. 204). His final chapters offer interesting interviews with people in the blogging service industry and famous bloggers. The advice from famous bloggers is to work hard, be unique, and have good luck. Perez Hilton says he became famous partly because “I was one of the very first bloggers doing what I was doing” (p. 237).

The book is not perfect. I find the writing repetitive. For example, Chapter 7 includes “Nine Tips for Utilizing SEO to Generate Blog Traffic” (p. 121), and Rich covers SEO again in a later chapter. There are also a fair amount of typos. I recommend skipping directly to the information you want instead of reading the book over to cover.

As a current blogger (http://www.the-jerks.com), I find most important such marketing ideas as make friends on social networks, update your status when you post, and use SEO.