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This week: Edited by: Cubby  
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Hello, everyone! Welcome to this edition of the For Authors newsletter.  As writers, how can we not love words? Single words placed as we choose to tell a story or send a message... it's amazing what we can do with them.
Quote:
Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary,
how potent for good and evil they become in the hands
of one who knows how to combine them.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne |
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Words
Definitions [cited from Dictionary.com]
word - [wurd] - noun
1. a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the loss of primary accent that distinguishes blackbird from blackbird. Words are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.
morpheme - [mor-pheem] - noun
1. any of the minimal grammatical units of a language, each constituting a word or meaningful part of a word, that cannot be divided into smaller independent grammatical parts, as the, write, or the -ed of waited.
linguistic - [ling-gwis-tik] - adjective
1. of or belonging to language
What would our world be like without written words today? Can you imagine if there were no books, magazines, or newspapers? We certainly would not be aspiring writers, that's for sure.
While browsing the words no words on Google, I stumbled across AlphaDictionary with an article titled But There Are No Such Things as Words!. In one paragraph, the article states:
No one has ever been able to define the word word despite gargantuan efforts to do so. The Linguistic Concept of Word: An Analytic Bibliography by Alphonse Juilland and Alexandra Roceric lists 118 PAGES of books and articles (unsuccessfully) attempting to define the word word over the past 3 millennia. Why can no one define word? Maybe because words simply do not exist; rather, the sentences we speak are composed of lexemes and morphemes and these two linguistic objects differ too much to be subsumed under one concept.
Whoa! That paragraph was a bit indepth for me, but I did find it interesting to ponder.
I love words, as I'm sure you, as a writer, also do. Whether anyone has properly defined the word word makes little difference to me, as long as I can properly compose my lexemes and morphemes into something worth reading. 
Dictionaries are becoming a passion of mine.  Never, ever thought I'd enjoy a dictionary like I do now, but there are so many varities of dictionaries to learn from. The other day I went to Barnes & Noble and bought a dictionary of cliche`s. I've ordered several of the dictionaries I've listed below, not to mention the ones I already own or buy for the library I work in.  Actually, I was amazed at how many online dictionaries I found. If you cannot afford to buy a hard copy, look it up in Google, or whatever other browser you use.
A few interesting word books to consider:
 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know by American Heritage Dictionary (Editor), Steve Kleinedler (Preface by)
100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses by American Heritage Dictionaries
100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know by American Heritage, Ahd Editors
The Describer's Dictionary by David Grambs
The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting It Right by Bill Bryson
Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase & Fable by Adrian Room
A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose and Eric Partridge
In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World by C. J. Moore
ZOUNDS!: A Browser's Dictionary of Interjections by Mark Dunn
Here are a few links that include more information on words.
 Urban Dictionary
http://www.urbandictionary.com/
Slang Dictionary
http://www.alphadictionary.com/slang/
Language Dictionary
http://www.alphadictionary.com/langdir.html
Alpha Agora: A forum for discussions on dialects, slang, accents, etc.
http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/
Internet Acronym Server
http://silmaril.ie/cgi-bin/uncgi/acronyms
RhymeZone Rhyming Dictionary and Thesaurus
http://www.rhymezone.com/
Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online
http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Word Spy - The Top 100
http://www.wordspy.com/topwords.asp
Words
http://www.answers.com/main/words.jsp
A.Word.A.Day
http://wordsmith.org/awad/
WA's Curious Words Page
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/WarrenAllen/words.htm
I love words. What more can I say?
If you're feeling inspired to share...
 Send me a link to your favorite dictionary/word site that I have not included in this editorial. Or... send me the title of your favorite dictionary/word book.
Happy April and...
Keep on Writing!
Cubby ") |
Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
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Feedback
fleckgirl
Cubby,
Titles were a great topic to cover & I think it's interesting that some people really struggle with them, and others just have the title come to them effortlessly.
Thanks for a good NL with lots of different resources!
Fleck
~ You are very welcome!
katherine76
I really enjoyed the info you provided this week on titles and the helpful links for more information. Thanks.
~ 'Twas a pleasure!
alfred booth, wanbli ska 
Excellent newsletter. I usually title my poetry after the piece is written and try to take a word or phrase from the body of the poem. So many times excellent poems have weak titles. The ideas you share today are necessary for all of us interested in "hooking" our readers from the first words. And aren't those first words our titles?
Thanks for a very interesting subject today!
~ "Thank you" and "You are welcome". That's a good point about those first words!
qwiksilver
Well, if Jane Austen hadn't changed her mind, we would be reading "First Impressions" instead of "Pride and Prejudice." The title doesn't matter until it hits the publisher's desk, and then only because the publisher needs something the New York Times can print in the Best Seller's list.
~ How interesting!
A thinker never sleeps
I sometimes have a title in mind but mostly I think of it later. I hate the film titles just now. They seem so boring and obvious. Titles are important! Sometimes they should be simple but not all of the time. Good newsletter.
~ Thanks! I also agree about some of the film titles, too.
Maria Mize 
Very informative newsletter... Thank you. I wish there was a way to save a newsletter to your "favorites." I'd save this one for sure. Thanks, again.
~ I feel honored, thank you! I'll send you an email.
April Sunday
Outhouses of the Past -- does it get any better than this -- fun-nee!
~ Always glad to delight!
Canmohr
The dragons oath
~ Thank you for sharing your title.
Big Mike 2humble2bragbut...
How about this for a title:
Everything You Need To Know
~ What more can I say? That about covers it!
Amyaurora 
I liked your piece on creative titles. I love using creative titles because I feel it gets the readers attention, however whenever I do use them however reviewers tend to interpret them very literally and I've had negative reviews. If you ever to a follow up to this topic I ask you to include something about how to deal with that.
~ Really? I'm so sorry to hear about negative reviews on a few of your creative titles. As far as handling it... well, from experience (and it's not always that easy), I've learned to take a deep breath to help quiet my nerves, and write a pleasant Thank you very much for your encouraging suggestion(s). I appreciate the review.. Or something similar. Then put it behind you.
MountainManSam
Response to the prompt from Cubby.
Mumble-Peg Times One : Wounded at an inside rendezvous
~ Now that is an interesting title!
As always...
Have a wonderful week!
Cubby ") |
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For Authors: April 02, 2008 Issue [#2314]
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