Poynter Online - Tool # 35: Punctuation

I'm a fan of Roy Peter Clark's series on Fifty Writing Tools from Poynteronline. Here's a recent entry on Tool # 35: Punctuation.

Clark's common sense approach to punctuation focuses on "tools, not rules." His forte is analogy and example as he explains how punctuation can help shape writing. Here's an example on the semicolon: "The semicolon is what we called in driver education a 'rolling stop.' More muscular than the comma, it is most useful for dividing and organizing big chunks of information."

The Year in Ideas

The New York Times Magazine offers us their 4th Annual Year in Ideas, the editors' "annual compendium of ideas from A to Z."

If you'd like to find a quirky paper topic, look no further! These ideas will inspire you for many an essay to come.

"Blog" Tops Word List

Merriam-Webster Online announces that blog tops its list of 10 words of the year. Merriam-Webster determines its list by the number of online look-ups it receives during the year.

You can see the entire list on the Merriam-Webster web site.

Wired News: Searching Smarter, Not Harder

Students conducting research (and students of research) might wish to learn about topic maps. According to Wired News, "Topic maps are smart indices that improve search capabilities by categorizing terms based on their relationships with other things. For example, William Shakespeare is a topic that would be mapped to essays about him, his plays and his famous quotes."

Once the economy improves in the U.S., we can expect to see search engines, private companies, and others start to integrate topic maps into their search process. As a software engineer for LexisNexis says, ". . . topic maps would allow a LexisNexis query of the word 'Iowa' to differentiate between the University, the state and the jurisdiction. 'It makes sense to present the multiple choices (of context) before returning all of the results' . . .."

Spyware Infections on Rise

The Register-Guard (Oregon) reports that infections of spyware and malware (malicious spyware) are on the rise. The article provides a good overview of the problem, but the most useful part may be the list of suggestions at the end of article from the Federal Trade Commission:

Signs that indicate your computer is infected

• A barrage of pop-up ads
• A hijacked browser
• A sudden or repeated change in your home page
• New and unexpected toolbars
• New and unexpected icons on your computer screen
• Keys that don't work
• Random error messages
• Sluggish or downright slow performance

Tips on how to keep spyware off your hard drive

• Update your operating system and browser: Your OS may offer free software "patches" to fix vulnerabilities that spyware exploits.
• Download only from trusted sites: Beware that some "free" software applications, such as games and file-sharing programs, come bundled with other software, including spyware.
• Don't install any software without knowing what it is: Read the small-print user agreement before downloading. If it's hard to find or understand, think twice about installing it.
• Minimize "drive-by" downloads: Make sure your browser security setting is high enough to stop unauthorized downloads, at least the "medium" setting on Internet Explorer.
• Don't click on links in pop-ups: It could install spyware on your computer. Instead, close pop-up windows by clicking on the "X" icon in the title bar.
• Don't click on links in spam offering anti-spyware downloads: Some software offered in spam actually installs spyware.
• Install a firewall and trusted anti-spyware program: Two widely used spyware programs are Spybot (www.safer-networking.org) and Ad-Aware (www.lavasoftusa.com).