I've been slowly working through Ed Yong's An Immense World—a magnificent overview of the world of animal senses (and how mightily they differ from ours), and was bowled over by a technique he deploys in a section about how the amazing touch sensitivity of sea otters helps them locate food on the sea floor: Imagine … Continue reading On connecting reading time with real world events
Tag: how to write
On blogging (almost) every day so far this year
On January 3, I published a post on being a "sucker" for resolutions that included a fateful and rhetorical question: What if I wrote a blog post every day? Oh boy. Here we are, just over halfway through the year, and I've found myself plugging away at this strange resolution. Technically, there are plenty of … Continue reading On blogging (almost) every day so far this year
On not practicing
One reason I challenged myself to blog every day of 2023 was to practice my writing. I write for work—but not every day. And certainly not like I used to write for work, when I worked for Oxford Dictionaries, and was constantly developing new blog content. When I write for work, it's usually project narratives … Continue reading On not practicing
On using ChatGPT to fight generic content
As we get deeper and deeper into a life with generative AI, I’m finding it increasingly hard to keep up. For instance, there’s the apparent whiplash happening with college professors: At first fearful that ChatGPT spelled the “end of the essay” (which it still may), professors have realized that ChatGPT can help them with their … Continue reading On using ChatGPT to fight generic content
On alliteration
As a device, alliteration is a pretty obvious one. Read a passage aloud (or even silently) and it will jump out at you. It's hard to miss a string of similar sounding words. Alliteration can delight—but also irritate—the reader. It's a delicate device that wears out its welcome pretty quickly. That last sentence? I wrote … Continue reading On alliteration
On story structure and John McPhee
Over the past week I’ve enjoyed flipping through John McPhee’s Draft No. 4, a collection of essays outlining his approach to writing and journalism. His essay on “structure” may be the most satisfying part of the group. McPhee is rightly famous for his thoughtful story structures, many of which upend the traditional chronological narrative. There’s … Continue reading On story structure and John McPhee
On words to avoid in architecture writing
Having written over 200 project narratives in the past seven years, I feel in the position to offer some advice on writing them. For this first post on the topic I’ll start simple—a list of words to avoid (or limit your use of). Because I don’t want it to seem that I’m only criticizing the … Continue reading On words to avoid in architecture writing
On working with Gene Kohn
Gene Kohn died last week at 92. I was lucky enough to work with Gene a little bit during my time at KPF, the firm he co-founded. I've no need to speak of Gene's immense talents as a designer and business developer—Paul Goldberger's obituary for Gene in the New York Times covers more ground with … Continue reading On working with Gene Kohn
On email sign-offs
I don't remember how I signed off emails at my first job. I remember for my second job, though, because I aped my British colleagues and went with "Cheers." Cheers struck me as an inordinately delightful sign-off for business emails, but I loved it. At my next job, though—having no British colleagues—my Cheers felt a … Continue reading On email sign-offs
On wondering how to teach writing to architects
As the firm I work for has grown the past few years, I've run up into a repeated problem: I don't have enough time to market every project. The solution seemed obvious: another marketer. With another marketer in the firm, we could tackle it all and make it work, giving every project the marketing support … Continue reading On wondering how to teach writing to architects
Taylor Coe 