I used three words that I routinely used in talks, and that I had thought about for a long time before selecting for frequent repetition in my book on dieting. I thought they helped simplify a complex idea. I was horrified that morning to realize that my three carefully chosen words could be mistaken for terrible diet advice if you plucked them out of the sentences they were in. I urged people to strive for their “leanest livable weight.” It looked like I was recommending that people diet until their weight was so low they could just barely cling to life. Did I mean that? Absolutely not. If anything, I meant close to the opposite.

Wondering how big, small, tall, long, fast, heavy, or old something is? The Measure of Things is a tool to help you understand physical quantites in terms of things you (or your audience, or your readers) are already familiar with. Need a metaphor to emphasize a written measurement? Try including a comparison to the size of a whale, or the height of the Empire State Building, or the area of a tennis court. Need to understand how big a metric or English unit really is? Try comparing it to real, tangible objects.

Almost everything you need to know about writing, reading, submitting, and understanding satire and humor.

In Wales road signs are written in both English and Welsh. However the Welsh text actually reads “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated”

the importance of clear instructions

warning signs of varying levels of effectiveness