I love great writing, whether in a magazine, a book, a speech or a movie. Last night, I put on “Hell or High Water,” from Read More...
A very long time ago, in 1966, while in the U.S. Navy, I bought a 1962 Honda Superhawk. At some point it needed work, so I ordered the shop manual.
I was 20 at the time, helping to run the base newspaper at the Naval Air Facility in El Centro, CA. I wasn't an editor as such but nevertheless typos and other grammatical issues grated on me. And that shop manual was full of broken English. At first I found it amusing, and then I wondered, couldn't Honda afford someone to competently translate the manual from Japanese?
Next, I wondered whether the Japanese-language manual was poorly written. I assumed it was written properly. After all, who would want to be embarrassed in their native language? Apparently, however, they figured there was no problem with being embarrassed in some other language.
Fast forward several decades and we find product text, such as on Amazon and in user manuals, continues to suffer. Chinese electronics manufacturers and distributors seem to be egregiously guilty of deploying bad English. They don't seem to care about getting it right, and therefore come across as sloppy. Who wants to have their corporate reputation damaged because of heedlessness?

A couple days ago, I dropped by Kate Jonez’s house in a remote, hilly part of Los Angeles. I had to sign off on some business Read More...
So you need to deliver a speech, let’s say 20 minutes long, to salespeople. You’ve got a new product ready to push out to Read More...
Eight new writers have been added to the staff. And they are exceptional in every way. We’ve got everything covered, from books Read More...
I’ve been reading a lot of book excerpts, screenplay pages, short stories, poems and lyrics lately. I’m evaluating writers Read More...
I do love great writing. This is a paragraph from a short story by Kevin Hall. Topic is the young man’s first job as an intern in Read More...
I love watching football, especially on a really big-screen TV. And I love great writing. Sports writing is a challenge. Describing Read More...
I’m reconfiguring Ghostwriters Central. The first change was to bring Kate Jonez on board. She’s a marvelous writer, Read More...
I’m the point of initial contact with prospective clients and many of these callers want to tell me the story they’ve got Read More...
Lee Smith is a writer who hails from Grundy, Virginia, down in the southwest corner of the state. She grew up in that isolated coal Read More...

