Newsroom

From the newsroom Raji Chacko I am relieved to be writing a piece on articles in the English language. For the three articles in English (a, an, the), there are apparently quite a few in French. What makes it worse is that you have to know the gender of an object and affix the appropriate…

From the newsroom With so many things vying for your attention and time, can you stay focused on writing? Raji Chacko Maintaining your focus while writing can be challenging but not impossible I prefer to edit in a tranquil environment, with maybe some music playing faintly in the background. I need some degree of quiet…

From the newsroom Fighting off a drought of ideas when you are expected to blog regularly can be troublesome, but a few tips could help. Raji Chacko When all of us are home, a popular refrain heard from my mum is ‘I don’t know what to cook today’. Apparently, feeding a family can be a…

From the newsroom Cut the crap: make sense of  legalese Dev Sukumar  A recent Madras High Court judgement created much furore all over India. The court determined that a couple which had not formally married but had had a sexual relationship for a while could be termed husband and wife.  While the judgement, for obvious…

From the newsroom Raji Chacko When the idea well runs dry… You don’t need to call the plumber; a few DIY tricks might get the creative juices flowing again Writing is not my strong suit. I am very grateful I discovered that early on in my professional life. I might be able to wring a…

From the newsroom Sunory Dutt The world’s longest single paragraph in print stretches across a 120-ft long scroll of paper, courtesy of American novelist Jack Kerouac’s travelogue, On the Road, first published in 1957. I’m guessing reading the original 120,000- word manuscript must have been far more frustrating and tiring for the editor than the…

From the newsroom Supriya Unni Nair One of the easiest ways to kill a good piece of information, whether it’s for the web, print or visual media, is to smack a cliché on to it. How many of us have heard an enthusiastic reporter on television covering an earthquake end his report by saying, “only time will…

From the newsroom Raji Chacko Comma commotion Navigating the tricky waters of punctuation can become particularly trying when you are trying to nail down the correct use of the multipurpose comma I have a confession to make: I do not like the comma. Even after more than a decade spent fixing other people’s language mistakes,…

From the newsroom Sangeeta Cavale Editing made simple “When I took a creative writing class in college I heard some bad news.  On the first day, our professor informed us that 90% of all good writing is (gasp!) re-writing!   I did not want to believe him at the time. But, hard experience has taught me the truth of this statement.” says Tracey McBride, book…

From the newsroom Writing is a creative form, but it involves a fair amount discipline Raji Chacko As an editor, some of the writing that has made it to my desk has driven me to despair. As an avid reader, some of what I have chosen to read has made me smile, cry, cringe, snort…