Key terms

Glossary.

A

ABC (n.): Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity — the first principles of writing good letters. The spine of essay #4: give the facts that set the frame for action, cut everything that creates ambiguity, and write so unmistakably you can't be misread.

B

brobdingnagian (adj.): Gigantic; from the land of giants in Gulliver's Travels. On this site it stands for every word too big for its job — "Don't overwhelm the reader with thou brobdingnagian bullshittery."

M

marketing engineer (n.): The label on the door. Someone who writes the words, designs the websites and builds the AI systems — marketing run with an engineer's instruments instead of vibes.

S

swish (n.): Basketball's cleanest sound — the shot that touches nothing but net. Borrowed for sentences: a good sentence "hits you right in the keister... It is the basketball equivalent of a 'Swish.'"