23 January 2009

A Brief "New" Title - Help Rename The Blog

Clutter is the disease of American Writing.  We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.

Who can understand the clotted language of everyday American commerce: the memo, the corporation report, the business letter, the notice from the bank explaining its latest "simplified" statement?  ... Our national tendency is to inflate and thereby sound important.  The airline pilot who announces that he is presently anticipating experiencing considerable precipitation wouldn't think of saying it may rain.  The sentence is too simple - there must be something wrong with it.

But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what - these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.  And they usually occur in proportion to education and rank. - William Zinsser, from "On Writing Well"
Reading Zinsser and Abraham Piper's Blog has inspired me to consider brevity.  My new goal is to find that balanced brevity that strengthens what I write/teach without diminishing it.  

It has been brought to my attention that this blog may have, how shall we say,... a windy title.  So as the first shot in this battle against useless words, let's rename this puppy.  

Some (brief) background; "A New Kingdom, A New Heart and A New Affection" came as a summary of my favorite verses (listed in the title artwork) of the inheritance Christians have in Jesus Christ.  The title image is a picture I took of the Longfellow Bridge across the Charles River in Boston.  To be brief, Jesus is the bridge to a new kingdom, a new heart and a new affection.  

So post your ideas in the comments if you have time.  The best one wins a high five. 

7 comments:

  1. i wouldn't mind a high-five... ;)

    how about 'The (or A) bridge to new'

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  2. How about this? "...all things new"

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  3. Anonymous10:12 AM

    It's better...for brevity. But it's not as attractive as the old title. What about "An Old Bridge, A New Kingdom", or "Transforming Bridge" (that one's not very good). How about "A Kingdom Heart Affection"? Or, to steal a line, "The High Countries". I kind of like that, something evocative OF all things being new.

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  4. Anonymous4:06 PM

    "Further up and further in"?

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  6. Or simply, "Anew"

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  7. mmm these are all good! I think I am going to stick to "all things new."
    "Further up..." is taken ( http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Narniagirl/ ). It will evolve over time I'm sure. All these suggestions will be percolating. Now on to less narcissistic pursuits ;)

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