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Voice and Tone: Writing to reflect your personality as well as your message (Part 1) »

dojo.moj.oe: parody of script.aculo.us homepage in Dojo

dojo.moj.oe: parody of script.aculo.us homepage in Dojo
Peter Higgins had a little fun, and created a parody of the script.aculo.us home page: dojo.moj.oe. The site shows off the new easing code that Robert Penner contributed to Dojo: A small change in the Animation system to accommodate the inclusion of the entire set of Robert Penner’s Flash easing functions to The Dojo Toolkit. They were contributed under CLA […]

Peter Higgins had a little fun, and created a parody of the script.aculo.us home page: dojo.moj.oe.

The site shows off the new easing code that Robert Penner contributed to Dojo:

A small change in the Animation system to accommodate
the inclusion of the entire set of
Robert Penner’s Flash easing functions to The Dojo Toolkit. They were contributed
under CLA to the Dojo Foundation, and ported to JavaScript (dojox.fx.easing) by Bryan Forbes,
a Dojo committer, and maff mastermind.

He had released them BSD some time ago, officially. This CLA only insures a clear
traceable licensing path: written permission from the author. Its a huge win for JavaScript, and
the toolkits using or wanting to use those functions (Dojo now included). A big personal
Thank You is in order, from all the OpenWeb.

The dojo._Animation change is transparent, though these functions will not work
with the Dojo 1.0.x branch, basically because numbers were being clipped beyond “100%” of
the Line (like in the elastic easing functions, the “snap back” after overshooting the
target).

The moj.oe demo started out as a simple preview of this _Animation change, and the
fun easing functions. The gravity button uses the bounce transition to drop the circles
to the ground (and bounce), the snap-back when you drag the circles (or logo) uses
the elastic easing function, and the “Live Download” dialog uses the backIn easing method when
you click “hide”, for that “little boost immediately before leaving” …

Dojo.moj.oe

HTML Purifier 3.0
HTML Purifier 3.0 has been released. What is HTML Purifier? HTML Purifier is a standards-compliant HTML filter library written in PHP. HTML Purifier will not only remove all malicious code (better known as XSS) with a thoroughly audited, secure yet permissive whitelist, it will also make sure your documents are standards compliant, something only achievable with a […]

HTML Purifier 3.0 has been released.

What is HTML Purifier?

HTML Purifier is a standards-compliant HTML filter library written in PHP. HTML Purifier will not only remove all malicious code (better known as XSS) with a thoroughly audited, secure yet permissive whitelist, it will also make sure your documents are standards compliant, something only achievable with a comprehensive knowledge of W3C’s specifications.

What’s new in 3.0?

Release 3.0.0 is the first release of 2008 and also HTML Purifier’s first
PHP 5 only release.
The 2.1 series will still
be supported for bug and security fixes,
but will not get new features. This release a number of
improvements in CSS handling, including the filter
HTMLPurifier_Filter_ExtractStyleBlocks which integrates
HTML Purifier with
CSSTidy for cleaning style sheets
(see the source code file for more information on usage), contains
experimental support for
proprietary CSS properties with %CSS.Proprietary, case-insensitive
CSS properties, and more lenient hexadecimal color codes. Also, all code
has been upgraded to full PHP 5 and is
E_STRICT clean for all versions of PHP 5 (including the
5.0 series, which previously had parse-time errors).

You can run a live demo to see it at work.

WordPress 2.4 Admin Preview
WordPress 2.4 Admin Preview: Jordan built up a mockup of the new WordPress 2.4 admin backend. Some of the features work, some of them do not. However you can still get a good idea of what it will look like in 2.4 and where the admin redesign is headed. Via Email. Also, TubeTorial has a […]

WordPress 2.4 Admin Preview: Jordan built up a mockup of the new WordPress 2.4 admin backend. Some of the features work, some of them do not. However you can still get a good idea of what it will look like in 2.4 and where the admin redesign is headed. Via Email. Also, TubeTorial has a video walkthrough of the new admin interface.

[EDIT] Please be mindful of the fact that this is a cursory glance at unfinished work on the WordPress admin interace and nothing else. Please read Matt’s comment.

Javascript CSS Selector Engine Timeline
Paul Irish put together a bit of history in the form of the Javascript CSS selector engine timeline which shows us that “selector processing power has gone from Pinto power to a Mustang GT 500.”. 2003.03.25: document.getElementsBySelector() by Simon Willison (later used in behaviour.js) [source] 2005.08.19: CssQuery(): by Dean Edwards [source] 2005.08.22: jSelect (precursor to […]

Paul Irish put together a bit of history in the form of the Javascript CSS selector engine timeline which shows us that “selector processing power has gone from Pinto power to a Mustang GT 500.”.

Thanks to all of the innovations along the way, and to Paul to putting this together.

Voice and Tone: Writing to reflect your personality as well as your message (Part 2)
When I first broached this topic in October, I wrote about tone. Today, I’ll focus on voice, that certain aspect of writing that conveys the personality and/or style of the writer. Unlike tone — which is geared to your goal and audience — voice is about you, the writer. Just as your speaking voice remains recognizable under different circumstances — whether you’re reading stories to small children or arguing about the gift return policy at the mall — so, too should your written voice.

waveform of my voice
This is a waveform of me reading the title of
this entry. Our written voices can be as unique
as our spoken voices.

When I first broached this topic in October, I wrote about tone. Today, I’ll focus on voice, that certain aspect of writing that conveys the personality and/or style of the writer. Unlike tone—which is geared to your goal and audience—voice is about you, the writer. Just as your speaking voice remains recognizable under different circumstances—whether you’re reading stories to small children or arguing about the gift return policy at the mall—so, too should your written voice.

What exactly defines my voice or style?

Your voice and style reflect patterns you use in crafting sentences and paragraphs. Just as you recognize your handwriting by the shapes you make in lettering, you’ll recognize your written voice by sentence structure, vocabulary, punctuation and other ways you present ideas. My writing often includes examples, metaphors or analogies—especially my fiction. I also have a habit of using em dashes for parenthetical remarks. This is a habit I acquired back when I was writing ad copy. The passive tense is one for which I sometimes have a predilection, as is my frequent use of the word “one” in place of he or she—to avoid those pesky gender issues. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. The English language allows for a great deal of latitude when it comes to developing a voice. Yours can be as unique as your fingerprints.

Why should my voice remain constant? Shouldn’t I adapt it to circumstance as I would tone?

Your voice is part of your brand as a writer. As you use your voice it becomes familiar to your readers. This helps them know how to interpret your prose and what to expect from you in the future. The voice you use today can offer clues into how you should be read tomorrow. If you changed the nature of your voice with each blog entry or paper, readers could get confused and misinterpret both subtle nuances and seemingly obvious statements.

Your voice also guides the hands that type. If you’ve developed a comfortable style, the sentences will pass from brain to keyboard more smoothly. If you are constantly reinventing your style, this won’t happen. Instead you’ll spend more time reworking your sentences, forcing them to fit into the mold of the moment.

A well-developed voice serves both writer and reader.

What if I get a job that requires me to write in someone else’s voice?

There may be times when you have to write for someone else, for example as a speech writer, or to ghostwrite the autobiography of Thomas Pynchon. The latter will obviously never happen, but as you become familiar with the nuances that make up your own voice you can also learn to pick up on the traits of someone else’s. This will make it easier to craft that speech or memo for your boss or client. If you ever got caught forging a note from your mother in order to skip school, you’ll know this is a skill that takes time to develop.

How do I find my voice? Won’t it just come naturally?

One finds one’s voice through reading and writing. By reading omnivorously you are exposed to a variety of styles and will learn which you prefer. By writing frequently you can fine-tune how you adapt such styles for yourself. I think much of this does come naturally. Everything you’ve experienced—from the conversations you heard as a child to the classes you took in school—contributes to the way you arrange words—both orally and on the printed page. But developing constancy requires practice. Just as a chef must both taste and cook a variety of foods to learn how ingredients will interact, so must a writer read a diverse sampling of literature and practice putting words to paper to understand how words flow together.

Writer’s must also adapt to the well-intentioned comments of their readers, be they teachers, friends, publishers or others. Our readers all have styles of their own and will usually be happy to give us input when we ask. Sometimes their ideas will bring new light to a murky paragraph; other times they may suggest change for the sake of change. By reading enough to be familiar with many styles—and writing enough to be familiar with your own—you’ll be better able to judge which ideas are which.

While researching this I read a variety of conflicting opinions on how to develop one’s voice. Some suggest mimicking the styles of others, while others say to focus only on your own voice. You may have to experiment to find what method works best for you, but the following resources may give you some additional ideas.

Voice and Tone Resources

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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