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Unitarians in the arts

26 May 2011 at 13:56
By: Yewtree
There are many famous Unitarian poets and writers. Examples include:
  • Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
  • BΓ©la BartΓ³k (1881-1945)
  • e. e. cummings (1894-1962)
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
  • Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865)
  • Edith Holden (1871-1920)
  • Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)
  • Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)
  • Kurt Vonnegut
You have to be careful with lists of famous Unitarians, because sometimes they claim people who stopped being Unitarian part-way through their lives (like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas Stearns Eliot).

The Poetry Chaikhana recently featured a poem by someone who is not on the usual Unitarian lists: Edmond Bordeaux SzΓ©kely, although he was the grandson of SΓ‘ndor SzΓ©kely, a Transylvanian Unitarian bishop, who was himself a poet, and is buried in Cluj (KolozsvΓ‘r).

There are three poems by Edmond Bordeaux SzΓ©kely at the Poetry Chaikhana site:

Writing for the web

30 November 2009 at 04:05
By: Yewtree
The first thing to realise about writing for the web is that people tend to skim-read pages, looking for the salient facts. Therefore it is best to write in an inverted pyramid style, with the most important information and a summary of the article first. Another important guideline is to avoid information pollution (the inclusion of redundant information, like "don't use your hairdryer underwater").

Since people only skim-read on the web, it's a good idea to break your page up with headings, bullet points, and the use of bold to emphasise key points.

Stick to the main topic of the page (don't digress) and include only one idea per paragraph.

About.com has ten guidelines for web writing.

Using Plain English

29 November 2009 at 04:00
By: Yewtree
The importance of clear communication is obvious. But plain English is a specific style which can be learnt. The Plain English Campaign have a series of guides to writing plain English.

Some of the key guidelines are:
  • avoid passive voice
  • avoid long sentences with dependent clauses
  • avoid jargon and non-literal phrases
  • avoid excessive formality
  • Try to expand acronyms (e.g. GA) and explain unfamiliar jargon the first time you use them
  • If you are explaining a procedure, try to set it out in small steps in the same order as the person will need to carry out the procedure.
  • Use numbers not words - it's better to use "23" than "twenty-three" as it stands out more

Heal your church website

26 November 2009 at 04:00
By: Yewtree
Whilst Heal your church website is written mainly for evangelicals, it still has lots of great articles and information.
You can also feel really really smug that Unitarian websites don't have animated spinning gold crosses, or Jesus Junk. Though we probably do have some inaccessible features like using tables for layout.
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