Making the Most of Palindromes

Making the Most of Palindromes Making the Most of Palindromes Making the Most of Palindromes By Guest Author Anyone can come up with a list of palindromes. The real challenge is to use them intelligently in published writing. Can a writer incorporate palindromes (words or phrases that read the same backwards and forwards) in any meaningful and credible way? Or will they remain nothing more than amusing stand-alone oddities? Here are five suggested uses for palindromes in fiction writing: 1. Place them in the mouth of a social misfit. Anyone who quotes palindromes incessantly in real life (â€Å"Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog†) is clearly a person to be pitied. Waiting their moment to spring their new-found witticism upon the unsuspecting audience (â€Å"We panic in a pew†), the palindrome bore will never create one of his own and is always oblivious to the drooping eyelids on his hapless victims. If your novel contains such a nerd, stick a palindrome or two in his mouth and let your readers wince. 2. Use in crime or supernatural genres as a means of filling out a character’s profile. A serial killer who leaves palindromes as his calling card, for instance, may be more memorable than one who merely cuts a lock of the victim’s hair. â€Å"Borrow or rob† seems a possible option for such a criminal. Or, perhaps, â€Å"Dennis and Edna sinned†, for a nasty double murder. 3. Incorporate into historic works especially those set in the ancient world. Both Greek and Roman cultures used palindromes. The Sator Square, for instance, confounds scholars to the present day, with over fifty published books or academic articles seeking to explain this four-ways Latin palindrome: ROTAS OPERA TENET AREPO SATOR The words literally mean, â€Å"The farmer Arepo uses his plough as his form of work†, and have been discovered etched onto several Roman buildings across Europe. Some have suggested that the graffiti is evidence of an early Christian household the letters, stretched out, make the phrase PATER NOSTER (â€Å"Our Father†) in the shape of a cross, with a spare A and O (representing Alpha and Omega). Alternatively, it has been described as a piece of magical incantation, used in Greek-inspired mystery religion. The word Abracadabra was used in a similar way in the second century as a triangular chant believed to posses healing properties. Whatever the meaning, the graffiti shows that palindromes were part of the culture of the classical civilizations. Writers locating their stories in those worlds could do worse than slip in the odd back-to-front phrase   if they can create or find one. 4.   Throw into a comedy, or use as part of a comic interlude. Hammy, Pythonesque work may best suit a character tasked with the immortal lines, â€Å"Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas†, or, â€Å"Ten animals I slam in a net†. Perhaps a suitable palindromic name (Mike Kim, for instance) might also be appropriate for this individual. 5. Create palindrome poetry. We are indebted again to the ancients, who occasionally came up with such verse. Greek, Sanskrit and Hebrew palindromes have all been discovered mostly in the form of proverbs or short poems. Surely, the mother of all niche literature would be to publish your own palindrome poetry, create the blog and monetize the experience through a palindrome product store. Mugs engraved with â€Å"A nut for a jar of tuna† (and your logo) are guaranteed to enliven any office. Perhaps not. The challenge for the palindrome poet, of course, is to get beyond the one-line Napoleons Lament, â€Å"Able was I ere I saw Elba.† The English languages first full-length palindrome novel would, of course, take the art form to the ultimate level and ensure that the writer’s memory would never fade. A reviewer of such a ground-breaking work may, themselves, be tempted to lapse into palindromic praise: â€Å"Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Good At, Good In, and Good With"Certified" and "Certificated"While vs. Whilst

Is your social media hurting your job hunt

Is your social media hurting your job hunt If you were asked to describe your college experience at a job interview, you wouldn’t tell the hiring manager you lived for the weekends and were pretty much known as a party animal on campus, would you? Of course not- just like you know better than to put your contact email on your resume under the alias Baccardimami18. But if you’ve been posting pics from that wild night you had last weekend on your public-facing social media, you might be giving potential employers the wrong impression anyway. Everything is on the recordMillennials who grew up with social media have been creating a long record of life events. But as this generation enters the workforce, they are facing a new issue their predecessors never had to deal with. People may have access to every juvenile thought you ever put out into the world, from the age of 13 on. If you have ever made an unsavory comment online or posted a risquà © pic of yourself, your future employers can someday find it and see it a s a red flag.Most of the time we think of social media as an extension of our social lives. From the amazing view of a hike you took, to telling the world you got engaged, you share an aspect of yourself with your friends and maybe reach beyond to friends of friends. But before you post that next evening out, keep in mind that social media is increasingly being used by employers in job searches and even to keep tabs on current employees. Organizations not only use social media for targeted advertising, but also as a way to weed out job candidates from their pool of applicants. If you’re taking too many drunken party pics, you may be starting off on the wrong foot with potential employers.Be your own watchdog (and cheerleader)So what can you do now?First, Google yourself. Often. It’s a good idea to be aware of your internet presence and what information is available to the public. What is the sense that someone gets just by reading your tweets or following your Instagra m feed? Are you sharing your passion? Writing angry rants? Is the internet displaying your best or your worst?Your online presence is a reflection of you- even if it only shows a small part of who you are as a whole. Sometimes it can help to show your qualifications, your media savviness, and even your interest in a certain company where you’re seeking employment. These are positive things employers could find while doing background checks. But if you have an online presence full of red flags, you can’t really scrub the internet.Instead, start building up those positives. Next time you post, remember you may be speaking to a wider audience than just close friends. And while you can’t scrub the internet of every bad thing you ever did, you can start to improve your posting habits and create a stellar view of yourself to the world. If the wrong material shows on page one of Google, develop a professional personal website to try to push those bad results down the p age.Next step: make sure your communications and information you provide a prospective employer match. The ease of the internet makes fact-checking much easier and padding your resume too much becomes riskier. Win any awards lately? It’s probably verifiable online.Don’t live your whole life onlineLastly, are you posting too much? Too little? If you’re obsessed with social media and post too often, this can also be a red flag. Try to unplug once in a while. But the opposite can also be a problem. What if you’re not on social media at all, or hate those LinkedIn invites so much you never built a profile? Maybe a hiring manager won’t see any embarrassing college moments, but not having any information about you may be hurting you too. If employers are using sites to screen candidates, you may just be weeded out automatically if there’s nothing about you on the web.The solution is to control what other people see of you: craft a professional, hi gh-Google-rank web presence that puts your best foot forward. The impression you make to employers doesn’t just happen at the interview. Whether or not you’re on the job market, think before you link, comment, tweet, or post.