As an editor, I have owned many dictionaries, from paperback collegiate versions I packed and unpacked countless times through my college years and early 20s to the hardbound unabridged version my brother gave me one year for Christmas that, packed in its own box, probably would have been over the weight limit for a single item of luggage. (That one, too, made it through about six moves before I just couldn’t bear to lug it around anymore.)

Dictionaries can be amazing treasure troves of words and meanings and nuances, leading to a deeper understanding and a confidence that, at any particular moment, you are using the absolutely perfect word. Or they can be, well, dictionaries, that beat down the spirit of the curious reader with their dull, unsatisfying, workman-like definitions.

This article, “You’re Using the Wrong Dictionary” by James Somers, made the rounds back in May, but I recently reread it after forwarding it to a colleague. My two-paragraph description won’t convince you that you owe it to yourself to use a good dictionary, but this post should. And, even better, it tells you how to install a good dictionary on all your devices. I did, and I am so much happier.

One of the best things to come out of the demise of Good magazine is that Ann Friedman has been unleashed on the wider world of editing and publishing. She wrote a great post for Nieman Journalism Lab called “#Realtalk for the j-school grad” that’s filled with great advice not just for journalists starting their career, but any journalist who wants to change jobs or just stay on top of their game. Such as this tidbit:

Learn to write headlines, even if you don’t want to be an editor. Headline writing is about distilling complicated ideas and selling what’s sexy about a piece. This is also called, “being good at Twitter” or “effective pitching.”

And this one, which especially applies to tech journalists — whether aspiring or established:

Be an early adopter. Mess around with new reading apps, new blogging platforms, new social media sites. You don’t have to use all of these things every day, but you need to be familiar with them. One of your main selling points as a newbie journalist is that you’re “hip” to the “Internet sites” and “gadgets” that “the young people” are using today. Deliver on that stereotype. And while you’re at it, learn a lesson that your journalistic elders have largely failed to grasp: Evolution is a lifestyle, not a conference you attend once a year. Keep at it.

If you can’t evolve in the ever-evolving world of journalism, then you’ll limit yourself to the parts of the industry that are dying off.

This past week, John Gruber called out AllThingsD for their odd practice of not crediting sources by name or even blog name.

Until this is fixed, no more mentions by name of “All Things D” or anyone who writes for them. I’ve corrected this piece from earlier today accordingly.

The correction:

Some Guy With a Goatee on the TouchPad

Hilarious.

Note: Gruber explains more thoroughly here why attribution is important — not just the act of attributing, but also how one attributes information.

Creating and defining a publication’s editorial voice is extremely challenging. (West Gold Editorial has a process I’ve used on several publications — and it has helped immensely.) That’s one reason I love looking at how other companies do it. Here’s Groupon’s editorial handbook. I love how they show how far is too far.