My Favourite Tipples from a writer and editor
Jinfo Blog

By Graham Southorn

Abstract

My Favourite Tipples are shared by Graham Southorn, a freelance journalist and writer on topics from physics to mathematics, business and technology. He shares some of his preferred online resources in the areas of bookmarking, grammar checking and fonts.

Item

As a freelance writer and editor for Jinfo, along with other publications and individual businesses, I lean on a few different tools for researching and producing content. In the 20 years since I qualified as a journalist, I've tried a variety of websites and apps. The following are the ones I wouldn't be without:

• Grammarly: For months I ignored ads for Grammarly, wrongly believing that I didn't need an extra widget in my life. But having tried it, I can't go back. It's a (free) universal spellchecker, installed as a browser extension, that kicks in when you're writing web content like blogs and social media posts.

• Diigo: While other bookmarking and annotation tools seemed to have more of a buzz about them than Diigo, it's still around while more feted rivals have bitten the dust. It's survived because it's so useful. I've used the free version, in combination with its browser extension, for years to bookmark and tag hundreds of sites.

• oTranscribe: oTranscribe probably prevents me from getting repetitive strain injury when I use it to transcribe audio interviews. You can pause, speed up and rewind a recording in the same window you're typing into. In other words, you don't have to constantly switch between your word processor and your audio app or player.

• Typ.io: I used Typ.io a lot when I was designing my website, grahamsouthorn.com. It's an easy and fun way to explore the world of fonts. It tells you which typefaces go well together and which are the most popular right now, as well as showing you how websites are using them.

• Google Scholar: When I'm writing about science, I use Google Scholar to find scientific papers related to the subject I'm covering. You can also use it to find papers published by particular scientists. It tells you how many citations each paper has had, and you can bookmark them too.

For fun:

• YouTube: If I ever visit YouTube to watch business talks or interviews, I'm easily sidetracked by the chance to catch up with concerts I missed or to relive those I was lucky enough to go to, like Kraftwerk's fantastic 2017 tour. And every time I open my web browser, I'm presented with a stunning image from Unsplash. I could browse its user-generated photo galleries for hours, and sometimes I do. You're encouraged to use the pictures for free, as long as you credit the photographer.

An article in Jinfo which I found particularly interesting:

• Like Andy Tattersall in his recent Tipples, I too found much of interest in Andrew Lucas's recent article, "Verifying the accuracy of news" - a timely exploration of the broad topic of fake news. Andrew reports on the views of expert commentators at a recent conference, looks at initiatives in news literacy, and examines whether technology can help or hinder. As a qualified journalist, I'm affronted when people insult my profession, and it's especially irksome when those people are politically motivated.

Contribute your "My Favourite Tipples"

Would you like to share your "My Favourite Tipples" with the Jinfo audience? For contributor guidelines email catherine.dhanjal@jinfo.com or visit the Publish with Jinfo page.

« Blog