Week 15 Lab: TEDEd Videos: Style

The power of creative constraints - Brandon Rodriguez - In this video, Brandon Rodriguez discusses how constraints fuel creativity. Constraints provide a problem that must be creatively solved in order to get the desired result. He argues that these constraints provide a problem solver with the opportunity to innovate. The way I thought of it was this: in order to push the envelope, there must be an envelope to push.

Beware of nominalizations (AKA zombie nouns) - Helen Sword - In this video, Helen Sword explains how nominalizations, or the act of making a verb, adjective, or another noun into abstract and pompous nouns. At their best, nominalizations help describe complex ideas, but at their worst, they suck the life and action out of otherwise lively sentences. She calls these nominalizations "zombie nouns," because they tend to make a sentence dull and lifeless.

A zombie. Source: Wikimedia Commons