Word Wise

The Wednesday Word Wise Roundup

• Every once in a while I think I’m a huge fraud – sure I can write, but what’s the big deal? I have friends who are doctors who remove spleens and lawyers who sue Fortune 500 companies and Shakespeare scholars who use words like “interiority” and museum curators who can talk with brio about Titian, Tintoretto, and Tiepolo, and all I can do is string together a couple of words without tripping. But then I read something like this from last Sunday's New York Times and I feel better – in a survey of human resources executives conducted by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a big out-placement firm, it’s not high-tech talent that’s wanting, but low-tech skills like writing. According to the Times, "Nearly half said entry-level workers lacked writing skills. It seems that some young employees are now guilty of the technological equivalent of wearing flip-flops: they are writing company e-mail as if they were texting cellphone messages with their thumbs.... In response, employers are sending a message of their own: When you’re in the office, put on those dress shoes and start spelling your words correctly, and in full.”

• About 18 months ago I heard that a colleague in another city had developed a class about how to write e-mail for our in-house university. I thought, “huh?” A class about e-mail. Er, what’s the challenge? But then I started talking to friends and colleagues and learned, in fact, that no one seems to know how to write a decent e-mail. I developed my own class and it’s become the most popular I teach. So I was interested to read this article in the September Fast Company about the next generation of messaging, Twitter and all the Twitter-like services. Seems we in PR are missing the boat and whoever gets on board fastest will float to the top soonest. I’m already developing my “how to write a Twitter post in 140 characters or less” class. Stay tuned.

• Last Saturday The Times (London) ran a special section in its book review pages called Wordwise (as opposed to what you’re reading now, Word Wise), similar to what I’ve in the past headlined “Which Word When.” While most words it explored aren’t words we use too often or confuse too easily (for example, biceps, fulsome, and pence) and overall it has a British sensibility that may not work for those in the United States, it’s still worth checking out.

If You Have to Ask

Do you sometimes start press releases, media alerts, and other documents with questions? Do you think it’s a compelling way to catch your reader’s attention? Can you stand to hear the raw, unblemished truth about this strategy?  If the question you pose is a yes or no query, as it often is, you risk losing your readers immediately if their answer isn’t the one you’ve anticipated. A recent press release led with: “Ever been stressed out at the thought of driving 300 miles in a day?” The writer hoped readers would answer yes because the release was announcing what it called “a solution.” (Everything these days is a “solution,” isn’t it?) But readers answering no might stop reading then and there. Even when the question is open ended (“How would you feel if you were served undercooked meat in a restaurant?”), you can never be sure of your readers’ response, nor whether that response will spur them to keep reading or click delete. Starting documents with questions is not only common (which makes it boring) but it’s lazy. It says “I can’t think of anything else, I’ve got a million other things to do, I chipped a nail earlier and I’m in a terrible mood, and I was hoping to leave a few minutes early today, anyhow.” It implies you don’t care about what you’re writing and, heck, if you don’t care, why should I, your reader, give a hoot? Providing your audience a reason to stop reading from the start is not only poor judgment, but a disservice to your client (and to your reputation - see Freud et al). Short of questions on the order of “have you heard, we’ve cured prostate cancer?” or “have you received the gift certificate we sent you for free calf implants?”, the next time you find yourself beginning a document with a question, first ask yourself, is this really the best you can do?

The Wednesday Word Wise Roundup

• I’ve used every online tool available to figure out how much I need to save for retirement (apparently, given what they've told me and my current age, I’m never retiring), what my monthly payment would be if I bought a million-dollar house, and how much I can afford to pay for a new car. But I just came across an online tool that could help writers (who are not known for their mathematical skills - or is it just me?) that’s really worthwhile (especially if you work in financial communications). It’s called the percent change calculator and all you do is enter a number, then the number it changed to and it tells you the percent change. No long division, no embarrassing yourself by asking colleagues if they know how to figure out the percent change from 745 to 13 (98.3 percent decrease), no feeling really old and decrepit. It’s divine.


• On Aug. 18 there was a “systems slowdown” at a major brokerage house. Visit Language Log to read the e-mail sent from the COO to customers. It’s a great example of why the need for good writers never seems to go away.

In Name Only

Since we constantly refer to the titles of books, magazines, newspapers, and more by name, keeping track of whether to put them in quotation marks or to italicize them can be a chore. Well, chore no more! Put these in quotation marks: Books: “Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy,” best-selling children’s book by Jane O’Connor (an exception is the Bible, which is capitalized but not enclosed in quotation marks) Computer games: “The Sims” Movies: “Superbad” Operas: Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Holländer” Plays: “Spring Awakening,” “August: Osage County” Poems: “Late September,” by U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic Songs: "If You Want Me to Stay," Sly & The Family Stone TV shows: "Big Love," “So You Think You Can Dance” Italicize these: Newspapers: The New York Times (when a location is needed that’s not part of the official name, use parentheses: De Queen (Ark.) Bee (that’s a real newspaper) Magazines: Vogue magazine, The New York Times Magazine (notice that "magazine" is only uppercase and italicized if it's an official part of the magazine title) Reference books: Webster’s New College Dictionary Skip the quotation marks; don’t italicize: Internet sites: slate.com Software: WordPerfect

Note: The rule about books noted here is based on AP style. I prefer putting book titles in italics without quotations marks (The House of Mirth). I'm funny that way.

State of Mind

Is it the "State of Ohio" or the "state of Ohio," the "City of Tuscaloosa" or the "city of Tuscaloosa"? In both cases, according to the AP Stylebook, the lowercase version is correct because “state” and “city” are neither a part of the official name nor proper nouns. (You may accept this rule and stop reading now.) However, another writer’s bible, The Chicago Manual of Style, has a different take. It suggests that when referring to the government of a place rather than the geography of a place, the uppercase would be correct. He works for the State of Connecticut. That’s a City of Atlanta ordinance. but. . . Lobsters beware! I’m in the city of Portland - the Portland, that is, located in the state of Maine - and I'm hungry! Even if AP style wasn't my company's default on these things, I'd still advise you to follow it in this case - after all, always using lowercase in this instance means you’ll never be wrong. Following Chicago style is perfectly acceptable, and perhaps more nuanced and sophisticated than AP's guidance, but it requires more thought on your part (and really, one less thing to think about is, well, one less thing to think about).

Note: As noted above, as you read this now I am in the Pine Tree state (notice the lowercase "s") and, consequently, will be unable to post any comments until my return next week, assuming I don't fall madly in love with a lobster roll and settle down in Kennebunkport until death do us part.   

The Wednesday Word Wise Roundup

So many blogs, so little time. What's a girl to do? Save time, follow my advice, check out the following:

• Though American English and British English (English English?) are the same but different, I’ve lately been reading The Engine Room, a writing blog written by two copy editors on an unnamed weekly UK magazine. A recent Engine Room post was about the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA), a ‘60s teaching fad that relied on phonetics. Coincidentally, it's the method under which I learned (or as the Engine Room bloggers might say, “learnt”) to read. ITA relied on the alphabet but also had other letter-like characters representing specific sounds. So though my name (then) was Danny, it was spelled "dancc," with those last two letters having a "strikethrough" through their centers connecting them for a hard "e" sound. Consequently, within a day of starting ITA I was, in the abstract, at least, able to read anything written in ITA, whether it was Anna Karenina or Mastering the Art of French Cooking. That said, I've grown up to be a very fast reader with excellent comprehension but a really bad speller. 


• Another well-worth-reading blog is the aptly titled You Don’t Say, written by John McIntyre, the assistant managing editor for the copy desk of The Baltimore Sun. Though he writes from the point of view of a journalist for other journalists, much of what he has to say applies to those of us in public relations and marketing, too. Like him, I decry long leads that go off in a million directions before telling me anything important. His advice? “Get to the point,” he wrote in his Aug. 6 post. “Take this sentence: ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’ The creation of the universe has a 10-word lead. Why does this story need more?” He might have asked, why does your press release need more?

Such As It Is

Use a comma before “such as” and “including” when the words that follow are an aside. “We counsel clients in several communications areas, such as PR, advertising, and word-of-mouth marketing.” (The first part of that could stand alone as a logical sentence: “We counsel clients in several communications areas.”) No comma is used before “such as” or “including” when a sentence wouldn’t make sense without the words that follow. In other words, the “such as” or “including” phrase is essential to the idea. “Mushrooms such as the truffe blanche d'Alba are too expensive to be used daily.” Without the “such as” phrase the remaining sentence – “Mushrooms are too expensive to use daily” – doesn’t have the same meaning since not all mushrooms are too expensive to use daily, but in this case, only the truffe blanche d'Alba. (The Italian composer Rossini - "Barber of Seville," etc. - called white truffles "the Mozart of the mushroom world." Mozart, apparently, doesn't come cheap.) Commas are not, not, not used after “such as” or “including.”  Right: “Esteban visited several countries in South America, including Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru.” Wrong: “Esteban visited several countries in South America, including, Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru.”

Note: “Including” and “include” are often misused – use them when listing some of a particular thing but not all of it. “Spaniel breeds include English Springer and Sussex.” You needn't end a sentence like this with "among others" or "and more" because using "include" implies that you're not providing a complete list. When listing all of a particular thing, use a word like “are” or “comprise” or a phrase such as “composed of.” “The spaniel breeds are American Cocker, American Water, Clumber, Cocker, English Springer, Field, Irish Water, Sussex, and Welsh Springer.”

The Wednesday Word Wise Roundup

This is the first in an occasional post I’m calling "the Wednesday Word Wise Roundup” – a way to pass on to you other sources of information about writing, word use, grammar and whatever else seems relevant. This week I want to point out two of my favorite blogs because not only are they compelling, but in their own odd way, they’re oddly important, too.  The first is the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks, in which blogger Bethany Keeley comments on photos people send in of, as she says, “unnecessary” quotation marks. It’s like Go Fug Yourself, but for quotation marks and without bad fashion. Today, among others things, Bethany ran a photo of a document from the Minnesota Safety Council that refers to “’"accidental’ injuries.” Oh, the irony of those accidental injuries. I’m also mad for Literally, a Web Log, “an English language grammar blog tracking abuse of the word ‘literally.’” I used the word “literally” in an early post here and learned the hard way that people (especially people other than my mother and a certain admin at my office) are reading Word Wise very carefully. Both blogs have links to other blogs covering the use, misuse and abuse of specific words or letters (check out lowercase L). All are worth reading.

Note: When I posted this last night (I'm writing this note on Aug. 2) I mistakenly referred to Literally, a blog as "Ken Leebow's Literally a blog" because the comment I received lo these many months ago was from someone named Ken Leebow. Turns out the blog is written by Patrick Fitzgerald and Amber Rhea, which was pointed out to me by commenter BarelyFitz (who is Patrick Fitzgerald). To him I not only owe an apology, but thanks for being so gracious about my error.