Word Wise

2007: The Year In Review

I'm often stopped in the hall, stairwell, or elevator at work and asked when such-and-such writing tip appeared - given that I write more than 50 of these a year, I'm lucky if I can recall which appeared last week let alone last March. In memory of the year just passed and the year ahead, here are links to the past year's tips.  Jan. 1: The Tone Ranger Jan. 7: Yours, Mine, and Ours Jan. 14: Out and Loud Jan. 21: Mark My Word Jan. 28:  Which Word When Feb. 1: Which word when, Part II Feb. 3: Edit Be Feb. 10: Home on the Range Feb. 17: Semicolonoscopy Feb. 24: Transition Granted March 3: A Plethora of Plethoras March 9: Spaced Out March 18: Quotation Device March 24: Subject to Change March 31: Slash and Burn April 7: IM What IM April 14: Who or Whom? Ho Hum April 21: Editorial Crutches April 27: Web-Time Story May 5: And I Am Telling U May 11: Remembrance of Dings Past May 18: I Got Rhythm May 25: Don’t Quote Me May 31: Where You Read, I Will Follow June 8: The Eyes Have It June 16: FYI: i.e. and e.g. – aka "id est" and "exempli gratia" June 22: Me, Myself and I June 29: Think Tank July 7: Which Word When, Part III July 13: Which Word When, Part IV July 14: Talk to the Hand Because the Face Ain't Listening July 20: Talk to the Hand, Part Dos July 21: The New 2007 AP Stylebook  July 27: Like d’oh! Aug. 3: Such As It Is Aug. 9: State of Mind Aug. 18: In Name Only Aug. 24: If You Have to Ask Sept. 1: Trademarks® the® Spot® Sept. 8: Strike Up the And Sept. 15: Don't Dis "Agree" Sept. 21: Say No to Capital Punishment Sept. 29: Only Qualified Applicants Need Apply Oct. 6: You’ve Got a Friend Oct. 14: I Before E Except After C Oct. 20: Here, There, Everywhere Oct. 27: Well, That’s That Nov. 3: 10 Things to Remember Nov. 10: Pure as the Driven … Nov. 18: Double, Double Toil and Trouble Nov. 25: Once Again, Which Word When Dec. 1: S’Wonderful! Dec. 9: Head Case Dec 16: Stay Positive Dec. 22: New York, New York Happy New Year!

New York, New York

Sometimes a word or phrase comes up in my writing or in that of others and I’m not sure if it’s right. So I go to my bookshelf and look it up in my 2007 AP Style. Last week, for instance, a colleague wrote “buzz word,” which just didn’t look right to me but I wasn’t 100 percent sure it was wrong. AP Style goes from “buss, busses” (which, it turns out, mean “kisses”) to “by,” so it was no help. What to do? Here's a good trick. In instances like this, when the AP Stylebook is useless, I go to one of two sources online: The New York Times and The New Yorker. In both publications I can conduct word and phrase searches. While I can always look up words in a dictionary, I can’t always look up phrases. Both The Times and The New Yorker allow me to see how they, famously persnickety grammarphiliacs, handle questionable situations (E.B. White, who wrote Charlotte’s Web, once said that “commas in The New Yorker fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim”). If it’s good enough for them, who am I to disagree? It works great most of the time and it’s quick in a pinch - plus it’s kind of fun to do. In a review of a book called Paranoia, The New Yorker wrote “The novel’s great strength is its fetishistic attention to the idioms and buzzwords of the tech business and the up-to-the-second catalogue of perfidy’s rewards: the particular Bordeaux or the particular Porsche that tickles the impulses of the New Greedy.” In an article about Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, The New York Times wrote “The word '’strength’' is an important buzzword of Mr. Romney's campaign, but he sometimes struggles to match Mr. Giuliani's testosterone level.” In both cases, I not only got what I was looking for – buzzword is one word - but I got to read a couple of nice sentences, too.

Note: I say this works “most of the time” because there are instances in which the two publications disagree. In fact, as I was writing this post I realized I wasn’t sure if I should capitalize the word “the” before Times, as in the Times or The Times (since it’s The New York Times). The Times uppercases the article, The New Yorker does not. In this case it seemed logical to  refer to it as The Times.

The Wednesday Word Wise Roundup

• Joanna Young’s Confident Writing blog (which I found through a legal writing blog by a lawyer in New Orleans  named Raymond Ward) recently featured “10 tried and tested techniques to turn your readers' heads - and then seduce them with the power of your words.” I especially like “Drone on with long sentences and never-ending paragraphs and your readers will soon go elsewhere for kicks. Stick to the point. Say what you need to say - and move on. It's guaranteed to keep them coming back for more.” I couldn't have said it better myself.

• Anyone who reads this blog (or knows or works with me) knows I think starting press releases or other documents with questions is usually a bad idea. At “Unsolicited Marketing Advice,” Warren Allan Johnson offers further insight into why questions are, uhm, questionable. “Overall, when you find yourself using a question in your copy, step back and consider working a bit harder to rephrase the section,” he writes. “Questions should be used as a carefully thought out and judiciously applied technique in your copywriting.” 

Stay Positive

Grab your coat and get your hat, Leave your worries on the doorstep; Life can be so sweet On the sunny side of the street. Life’s kind of a Debbie Downer half the time already (wah-wah) – enliven it a bit in your writing by staying clear of the not-only-this-but-that sentence construction. Not only do our clients deserve better, but our readers do, too. Wait, let’s rephrase that, because you can almost always rework this phraseology so it’s a positive instead of a negative: The not-only-this-but-that sentence construction is overused and negative. Our clients and readers deserve better. Let’s all try to be a bit more sunny (without being too cute about it) – a positive sentence structure gets your point across more convincingly, anyhow.

Note: I know, two weeks ago I started a post with song lyrics, too. But we can learn a lot from song lyrics about wit and rhythm, especially standards and songs written for musicals, where the songs are stories themselves. "On the Sunny Side of the Street" was written by the lyricist Dorothy Fields, who also wrote "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "A Fine Romance," among others. "A song just doesn't come on. I've always had to tease it out, squeeze it out," she said, "and anyone that tells you that a song is something that's an inspiration - I hate that word - or a magic spark, or an IBM machine gets you going, has got to prove that one to me. It's hard slave labor. Ask anyone who writes - it's slave labor and I love it."

Head Case

A press release came across my desk the other day with this headline (the client and contest name have been changed to protect my colleagues!): TAKE TWO: BANANA CORP.® INVITES REAL BANANA LOVERS TO CREATE NEXT GREAT TV SPOT Not bad for a first try. But headlines need to grab readers’ attention by telegraphing important information. Any unnecessary words, words that are confusing, or words that don’t communicate readily understandable information not only take up valuable real estate, they undermine what may be a valuable message.  So what’s the problem here? How about those first two words? Unless I read the release before I read the headline, I’m not going  to have any idea what “Take Two” means or refers to. I’m not going to know why they are there. In other words, before I start I’m already confused and distracted. And I've got enough problems. (As I learned later, ”Take Two” referred to the fact that this is the second time this company has held this contest. Too little, too late.) How about the word “real”? Real banana lovers? – as opposed to those fake, passive-aggressive ones who really don’t like bananas at all or are still among those who think they like bananas but really like plantains? While “real” may have some internal Banana Corp. significance it doesn’t convey that here.    While it was an easy fix, it was one that made a big difference: BANANA CORP.® INVITES BANANA LOVERS TO CREATE NEXT GREAT TV SPOT Because the final headline is shorter and more precise and free of any extraneous words that might confuse or distract me, as a reader I’m able to scoop up the information with my eyes and understand it immediately. I know the news. I got the message. (Job well done.) When writing headlines (and subheads), look at every word and phrase. Ask yourself if its meaning is clear, its intent is evident, and its presence an absolute requirement. Make every word count.

The Wednesday Word Wise Roundup

• Given how much I write about the holidays at work (and usually starting in July) I’m not big on reading articles in the press about the hottest gifts, gifts for her, gifts under $25, gifts for numismatists, etc., etc., etc. (as Yul Brenner would say). But about 15 colleagues of mine pointed out William Safire’s New York Times Magazine "On Language" column this past Sunday headlined “Bibliogifts,” filled with his suggestions for books you might give to the writers and writers wanna-bes in your life, so I took a look. Lots of ideas, with one of his faves the new Dictionary of American Slang, which, he writes, has “an appendix of text-messaging abbreviations, from the ancient ASAP and AWOL to the more recent @TEOTD ‘At the end of the day’; BTDT ‘Been there, done that; FOFL ‘falling on floor laughing’: KISS ‘Keep it simple, stupid’; MorF, ‘Male or Female?’; PU ‘That stinks!’ TLK2UL8R is code for ‘Talk to you later,’ but strikes me as a WOMBAT, the name of an Australian marsupial that sneers, ‘Waste of money, brains and time.’” 

• I love the blog called American Copywriter (“A blog about a podcast about advertising and other stuff people think about too much”). In July I posted a list of boring, overused and empty corporatese (best-of-breed, seamless, etc.) and a few weeks ago so did American Copywriter – an entirely different list than mine and totally wonderful. I’ll never be able to look at the words “brand architecture” or “minor tweaks” in the same way, again.

'S Wonderful!

'S wonderful! 'S marvelous! You should care for me! 'S awful nice ! 'S paradise! 'S what I love to see! George and Ira Gershwin knew a thing or two about apostrophes: In addition to indicating possessives, apostrophes indicate an omitted letter, such as in contractions like didn’t, isn’t, and mustn’t. In each of these cases the apostrophe lets the reader know the letter o is omitted. Sometimes an apostrophe is used in place of several letters, such as in int’l and gov’t. So, for instance: ‘Tis (it is) the season to look forward to new spring clothes, said Cyril, sounding ridiculous. We must be in ‘n’ out (in and out) of the shop as quickly as possible, screamed Aubrey.    The magazine was full of fashion dos and don'ts ("do nots"), thought Giles. 'S wonderful ! 'S marvelous! ‘S easy!

Note: Recently I corrected "do's and don'ts" (as noted above, it's dos and don'ts - more than one do and more than one don't) and when I did I received a call from my colleague saying that while I might be right (might be?), she preferred "do's and don'ts" because, as she put it, "it looks better." Darling (I thought to myself), grammar isn't about looks, it's about clarity and precision and silently agreed upon rules that allow us to communicate with one another easily. Sure, lots of things are up for discussion and over time things change, but the ins 'n' outs of most dos and don'ts don't.