Word Wise: The Wednesday Word Wise Round Up

July 30, 2008

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about seeing text message-isms creeping into everyday documents and the agita it gave me. Yesterday The Wall Street Journal ran a great piece about this same thing – Thx for the Iview! I Wud ©to Work 4U!!:) – �but with a twist, focusing on job applicants’ thank you notes, how they write them, and how young people occasionally cross the line when it comes to online communications. It included a fantastic (and insightful) comment from Wendi Friedman Tush, president of Lexicomm Group, a boutique communications firm in New York, who said of an applicant friending her on Facebook, “I'm not his friend. I'm not even his employer. I was somebody who interviewed him. They are called social-networking sites for a reason."

Every month Barbara Wallraff’s "Word Fugitives" column in The Atlantic poses readers’ requests for words that don’t yet exist, as well as their responses. It's always a fun read. In the current issue she lists some of the word suggestions for a husband’s “uncanny ability” to ask his wife if she needs help with a household task “at the exact moment” that she’s finishing it. The winning term: afterthoughtful. The requests this month are a term for “the seemingly universal, irresistible impulse, when faced with a dishwasher that someone else has loaded, to rearrange the dishes,” and “an appropriate word for the aversion of many persons (young or old) to revealing their true age.” Since I’m neither young nor old, I’m happy to say I’m 48.

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Why "Word Wise"?

When I started to e-mail out a weekly writing tip to my Chicago colleagues at Edelman in 2002, little did I know how quickly how many people outside my office would start to request it. But word spread, as word is wont to do, and in 2006 the e-mail evolved into this blog. The tips, which are about grammar, usage and style, have a dual purpose – to remind my colleagues in PR of the power of the written word and, more generally, to support and perpetuate clear, concise, creative, honest, lively, stylish, compelling writing everywhere. In 2009 I started to add commentary about and links to stories and other blog posts related to the media, marketing, writing and, sometimes, just interesting stuff. For some reason, I also started Twittering (at SantowDan).