Thursday, March 29, 2012
A letter to the future
Dear 40-year-old self,
I hope you've lightened up a bit. Knowing your stubborn ways, you're probably still out there correcting others' grammar and punctuation before you correct your own. If you are, put your Sharpie down for a minute and stop fixing street signs.
Enjoy life for the beauty in its imperfections. Stop and smell the roses. Read a newspaper without cringing at the sight of placeholder text that the editor forgot to remove. Ignore your friend's Facebook post littered with exclamation marks (Do people even use the Internet in 2027?).
If you're still in public relations, submit a hard-hitting political article to a national daily and get a brilliant editor to rip you a new one. You know, like the good old days.
I can't wait to see your face some day. You better have cute children.
Sincerely,
Your 25-year-old self
I hope you've lightened up a bit. Knowing your stubborn ways, you're probably still out there correcting others' grammar and punctuation before you correct your own. If you are, put your Sharpie down for a minute and stop fixing street signs.
Enjoy life for the beauty in its imperfections. Stop and smell the roses. Read a newspaper without cringing at the sight of placeholder text that the editor forgot to remove. Ignore your friend's Facebook post littered with exclamation marks (Do people even use the Internet in 2027?).
If you're still in public relations, submit a hard-hitting political article to a national daily and get a brilliant editor to rip you a new one. You know, like the good old days.
I can't wait to see your face some day. You better have cute children.
Sincerely,
Your 25-year-old self
Apostrophes
Misplaced apostrophes can mean the difference between having fun...
... and getting squished.
... and getting squished.
Music and grammar – not today, Bieber
Every morning when the alarm informs me I haven't had enough sleep, yet again, I let it run for about five minutes. Instead of the obnoxious beeping noise, the radio automatically turns on. At 5:25 a.m., the music typically provides a smooth transition into my day, but not today.
Justin Bieber's unfortunate new single "Boyfriend" has hit the airwaves.
"If I was your boyfriend, I'd never let you go," Bieber sings, forcing me to rip my alarm clock out of the wall. Over the years I've learned the importance of being a graceful morning-riser, but not today.
While Bieber's annoying voice and teeny-bopper status is enough to anger anyone, nothing makes my blood boil more than improper use of the indicative mood.
Again, Grammar Girl gives an in-depth review of "were" vs. "was." For the sake of this entry, let's keep it all Biebs.
If Bieber were your boyfriend, he'd never let you go. But he's not your boyfriend and he likely never will be, which is why he should have used "were" instead of "was."
"Were" is a subjunctive verb, reserved for hopes and dreams. This is often used after the word "if" and before "could" or "would." But irregular English is here to save the day. When a situation could be true, you can use "if I was."
If Bieber actually was your boyfriend, he wouldn't be wishing to never let you go, he would be apologizing for ruining your life.
Justin Bieber's unfortunate new single "Boyfriend" has hit the airwaves.
"If I was your boyfriend, I'd never let you go," Bieber sings, forcing me to rip my alarm clock out of the wall. Over the years I've learned the importance of being a graceful morning-riser, but not today.
While Bieber's annoying voice and teeny-bopper status is enough to anger anyone, nothing makes my blood boil more than improper use of the indicative mood.
Again, Grammar Girl gives an in-depth review of "were" vs. "was." For the sake of this entry, let's keep it all Biebs.
If Bieber were your boyfriend, he'd never let you go. But he's not your boyfriend and he likely never will be, which is why he should have used "were" instead of "was."
"Were" is a subjunctive verb, reserved for hopes and dreams. This is often used after the word "if" and before "could" or "would." But irregular English is here to save the day. When a situation could be true, you can use "if I was."
If Bieber actually was your boyfriend, he wouldn't be wishing to never let you go, he would be apologizing for ruining your life.
The Oxford, Harvard, or serial comma
If I could, I would recruit the panda bear from the Eats, Shoots and Leaves cover to begin painting over the second comma in the headline of this blog posting – not fully removing it.
The Oxford comma bases its appearances on the writer's preference or publication's established style. To be clear, the panda on the book cover is not removing an Oxford comma. He's just a good painter.
An Oxford comma is used immediately before a coordinating conjunction.
It looks like this:
Apples, oranges, and bananas.
As opposed to without the Oxford comma:
Apples, oranges and bananas.
These are simple examples but some writers use the Oxford comma to avoid ambiguity, where one clause – in a sentence of many – has multiple elements.
My usual breakfast is coffee, bacon and eggs and toast.
Three foods are listed, but it is uncertain which are the second and third. Adding a serial comma removes this ambiguity.
With a comma after eggs, the foods are:
1.Coffee
2.Bacon and eggs
3.Toast
With a comma after bacon:
1.Coffee
2.Bacon
3.Eggs and toast
I prefer not to use it because – learning journalism through the print mindset – it saves a whole character space. Which, in some cases, can make or break your layout design. But as I've learned from writing and editing online, the number of characters/words is not as limiting.
Grammar Girl, an American grammar guru, gives her perspective on using the Oxford comma.
Although it is often a decision based on preference in style, save for avoiding ambiguity, it is imperative that you remain consistent.
Proofreading for public relations
Press releases, newsletters, emails, tweets, communications plans. These are all avenues of written work for PR professionals. But why should we care to proofread them? What difference does it make if our grammar is poor and our commas are misplaced?
Readers will question our credibility immediately after finding a mistake, whether it's a factual error, a spelling mistake or grammatically incorrect. While we won't always catch it all, here are some tips for proofreading.
1. Step away: You've researched, you've stared at your computer screen, you've written and re-written, you've stared at your computer a little longer and you finally think you're done. Well, you're not. Give your eyes a break from looking at those same words, which are all starting to blur into one. If you can afford to sleep on it or go for a long run, these are the best ways to clear your mind. This is the optimal time for tip number two.
2. Hand it over: Ask a friend or colleague to proofread your work. Often, the further removed they are from the subject, the better. They can help eliminate jargon, provide insight on structure or point out the double "the" in your sentence.
3. Change it: If you don't have time to sleep on it or pass your document over to a friend, the quickest method to tricking your brain into thinking it's looking at something new is to reverse the colours. Give your document a blue background with a white font. You might also try increasing the font size, allowing you to focus closely on individual words.
4. Print it: To this day, newspaper copy-editors still print off articles. Some even use the magical red pens.
5. Work backwards: The best line edit spawns from reading each sentence from last to first. This allows you to focus on sentence structure and grammar.
6. Read aloud: If you stumble over your words, your sentence likely appears as jumbled as it sounds. A natural flow can mean the difference between losing your readers and keeping them engaged until the bitter end.
7. Use resources: A hard copy dictionary is your friend. I tend to distrust online dictionaries. Content on the Internet is always changing so the only way to ensure consistency is to stick with one or two physical dictionaries that you can keep on your shelf – or better yet, right by your side.
8. Remove redundancies: Ask yourself while you're reading, "Can I remove this word without changing the meaning of the sentence?" The most popular, cringe-worthy redundancy is "various different." Eliminating the baggage will provide a more concise package of words.
On that note, these eight tips are bordering overkill. Feel free to join the conversation and add your own proofreading tips in the comments below.
Readers will question our credibility immediately after finding a mistake, whether it's a factual error, a spelling mistake or grammatically incorrect. While we won't always catch it all, here are some tips for proofreading.
1. Step away: You've researched, you've stared at your computer screen, you've written and re-written, you've stared at your computer a little longer and you finally think you're done. Well, you're not. Give your eyes a break from looking at those same words, which are all starting to blur into one. If you can afford to sleep on it or go for a long run, these are the best ways to clear your mind. This is the optimal time for tip number two.
2. Hand it over: Ask a friend or colleague to proofread your work. Often, the further removed they are from the subject, the better. They can help eliminate jargon, provide insight on structure or point out the double "the" in your sentence.
3. Change it: If you don't have time to sleep on it or pass your document over to a friend, the quickest method to tricking your brain into thinking it's looking at something new is to reverse the colours. Give your document a blue background with a white font. You might also try increasing the font size, allowing you to focus closely on individual words.
4. Print it: To this day, newspaper copy-editors still print off articles. Some even use the magical red pens.
5. Work backwards: The best line edit spawns from reading each sentence from last to first. This allows you to focus on sentence structure and grammar.
6. Read aloud: If you stumble over your words, your sentence likely appears as jumbled as it sounds. A natural flow can mean the difference between losing your readers and keeping them engaged until the bitter end.
7. Use resources: A hard copy dictionary is your friend. I tend to distrust online dictionaries. Content on the Internet is always changing so the only way to ensure consistency is to stick with one or two physical dictionaries that you can keep on your shelf – or better yet, right by your side.
8. Remove redundancies: Ask yourself while you're reading, "Can I remove this word without changing the meaning of the sentence?" The most popular, cringe-worthy redundancy is "various different." Eliminating the baggage will provide a more concise package of words.
On that note, these eight tips are bordering overkill. Feel free to join the conversation and add your own proofreading tips in the comments below.
Punctuation and grammar save lives
A few years ago, around the same time I got involved in journalism, I read Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. The title of the book comes from a bad (but necessary) joke:
The joke is necessary because so many of us have forgotten, or have never learned, rules on punctuation and grammar. As an editor and budding corporate communicator, I'm constantly reviewing written work. There are mistakes everywhere: signs, menus, memos, emails, Facebook posts and undoubtedly, throughout this blog.
While we all make mistakes in our written work, I give points for effort. In most cases there are steadfast rules that we must stick to, but sometimes we can make decisions based on style. My postings will be short but will provide guidance on grammar and punctuation rules. If the topic of discussion is a matter of stylistic differences, I'll make mention of it. Otherwise, assume it's a rule.
I'm not here to Seventh-day-Adventist you with my grammar rules, but I am here to save lives. If the erroneous comma hadn't been in play, the panda may not have shot the other patrons. Perhaps if the comma existed in the following sentence, Grandma wouldn't have been a product of cannibalism:
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.
"Why?" asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"Well, I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
The joke is necessary because so many of us have forgotten, or have never learned, rules on punctuation and grammar. As an editor and budding corporate communicator, I'm constantly reviewing written work. There are mistakes everywhere: signs, menus, memos, emails, Facebook posts and undoubtedly, throughout this blog.
While we all make mistakes in our written work, I give points for effort. In most cases there are steadfast rules that we must stick to, but sometimes we can make decisions based on style. My postings will be short but will provide guidance on grammar and punctuation rules. If the topic of discussion is a matter of stylistic differences, I'll make mention of it. Otherwise, assume it's a rule.
I'm not here to Seventh-day-Adventist you with my grammar rules, but I am here to save lives. If the erroneous comma hadn't been in play, the panda may not have shot the other patrons. Perhaps if the comma existed in the following sentence, Grandma wouldn't have been a product of cannibalism:
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The dreaded exclamation mark
Aside from the occasional breaking-news email (containing announcements of a pregnancy, engagement, new job or the incredible sandwich you ate at lunch), leave the exclamation marks out of your written work. "!" rarely has a place in a newspaper headline or within the subtitles of a foreign documentary. And there is absolutely no more room for exclamation marks to be plastered on my Facebook wall.
The Canadian Press Stylebook says, "Do not overuse this strong mark of punctuation."* It can be used to denote great surprise (Oh my!), a command (Run!), deep emotion (I'm so angry!), emphasis (It's mine!) and sarcasm (Puh-lease!). There are many other uses for the exclamation mark but I won't get into that just yet.
In most cases, if your sentence doesn't portray the proper amount of excitement, change your vocabulary, not your punctuation.
A former journalism colleague, who is known to cringe at the sight of "!", once told me that everyone gets one exclamation mark per professional career. I haven't used mine yet — unless you count the seven in this entry.
Acceptable:
*Canadian Press Stylebook 16th Edition, page 386
The Canadian Press Stylebook says, "Do not overuse this strong mark of punctuation."* It can be used to denote great surprise (Oh my!), a command (Run!), deep emotion (I'm so angry!), emphasis (It's mine!) and sarcasm (Puh-lease!). There are many other uses for the exclamation mark but I won't get into that just yet.
In most cases, if your sentence doesn't portray the proper amount of excitement, change your vocabulary, not your punctuation.
A former journalism colleague, who is known to cringe at the sight of "!", once told me that everyone gets one exclamation mark per professional career. I haven't used mine yet — unless you count the seven in this entry.
Acceptable:
*Canadian Press Stylebook 16th Edition, page 386
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