Funny YouTube Video

One of my clients sent me a YouTube video on grammar that was a spoof of Inglorious Basterds. He said that as soon as he saw it, he thought of me. Well, I am a good grammarian, but I like to think, and indeed try to teach, that while grammar's important, what's more important is content. In other words, too often writers can so get caught up in worrying about grammar that they overlook the "function" of the document; that is, the purpose the document is supposed to serve, who's going to read it, and what readers are looking for in the document. So, while good grammar is essential, content is king (or queen!).

Deleting words that add no value

We've been focusing quite a bit on words lately in our newsletters, and our most recent newsletter focused on words that add no value. We always tell writers that if a word or words add no value or don't enhance reader understanding, don't use them. Some examples are the words that are subjective, such as "very" and "better," which, unless the writer provides some context for why something is "very" or "better" don't mean much. Other examples are "respond back" rather than "respond," "as well as" instead of "and," "send out" rather than "send," "write out" or "type up" rather than "write" or "type."

Buzzwords

We've been running a contest on overused buzzwords and have gotten some pretty good entries. Am interested to know what you think makes a buzzword a buzzword? In other words, why is it that some words or terms "go viral" and others don't? I'm thinking particularly of the term "reaching out," which to me doesn't sound professional; it sounds instead like you're holding out a hand to help someone.

Dying Metaphors

We're running a contest for dying metaphors and/or overused terms in business, and one of the funniest we've gotten is "not my dog to hunt." I laughed out loud when I read it. Some other good ones (and ones I've never heard) are "hard stop" (supposedly this means "the buck stops here"); spin up a conference call (how does one do that, exactly?); and "functional provider" (as the submitter pointed out, as opposed to "dysfunctional provider"?). Submit entries to us at pam@hurleywrite.com. Contest ends April 30, 2010. You can win a writing module.

Companies and Their (Lame) Apologies

Seems like you can't turn on the radio or read the news without hearing about some company's misfire and the resulting chaos. What's even more telling, however, is how (and if) these companies apologize. Becky Quick's newest column in Fortune magazine (you may know Ms. Quick from MSNBC's Squawkbox) discusses the failings of these companies (http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/04/news/companies_apologies.fortune/index.htm). One of the more troubling issues that she discusses is the case of an 84-year-old man whose Boston Scientific defibrillator failed him. Boston Scientific, rather than apologizing or indicating that the device could be defective, wrote a letter that criticized the doctor who wrote about the incident and criticized the journal for publishing the piece. Interesting, isn't it, that companies (and individuals) seem less able to apologize and more likely to blame their problems on others. Communication at its best, or worst?

Our March newsletter addresses the use of overused buzzwords in business. I'm always amazed how quickly these overused, and often meaningless, words make their way into the business mainstream. A couple that really grate on me are the use of "perfect!" (as when I'm setting up an appointment or doing some other mundane activity that requires little to no effort on anyone's part) or "reach out" (as in "I've reached out to Mary in R&D" rather than simply saying that you've contacted her). Another is "it is what it is." I get that, I really do, but does mean that we have no way of changing it? When I hear "it is what it is," I think: this person just doesn't want to deal with the situation, and that kind of attitude is "absolutely" unprofessional. To see if your firm is guilty of overusing buzzwords, visit www.thompsonwriting.com/overused words and phrases.htm for a great (and exhaustive) list.

Newsletter Error

Just realized that we made an error in the subject line of our latest newsletter--we misspelled "ending." How embarrassing! The issue was that I was typing in one subject line, changed my mind about the word that I was using, and neglected to ensure that the previous word had been deleted! Damage control--what did I do? I wrote a second email explaining the issue and apologizing, and to make it less dramatic, added some humor: I told readers that my staff and I were enrolling in our own online course "Effective Editing and Proofreading Strategies." Received some great feedback from readers on the second email--some were very funny! To read them, you'll have to subscribe to our newsletters (www.hurleywrite.com), as the responses will be published in the next newsletter.