Five commonly confused words

Online Writing Training's online program, 100 Commonly Confused Words, includes the following words.

advice and advise

If a financial advisor advises you well, you may follow the advice. Memory jog: unwanted advice is a vice.

 

 

affect and effect

The weather affects the town and the effect (result) is disastrous. Memory jog: a for action.

dependant and dependent

A child is a dependant. She relies on others for her keep.

The man is dependent on his computer. He needs it even when he's on the bus.

 

deserts or desserts?

If you receive an appropriate punishment, do you get your just deserts or just desserts?

Answer: just deserts

This word is not related to deserts of sand and cactus or desserts that are puddings. This deserts comes from the same word as deserve.

it's and its

It's a wise dog that scratches its own fleas. (Strunk & White)

It's is short for it is and its is possessive. The fleas belong to the dog.

 

Blogging fatigue - is it worth it?

Last month I started to feel a bit overwhelmed by social media and wondered how anyone managed to get anything done while trying to keep up with all the demands of social media: tweeting, blogging, updating Facebook, connecting on Linkedin and so on.

And for a while I lost sight of what I was communicating and started to focus on the stats: I must reach 30 likes on Facebook to see my stats; I must reach 200 connections on Linkedin (other people have 500+); how many people are looking at my websites this month?

I regained my sanity by reading Debbie Weil’s book, The Corporate Blogging Book. Though aimed at the corporate market rather than at individuals, it is relevant for anyone who blogs. As she says on her website: ‘Blogging is no longer optional. A blog is a next-generation Web site. A blog is the home base of your social media strategy. Think of it as the hub of the wheel.’

She says a good corporate blog is updated frequently. I am never going to meet her measure of a couple of times a week, but agree that once started, a blog needs to be maintained. In terms of writing style she says: ‘The writing voice is authentic, friendly and conversational... A good blog serves up a hard-to-quantify mix of information, opinion and controversy. Er, controversy? Yes, even if it just means acknowledging a problem with your product or service. And then listening to feedback from your readers.’

But if we’re being controversial, what about the backlash? I write about grammar and writing topics and sometimes cringe when people respond to my views on grammar. When people are commenting on the blogosphere they seem to forget that they are writing to real people and think it is OK to be really rude.

Debbie Weil says: ‘When it comes to corporate blogging, the elephant in the room is fear.’ She lists the following fears: time, legal liability, employees wasting time on blogs, getting bitten by the blogosphere, damaging your brand by allowing negative comments, poor writing, lack of business results, managing the technical aspects of a blog, and losing control.

None of those fears is enough to stop us blogging though. In 2011, NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company, tracked over 181 million blogs around the world, up from 36 million in 2006.

But what about the results? Debbie Weil says the ROI of blogging is not a return on investment that can be measured in dollars, rather a ROB (return on blog) that results in more ‘connections, discovery, information, word-of-mouse, leverage, amplification and efficiencies’. You can still measure the success of your blog, even if not by dollars, and the most obvious measure is search engine results.

What makes for a successful blog? Debbie Weil maintains the success of a blog is ultimately determined by the satisfaction of the person writing it. She quotes an AOL survey of 600 bloggers that found nearly 50 per cent reported blogging was a form of therapy.

Now, I do not intend to think of my blog as therapy, but I will take my focus off my stats and continue to write about topics that enthuse and interest me.

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Bullet points or prose in executive summaries

Many writers use bullet points in executive summaries on the basis that they are short and to the point, and because they believe that most readers prefer to read bullet points rather than prose.

It is true that bullet points can be short and to the point, but the choice between bullet points or prose should be based on purpose, not what you think people prefer.

If your summary is factual and you are outlining highlights and issues, then bullet points work well. In such a list each point is a separate fact or event and you do not need to show the interconnectedness between them. 

Writing to persuade
If you are writing to persuade, for example in a proposal or business case, prose is more effective, because you want to lead your reader through your arguments. Persuasive writing is storytelling.

For example:

• Company X does a, b and c.
• There are d employees engaged in producing a, b and c.
• The overhead costs are $e per annum.
• Other companies using our services have reduced their overhead costs by up to f%.
• X could reduce its overhead costs by using our services.

In prose, this could read as:

Company X employs d employees to produce a, b and c, with overhead costs of $e per annum.

X could reduce its overhead costs by using our services. Other companies using our services have reduced their costs by up to f%.

Should your proof come before your offer?
Looking at the above example, a colleague and I debated which should go first: what you can do for the client or what you have done for other clients?

In my opinion, people want to know what you can do for them before hearing the proof of what you have done for others. My colleague’s argument was that your credibility comes before your offer.

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First, second and third person writing

The point of view or person you choose for your writing helps create your tone and perspective.

• First person writing uses 'I' and 'we'. 'I' writing is personal, but 'we' is often used collectively to refer to an organisation or group.
• With second person writing, you talk directly to your reader using 'you' language. The second person is used extensively in marketing material and also to provide information.
• Third person writing uses 'he', 'she', 'it' and 'they'. It is more formal than the first and second person and is often used in reports, policies and scholarly texts.

Most of us use the right person instinctively. But if you're stuck think about what you want to achieve and your audience.

Second person writing
There is an increasing trend, particularly in marketing writing, to use the second person extensively. It is powerful. 'You' language helps creates the sense that the writer is talking directly to you, so you feel engaged and involved. It's also a useful technique to help you, the writer, concentrate on what the reader wants to know rather than what you want to say. When people write in the second person their language is often more active and direct.

Third person writing
Third person writing is more authoritative and objective than first or second person writing. It's the language we're used to reading in our daily newspapers.

Third person writing is also more distant. This can be a disadvantage if you want to engage your reader, but an advantage if you're writing about negative topics, such as poor management, and don't want to imply that your reader is guilty (even if you know they are).

First person writing
'I' is personal and informal and is still not appropriate in a lot of business and marketing writing. But businesses of all sizes often use 'we' to personalise their services. For example, 'Discover what we're doing across the regions'.

Don't confuse your reader by switching person in the middle of a sentence. For example say:

After you attend a course, you must fill out an evaluation form.
or
After people attend a course, they must fill out an evaluation form.
Not
After a person attends a course, you must fill out an evaluation form.

For fun
There's a website that claims it can give you an instant indication of how customer-focused your website is. I'm sure it's based on how often you use the word 'you' compared with 'we'. Try it out and see how well you score!
http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm

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Writing referencing styles

The two main reference systems used in business writing are the author-date system and the documentary-note system. The Vancouver system, which is similar to the documentary-note system, is used in scientific writing. Many organisations develop their own referencing style based on either the author-date or documentary-note system.

Referencing within text

The author-date system, also known as the Harvard system, identifies in brackets the author’s name and date of publication.

     This study (Brown, 2008) demonstrates...

The documentary-note system uses endnotes or footnotes for references and comments.

     The study¹demonstrates...

Reference lists and bibliographies

People use the terms ‘reference list’ and ‘bibliography’ interchangeably. Both appear at the end of a document and are written in a similar manner, but a reference list documents all the works that were specifically referred to in the text, while a bibliography includes other works that were consulted as the document was being compiled.

The author-date and documentary-note system have several features in common:

• Books and periodical titles are italicised.
• Single quotation marks are used for article names and for chapters within books.
• Items within a reference are separated by commas (though there is no comma between the author and date in the author-date system).
• No full stops are used after authors’ initials.

The difference between the author-date and documentary-note systems lies in how the author’s name is written and in the position of the date of publication.

• In the author-date system, the author's first name or initials follows the family name, and is followed by the date.
• In the documentary-note system, the author's initials precede the family name, and the date is placed at the end of the citation.
• In the author-date system, the author’s first name or initials follows the family name, and is followed by the date.
• In the documentary-note system, the author’s initials precede the family name, and the date is placed at the end of the citation.

Examples of author-date references
Book: Flann, E, Hill, B 2004, The Australian Editing Handbook, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton.
Article: Tadros, E February 2009, ‘Shoppers log on for a bargain’, The Sun-Herald.

Examples of documentary-note references
Book: E Flann, B Hill, The Australian Editing Handbook, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, 2004.
Article: Tadros, E, ‘Shoppers log on for a bargain’, The Sun-Herald, February 2009.

Page number references

When referring to page numbers in the body of a document, use page or pages. In references, abbreviate to p. for page or pp. for pages. Have a space between the abbreviation and the page number.

     There is more information on company fraud on page 98.
     Fraud (pp. 98–103) is a major contributor to the company’s losses.

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Writing endings

Often we concentrate on openings and fizzle out at the end, forgetting that some people read beginnings and endings first, and the final note is sometimes what sticks in the mind. With reports, I don't think it matters if a section ends abruptly, but with media articles and blogs, it does.

A clever ending
An example of a clever ending is quoted in Writing for Journalists by Sally Adams and Harriet Gilbert, Routledge, 1999. This article was written for Observer years ago, but the topic still has relevance today.

'BT is tightening up its telephone security system after its confidential list of ex-directory numbers was penetrated – by a woman from Ruslip.'

[She sold this data to newspapers and was eventually caught and convicted.]

'Last night the Observer was unable to contact [X] by telephone. She is ex-directory.

Writing tips

• Echo your introduction, but don't repeat it word for word.
• Make a strong, not a timid, statement – it can be positive or negative.
• Put the powerful words at the end in the 'punch' position.
   'It was my mother, cold and dead.' Dickens.

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Online apostrophe program launch

Online Writing Training has just launched its new apostrophe program – the fifth in the series. You only have to think back to Myer’s post-Christmas sale mistake last year to realise the importance of this little punctuation mark when it comes to reputation and credibility.

Nothing says more about a brand than correct spelling, grammar and punctuation!

To celebrate the launch of this succinct and easy-to-use (and possibly long-overdue) program, we’re offering it to you at the special price of $9.95 GST incl (RRP $19.95).

Visit www.onlinewritingtraining.com.au to register (if you aren’t already registered), and use the promotional code ‘owt010dbi’ to receive your discount when buying the program. The discount will show on the PayPal payment page.

And, as always, all feedback most welcome!