Author: admin

This week, I’m revisiting a posting from last February that addressed marketing guru Seth Godin’s own blog of February 18 (2015). With the world news so filled with tragedy and suffering, we may be tempted to think that what we do in communications and marketing (and business) doesn’t matter or can’t make a dent. I want to re-assert that we can and do.

Godin raises the crucial issue of politics in marketing and communications or in any kind of cultural work.

My comments will follow this long quotation from Godin, after the crosses, below:

“Kicking and screaming (vs. singing and dancing)

Unfair things happen. You might be . . . demoted for a mistake you didn’t make, convicted of a crime you didn’t commit. The ref might make a bad call, an agreement might be abrogated, a partner might let you down.

Our instinct is to fight these unfairnesses, to succumb if there’s no choice, but to go down kicking and screaming. We want to make it clear that we won’t accept injustice easily, we want to teach the system a lesson, we want them to know that we’re not a pushover.

But will it change the situation? Will the diagnosis be changed, the outcome of the call be any different?

What if, instead, we went at it singing and dancing? What if we walked into our four-year prison sentence determined to learn more, do more and contribute more than anyone had ever dreamed? What if we saw the derailment of one path as the opportunity to grow or to invent or to find another path?

This is incredibly difficult work, but it seems far better than the alternative” (Godin, February 18, 2015).

+++++ Continue reading “Revisiting Seth Godin on the Politics of Creative Work . . .”

As a child, I can remember loving to hear onomatopoeic words. I loved them long before I knew that term. “Splash,” “jumping,” “disaster,” were all close (or belonging to) the onomatopoeic. A favourite from undergrad days was “brouhaha,” although that particular example never came up in essay writing. A year or two after telling a friend that I liked the term and the phenomena, a friend reported that he’d witnessed a discussion with staff at Tim Horton’s. There, he said, a discussion on the concept of dairy-free pastries “resulted in a brouhaha.”

Today I want to discuss a similar theme that I recall noticing, as a child: “words that don’t mean what they’re supposed to.” By this, I mean words that evoke by sound a meaning that is contrary to their actual meaning. A case in point? “Nonplus.”

Imagine my delight when American etymologist Bryan Garner recently discussed the very term, in his daily blog! He writes that “nonplus” as a verb means “to baffle or confound unexpectedly.” The term appears (and is pronounced) alike in both American and British English. That is because with both ” ‘nonplussed’ and ‘nonplussing,’ . . . the second syllable is stressed.” Continue reading “Are you puzzled by “nonplus?” Read today’s blog posting . . . .”

Last Thursday’s blog posting was deferred until now, due to system changes with Canadian Web Hosting.  Thank you for your patience!

I’m often asked by clients of my editing services how to know when to correctly capitalize words that follow a colon. When I refer to the “rules,” I sometimes find those clients stop listening (lol)! So, from The Chicago Manual of Style (TCMS), here’s a more comprehensible reply:

TCMS says that “A colon introduces an element or a series of elements illustrating or amplifying what has preceded the colon . . . .” (E.g.: “George was faced with a difficult choice: Should he tell what he read in the letter and spoil the surprise? Or should he remain silent and risk that Natalie would leave town, before the time of the party?”)

In the example just given, the “S” in “should” and the “O” in “or” are capitalized, because the colon introduces two sentences. Logically, this makes sense, as the capitalization clarifies the beginning point of each of the two sentences that follow it.

In fact, the first word after a colon will be capitalized (i) if it is a proper name; (ii) when it introduces two or more sentences (as above); (iii) or when it introduces a speech in dialogue, or an extract. Continue reading “When do you use capitals after colons? Today’s punctuation bugbear . . .”

Although it’s not uncommon for celebrities or politicians to say they hate giving interviews, if truth be told, there are copywriters and journalists who hate making interviews, as well.

For some months now, I’ve been interviewing colleagues and friends for an upcoming e-book on creatives. And interviews are the lifeblood of business writing as well as of journalism. Veteran American journalists Mike Wallace (of “60 Minutes”) and Beth Knobel (lecturer at Fordham University) have written a primer that I’ve found helpful: Heat & Light: Advice for the Next Generation of Journalists (NY: Three Rivers, 2010). Here are 12 tips for making better interviews that lead to better articles. I’m adapting these myself, as I work:

(1) Prepare 50 (I’d say 20, depending on scope of the interview) questions arising from background research on your interviewee. Do this in order to be fully familiar with the topic. And be prepared to digress from your prepared set of questions, if more interesting lines of inquiry arise.

(2) Address the “why” and “so what” of the interviewee’s life or issues, as well as the “how, where and when.”

(3) Be sure to make your questions open-ended ones. Ones that can’t be answered with a simple yes/no. Open-ended questions are more likely to provide an interesting quotation for your article. And don’t ask questions that give the interviewee a choice, as it will give “box in” your interviewee and give them an “easy out” (64). For instance, don’t ask this: “Were you at the scene of the accident or did you arrive after it happened?” Continue reading “Hate making interviews? Here are 12 Tips from the Pros . . .”

For today’s blog: Disinterested or uninterested? Which is it and when?

The primary meaning of “disinterested” (Oxford English Dictionary) is “impartial,” or “not interested by considerations of personal advantage.” But, very surprisingly, its earliest recorded sense is “not interested” (i.e. a synonym for “uninterested”).

Using “disinterested” to mean uninterested is widespread, but the OED says it “should be avoided in careful writing.” Continue reading “Usage tip: “Disinterested” or “uninterested?” Which is it?”