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Bette Frick
The Text Doctor
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Greetings!
Tips in this newsletter will help you write better, use LinkedIn® more effectively, and perhaps make you laugh.
Scroll down to find a coupon for 20% off your first webinar!
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Feature: Don't be negative!
In the last two issues (January and February), we considered using right- and left-branching sentences and embedding information in your sentences. This month, I plead with you NOT TO BE NEGATIVE!
This doesn't refer to your reaction to the current economy, or the President's budget, or your own situation. What I'm suggesting is to avoid negative constructions in your sentences.
You may remember your English teacher suggesting that, whenever possible, you describe what IS rather than what IS NOT.
Readers process positive statements more quickly and more easily than negative statements.
Look at these three pairs of sentences. In each pair, the negative construction is #1; the positive is #2:
- "...the hill has not yet lifted its face to heaven that
perseverance will not gain the summit of at last." (Charles Dickens, 1812-1870, English novelist)
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"Perseverance can conquer every hill."
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To make them easier to identify, I/O tags will not
use lowercase letters (uppercase letters, numbers, and underscores only).
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To make them easier to identify, I/O tags will use uppercase letters, numbers, and underscores only.
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The BlackBerry (which isn't nicknamed CrackBerry for
nothing) is way more seductive than, say, e-mail alerts. (Newsweek, Feb. 16, 2009, p. 37)
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The BlackBerry (aptly nicknamed CrackBerry) is way more
seductive than, say, e-mail alerts.
Not only does the positive sentence have fewer words; you can grasp the meaning more quickly than the negative construction. "But," you ponder, "what about the rhetorical value of the double negative? When I say, 'Fear is not uncommon in today's economy,' it emphasizes the 'not uncommon' more than if I said, 'Fear is common.'"
I agree: There is a certain rhetorical effect to "not uncommon." However, if you must use the double negative, be sure to keep the two negatives very close to each other (like "not unlikely"). In the third example above, "isn't nicknamed CrackBerry for nothing," the double negatives are separated by three words, which slows the reader's processing.
It's been not unpleasant sharing this information with you!
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Writing tip: What's up with hyphens?
Many technical writers seem confused by hyphens. Here's one explanation that may help.
What
I remember from linguistics in graduate school (many years ago) is that
English is an agglutinative language (but not as agglutinative as
German). English glues words together. The normal progression is to
hyphenate the words being glued together, and then gradually, the
hyphen disappears, until the word is spelled solid.
I
remember "on-line" when it was hyphenated, and then one day, when I wasn't looking, it
became "online." Perhaps the deletion of the hyphen
is a good thing because it unclutters language, as long as no confusion results.
Today we argue about the hyphen in "e-mail" vs. "email," but if the linguistic theory of hyphen disappearance holds
true, "email" will be the result. I don't like the unhyphenated version because the hyphen in "e-mail" actually shows the truncation (cutting off) of "electronic" [mail] rather than joining two words.
Of
course, up-to-date grammar books, dictionaries, and style guides just state a slice of acceptance
in the middle of a linguistic sea change. The best advice is to simply
follow the style that makes sense to you at the time and be consistent
within your document, department, division, and company.
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LinkedIn® clinic: Two great tips
I learned two things about LinkedIn this week:
- Find the LinkedIn Outlook toolbar located at the bottom of your LinkedIn profile. Click on the link on that page and follow the directions. Once it's installed, you'll be able to click on a little icon that will now appear at the top right of every e-mail. A small box will appear to tell you if you're already linked to that person. If you are, you can download their VCF (vCard File) into your contact software. If you're not already linked to them, you can click on a link in the box and invite them quickly and easily. No more writing a note to remind yourself to invite a particular person to link!
- Recommend your LinkedIn friends and colleagues with specific kudos and praise--it's considered a good practice. However, if they immediately reciprocate with a glowing recommendation, postpone accepting it for a few weeks. If you accept it right away, the reciprocal recommendations may look like "quid pro quo" in the updates that go to your network and may discredit the whole process. (Thanks to proposal expert Laura Ricci for this tip!)
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For fun: Free how-to guides
Check out Mashable to find over 60 free how-to guides. There's even one on How to Meditate (scroll down a bit to "Miscellaneous How-To").
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These are a few of my favorite things: Constant Contact
If you want to try e-mail marketing, Constant Contact offers 60 days free. I've been using this service for three years, and this most recent release is very user-friendly. In addition, I feel much better not sending pounds of paper newsletters into the recycling stream. I also save about $200-300 in printing, postage, and labor every time I send an e-mail newsletter rather than mail it.
Another favorite resource to help with your e-mail marketing is Rosie Senjem, an excellent template designer, who created this template for me. Rosie can save you a lot of time and headaches.
Or check out LisaMarie Dias, who counsels business owners to make the most of their e-mail marketing using Constant Contact and other services. Lisa has offered me some really good suggestions. Thanks, Lisa, and here's to better e-mail newsletters!
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"See" you soon in one of my upcoming webinars: Use the attached coupon to save 20% to train your employees in punctuation, meeting minutes, presentations, and much more!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth (Bette) Frick
The Text Doctor®
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Save 20% on your first fast, focused, fun, and affordable webinar
Webinars are back at your request! Learn about punctuation, e-mail, PowerPoint presentations, project-managing your document and your team, and more!
Save 20% off the webinar of your choice. Visit my webinar page today to register with this discount code:
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Offer Expires: April 15, 2009
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