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Bette Frick
The Text Doctor®
cropped Dr Frick
In This Issue
Banish writer's block
Tour de Style Manuals: Chicago Manual of Style
For fun: Getting serious about the serial comma
Favorite things: Constant Contact for newsletters and surveys/polls
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Quote of the Month

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain . . . .

T.S. Eliot, 1888-1965,
The Wasteland, 1922
 
Polls

March results

Quality of meetings at your workplace
Excellent             14%
OK                        29%
So-So                    36%
Poor                     14%
Terrible                 7%

Cool Links (heavy on YouTube links this month)
The Text Doctor's Diagnosis
April 1, 2010

Greetings!

I am writing to share the news that a recent-but-little known federal law banning the serial comma was signed by President Obama this morning. "The serial comma has caused much argument, useless ink, and wasted editorial time," said the President, "and banning it will reduce the National Debt by over $3 billion a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office."

Even more startling than the debt reduction figure is the fact that this legislation became law with nearly unanimous bipartisan support. Sarah Palin, representing the Tea Party, praised it: "You betcha. We are so tired of that wavy little mark confusing us."

To learn more about how this landmark legislation can affect you, visit More about serial commas.
Communication tip #4: Banish writer's block
I should video my delaying tactics when I have writer's block. Today, for example, I have planted one-third of my vegetables, swept and vacuumed my condo, and walked the dog (twice) while avoiding writing this newsletter.

Why isn't it called "non-writer's block"? Professional writers suffer from it, too, but they have adopted rituals and props to prime the pump: a favorite beverage, a special pen, familiar music, writing in a certain place or at a set time.

Writer's block may be inevitable for some, but it is rarely terminal. Use these tools to jump-start your next project:
  1. Turn the rituals inside out. Switch your beverage. If you always write on the computer, use paper. Change your music.
  2. Talk yourself over the spot where you are stuck, recording yourself for later transcription.
  3. Pose questions like "Why," "Why now?" and "So what?" to break your block.
  4. Start in the middle. Ernest Hemingway always finished his day's writing in mid-sentence so that he could jump right in the next morning without thinking too much.
  5. Don't start with sentences. Instead, create clusters or mindmaps, then outline, then start drafting.
  6. To keep your thought process flowing, bracket incomplete ideas or missing information for later research, then plow on.
  7. Bribe yourself. Set up a reward for completion depending on the difficulty and length of your task.
  8. Divide and conquer. Devote a set amount of time per day to write a small portion of your project. Producing 70 words in 3 minutes equates to
    • A journal article (3500 words in 5 days of 30 minutes)
    • A textbook chapter (14,000 words in a month)
    • A long novel (84,000 words in 6 months)
I'll bet you could start on your first 70 words of your journal article (textbook chapter, novel, white paper) right now!

What are your favorite block-busting tactics? Take our one-question survey in our "Polls section" and see the results in May.

To view more tips that will help you overcome writer's block, visit these links:

Purdue's OWL (Online Writing Lab)

Capital Community College Foundation's page on writer's block

Even fiction writers get writer's block

My thanks to two Medtronic classes last month who helped me tighten this article by almost 50%.
Tour de Style Manuals: Chicago Manual of Style
Chicago Manual of Style
The choice of a style manual can be more political than you might imagine. Just as people choose their style of dress, hair, and food and remain loyal to their choices, language and style preferences become entrenched, and few individuals welcome change.

I experienced this when I taught a technical writing seminar at a small testing firm. A learner in the class asked me for a recommendation for a published style manual. I answered, "In the absence of a corporate requirement to use a specific industry style manual like the AMA Manual of Style(American Medical Association) or the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association(APA Style), I think a great choice for your company is The Gregg Reference Manualfor good general business style."


One seminar member reacted very strongly, grumbling that The Gregg Reference Manual was for secretaries and demanding that members of the class should use The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). After a rather heated discussion about the pros and cons of each, we dropped the issue, but when I came to teach my class the next week, I found a box of CMS manuals (a $1000 investment) on my desk to distribute to the class.

After that, learners would e-mail me with questions like "How does Gregghandle XX?" or "We're having an argument here about how to format YY, and it's not listed in Chicago. Could you look it up for me in your copy of Gregg?"

This is why it's valuable to know which style manual is best for which industry or purpose. CMS was developed for the University of Chicago's academic faculty and is best today for authors of scholarly works. It is also used in social science publications and most historical journals.

In contrast, the Gregg Reference Manualstates that it is "the business writer's survival manual" and, as such, includes many items not found in CMS. I own both, but I find myself referring to Greggat least ten times as much as I refer to the CMS for business and technical writing purposes.

Check out these links:

The Chicago Manual of Style Online
Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide
CMS Crib Sheet
Frick and Frick's matrix comparing 12 current style manuals

The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers, 15th edition, 2003.

(New editions released about every 10 years)

University of Chicago Press

984 pages

ISBN: 978-0226104034

List price: $55.00 (about $30 on Amazon.com)

AprilfoolsFor fun: I wasn't serious about banning serial commas

This is an April Fools' joke!!!

To see more, go to www.textdoctor.com/Aprilfoolsday2010.html.


These are a few of my favorite things: Constant Contact

Constant ContactI thank my good friend and loyal reader, Rosie Senjem of Intuitive Plan, for introducing me to Constant Contact nearly five years ago. I use Constant Contact for this newsletter and for my survey/polling tool. As with all software, there's a learning curve, but the support is superb and the system is really easy to use. You will use an interface that mimics Microsoft Word, so you won't need to learn HTML (although knowing HTML may allow you to fine-tune the code a bit).

If you'd like to try it for free, go to www.constantcontact.comfor a 60-day free trial.

If you decide to subscribe to it and would like to save $30 on your first month's subscription rate, contact me at efrick@textdoctor.com(I'll also earn a $30 credit if you subscribe).
Thanks for reading. Last month, my readership grew past 500 subscribers! I appreciate all of you.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth (Bette) Frick
The Text Doctor®