Probably the most misunderstood--and most misused--punctuation mark in the English language is the semicolon. Nothing shouts INEXPERIENCED WRITER more than a document with incorrectly placed semicolons. (Well, we also pull out our hair when a writer uses that and which incorrectly; that's another one of our bugaboos.) On the other hand, when a writer uses that semicolon correctly, whew, now that's sexy!

Now you may think you know all there is to know about punctuation, but we respectfully disagree. For most of us, high school English class was a long time ago. It never hurts to review the basics. So let's test your knowledge. Read each of the statements below and decide whether we've used the semicolon correctly or incorrectly.

1. Zombies chased me down the street; I slipped as I tried to get away from them.
2. The undead always move in a group; which makes moving quickly rather difficult.
3. My favorite zombie used to have red hair; but I didn't like to touch it.
4. Zombie outbreaks have occurred in Milan, Italy; Bern, Switzerland; and Madrid, Spain.
5. Zombies look weird; yet I'm not scared of them.
6. Zombies don't eat pineapples; my friend feeds her pet gerbil peanuts.

How'd you do? You should have recognized that in statements 1 and 4 we used the semicolon correctly; in statements 2, 3, 5, and 6 we used it incorrectly. Let's review the ones that are correct and discuss why.

One reason to use a semicolon is to connect 2 independent but related clauses. You all know what an independent clause is, don't you? It's a statement that can stand alone as a complete sentence. In statement 1, the statement before the semicolon, Zombies chased me down the street, and the statement after, I slipped as I tried to get away from them, are both independent clauses that can stand alone. Since they relate to the zombie chase, it makes perfect sense to connect them with a semicolon.

Another reason to use a semicolon is when listing items that have an internal comma, as in statement 4. Here we used the semicolon correctly to separate the locations.

Now let's discuss the wrong ones. Statement 2 is wrong because the statement after the semicolon, which makes moving quickly rather difficult, is not an independent clause. It cannot stand alone as a complete sentence. Statements 3 and 5 are wrong because we never use a semicolon with conjunctions such as and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet. In both statements, a comma would be the correct punctuation mark to use. As for statement 6, sure, the statements before and after the semicolon are independent clauses but no relationship exists between them. Not only are they independent clauses, they are independent ideas as well. They should be treated as the distinct sentences they are and be separated with a period.

DOLLARS & SENSE

On the Road Again                

Willie Nelson just can't wait to "be on the road again." We feel the same way, because we love to travel and discover new places--even if we don't get to stay there for very long or see very much of them. Gee...sounds just like the life of a music star! But that's the blessing and the curse of business travel, you get to go to interesting places and never see them. How glamorous.

When we travel for business, we make sure we're earning just as much money as if we were in our offices working, and you should, too.

Recently, a good friend and Pencil Points reader asked us to write about what freelances should bill for travel time. We wrote about business travel in Pencil Points Issue #29, and you should definitely check that out. But we didn't specifically write about what you should charge for travel time. Get ready. We're about to take the gloves off and let it fly.

We insist on being paid for travel time and we never take "no" for an answer. Why? Here's the reason--and we've even explained it this way to clients, because they rarely think the way freelances think. There are two reasons, really:

REASON 1: If we were at our desk working for one client instead of traveling for another client, we would be earning our expected income. Why would we ever give that up?

REASON 2: Unless our client contact is getting his or her salary docked because he or she spent a whole business day traveling to a meeting on the opposite coast or across the pond, why should we?

Clients don't really think about income this way, so it's beholden on us freelances to teach them. As you can imagine, it's pretty difficult to argue with our rationales.

That brings us to, what to charge? We're staunch advocates of project pricing, so if we have an opportunity to roll the time cost (not out-of-pocket cost, that's always separate) of travel into a project estimate, we always seek to make as much as we can. You can do your own math as far as what your desired--but never spoken--hourly rate may be.

Sometimes we break out travel time separate from project time. But we prefer to roll it all in together. For example, say we're traveling from the east coast to the UK to cover a 1-day advisory board meeting. The ultimate deliverable will be an executive summary. This amounts to 3 days out of the office before the writing even begins. Because our clients don't know how much work we can usually get done in a single 8-hour day, we can't really charge our desired rate for a full day of travel.

We've found the limit of tolerability (or dose-limiting toxicity, if you prefer), is about US$1,000 per day for straight travel. After all, you can't get much work done for the client who's sending you on the trip, or for any other client. The clock starts ticking when we leave our home, and it stops ticking when we get settled into our hotel room with no additional expectations of work or involvement. Then we estimate the deliverable on top of that amount. Of course, out-of-pocket travel expenses (for example, airfare, ground transportation, and hotel charges) are always additional and not estimated.

If the client expects us to arrive from a 6-hour flight (plus ground travel on both ends) and go directly into a slide review meeting or a faculty meet-and-greet, that additional time is added to the daily rate for that day. If the meeting in the UK ends at 3 pm and we jump a plane an hour later to head home instead of waiting for the next day, that's still 3 days of travel and just more punishment on our bodies.

Estimating for US coast-to-coast travel is predictably the same as flying from the east coast to the UK. For longer distances, you can still use this as a gauge to compute your travel expenses.

The important thing to remember is to not back down on charging for travel. Whether you have work sitting on your desk waiting for you or not, you must charge for travel as if you are better off at your desk working. This way, your clients will always value your time, and probably avoid asking you to attend meetings that aren't really crucial.

We're now in the process of putting together our personal-appearance schedules for 2014. If you'd like us to come and speak at an event you're organizing, don't wait too long to contact us. Our schedule is filling fast!

Registration for the 2014 AMWA Annual Conference is now open. We hope to see you at one of our sessions:

• OS-09 Thursday 10/9 2:00 to 3:30: Use a SWOT Analysis to Rejuvenate Your Career and Better Market Your Business.
• OS-33 Friday 10/10 3:30 to 5:00: What Should I Charge?
• S-15 Saturday 10/11 12:15 to 1:30: Illuminating the Impact of the Sunshine Act on Freelances  
• S-23 Saturday 10/11 12:15 to 1:30: Novel--and Low Cost--Ways to Market Your Business. 

We would love to present at your next upcoming meeting or event, so invite us!

Your Value Is What You Make It           

The SWOT analysis is a fundamental marketing tool for any freelance business owner. The S and W (strengths and weaknesses) are internal to you (ie, what are your strengths and your weaknesses), and the O and T (opportunities and threats) are external to you (ie, what opportunities and threats are fomenting in the marketplace or with your competition).

We introduced an open session at last year's AMWA annual conference in Columbus, OH: Use a SWOT Analysis to Rejuvenate Your Freelance Career and Better Market Your Business, and it was so popular we were asked to reprise it again this year in Memphis (hope to see you there!). The SWOT analysis is also a fundamental component of Brian's workshop: Fundamentals of Freelance Business Marketing. One thing we've learned from presenting on the SWOT analysis is that most people really get hung up on the O--opportunities. Many people tell us it's nearly impossible to know what opportunities lurk in the marketplace. But we think it's simple. In fact, we stumble on market opportunities that impact--or could impact--our freelance businesses almost daily. The trick is knowing what to do with them!

For example, on July 30 the front page of the Wall Street Journal carried an article that was a perfect market opportunity for many freelance medical writers: Researchers fret as social media lift veil on drug trials, by Amy Dockser Marcus. If you're on Facebook, you'll also find the article on Ms. Marcus's Facebook page, as well as in a few other places. The point of the article is that clinical study participants' unbridled use of social media is functionally unblinding controlled clinical trials, and as a result may have confounding effects that are not being considered or factored into statistical analyses. In effect, social media could be the downfall of drug research.

But what's the point of the article for freelance medical writers? You may have even read this article, or at least the headline, and thought "How interesting," without ever realizing it could be a marketing opportunity for your freelance business. If you write about clinical research or statistics, or want to, imagine how your awareness of this emerging trend could interest current or prospective clients. Imagine the new level of insight or depth you can bring to your writing and value to your finished product. Imagine whose attention you could catch at a cocktail party, in a meeting, or via your own social media efforts that might make a potential client or contact you've not yet met take notice of your prowess.

We've just given you 4 great Opportunities from a single article on the front page of a newspaper that was available for everyone to see. The trick is being the person who sees it as an opportunity, and not just an interesting article. That's what separates the successful freelances from the wannabes!