Tag Archives: Writing

What’s that word? Oh, #%&@ … just pour me a drink

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Jon| Leave a comment

Lately, I’d been seriously worried about my cognitive health. I can’t remember names of old acquaintances; common, everyday words have been erased from my brain’s hard drive; and I have an overwhelming desire to smack Honey Boo Boo, a darling reality TV child.

But I’m feeling better now. I just read about a Swedish study that found writers have a higher risk than other folks of suffering from anxiety, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, unipolar depression and substance abuse. Now maybe I don’t have advancing dementia. Am I’m just a depressed, uptight drunk?

Interestingly, creative types taken as a whole  — dancers, artists, photographers and writers — aren’t crazier than the general population. It seems it’s just the writers that spin off to la-la land.

That begs two questions. Are people more attracted to becoming writers because of their already poor mental health? Or does writing mess up our brains once we make it a career?

I need to go think about that while I fire a few more darts at a photo of Honey Boo Boo making funny faces. And I’ll be careful with the darts. Writers are twice as likely to commit suicide.

@JDaum

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Hopefully, We’ll All Make These Changes

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Jon| Leave a comment

Someecards.com

Most media and public relations people look to the Associated Press Stylebook as the final arbiter of word usage, terms, punctuation and other rules regarding how we write our news, photo captions and the like. I always keep one inches away from my keyboard.

So when the AP provides an annual update to its stylebook, it’s a big event to those who use it daily. The 2012 edition was recently released. And, as usual, it set off at least one debate between traditional and more colloquial language advocates.

The commotion was over the acceptance of the word “hopefully” to mean “it is hoped.”  Most of us use it this way on a routine basis as in “Hopefully, the next Congress will be more congenial than the current one.” Grammarians are upset since hopefully is an adverb and doesn’t modify a verb in that sentence. But English is a living language that regularly incorporates changes in use, new words and spellings on a regular basis. The AP editors just reflect our evolving culture.

A few of the other 270 changes to the stylebook that I like are the addition of fracking, modified tweets and Velcro. I know Velcro’s a brand name, but what else do you call those ubiquitous hook and loop fasteners?

In any case, if you do the external writing for your organization or employ an outside agency, make sure to stay up-to-date with the AP Stylebook.  Editors expect it.  And every year there are new surprises.

– JD

Twitter: @Jdaum

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Posted in Public Relations

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Let Me Totally Eliminate Any Confused Misunderstandings with Some True Facts

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Jon| Leave a comment

Most of us are inundated daily with too much information.  It comes from our email, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, blogs or text messages.  If you’re like me, most of what comes into your computer or mobile device is junk.

I do receive a few nuggets that I want or need to read, I appreciate those writers that use the fewest words to create a clear message.  Brevity is a virtue.

I recently read an interesting column from the publisher of PR Daily about circumlocution — the use of many words when one will do.

Here are a few examples:

Rather than using “in advance of,” try the word “before”

“With the exception of” can be adequately replaced by “except”

The thought behind “at this point in time” is more articulately stated using the word “now”

I have a few pet peeves of my own, not all reducing the number, but also the length – or even necessity – of some words.

“On a regular basis” is a long way of writing “regularly”

Why use “approximately” when “about” does the job using eight fewer letters?

Does the word “actually” have any serious value?

If you use Twitter, with its 140-character limit, you understand the need for brevity.  Take that same attitude into all of your electronic communications.  Your readers will appreciate it.

Do you have a few of your own pet peeves to share?

– JD

Follow me on Twitter @jdaum

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Posted in Daum Weigle, Marketing/Communications

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Even the spaces count?

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Jon| Leave a comment

“If I’d had more time I’d have written you a shorter letter” is one of my favorite quotes. I’m not sure who said it first — I’ve seen it attributed to TS Elliot, Mark Twain and even a couple of French authors.

Those of us who spend our professional lives writing, understand how difficult it is to be concise. Say what you mean in as few words as possible. Spilling your guts on the keyboard won’t do.

Today’s social media requires even more discipline. No longer do we count words, now we count characters — even the spaces. Twitter messages allow you 140 characters — hence the name my partner suggested for this blog. But then if you hope to be retweeted take another 10-15 characters away. Hashtags — tighter yet.


So for all the complaints that today’s young people lack writing skills, maybe that’s not the case. They seem perfectly comfortable saying what they mean very concisely. It’s a new way of communicating.

From time to time we hope to share our ideas about communication with you. And we’d love to hear from you. Please be concise.

-JD

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