Archive for the ‘Grammar’ Category

I just came across a great piece on the power of the word and how key it is to avoid “puffery” in our business and personal communications written by Michael Port, Contributing Editor for Entrepreneur, featured on the American Express OPEN Forum.

Here are just some of his observations from that article that apply to virtually any sales, staff, or client meeting as well as advertising and personal connections: “Most of the actions or activities people engage in, both personally and professionally, are carried out through conversation, so our use of language is a powerful tool for building or breaking trust. If you can’t back up your puffery or prove the generalizations you make, it’ll be difficult to engender much trust.” As Port cites in his post, “All generalities are false, including this one.”

You can keep reading here: http://bit.ly/bddrX4

Just a quick post to reaffirm that it’s not just grammar “geeks” who notice typos in the world around them, and restaurant menus are often scrutinized more closely than other written pieces as they are intended to appeal and conjure up a reaction compelling enough to make a diner order a dish or two. I came across a blog post from Jonathan Kauffman on the San Francisco Weekly site at http://bit.ly/aC5fpL about the etiquette of letting a restaurant know there are errors on the menu–and it was gratifying to see that a number of people responded as it had bothered them, as well.

There have been other related posts on menu typos that were comical, but this piece addresses situations when the patron was actually uncomfortable and felt it was something the restaurant would want to know as the menu had definitely not be properly proofread before it was printed. Most respondents were trying to find the best way to minimize any embarrassment for the restaurant.

While it may sound a bit comical to some, National Grammar Day and other events and sites promoting the importance of good grammar actually do mean something worth noting.

Check out Facebook and you might be surprised to see how many groups exist that are dedicated just to the promotion of using the language properly and making it clear that more people notice typos, poor style, and bad punctuation than you may think. Here are a few of these Facebook groups… and there are legions of others elsewhere on the Web:

• Good Grammar Is Hot
• Martha Brockenbrough, National Grammar Day founder and founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG)
• I judge you when you use poor grammar
• I know the difference between “there”, “their” and “they’re”. (now that one has punctuation issues as commas should go INSIDE the closing quote mark, but THEIR hearts are in the right place!)

The host of this year’s National Grammar Day, the bright and clever Mignon Fogarty—Grammar Girl herself–has posted the following on her site:

<snip>As National Grammar Day’s Language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It’s not only a date, it’s an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same! <end snip>

It’s a good day to reflect on the caliber of your written communications, including e-mails, blog posts, Tweets, brochures, trade-show collateral, and all of the rest, including your business cards, which don’t have a lot of real estate but are critical to messaging who you are. Hiring a professional to do your graphic and Web design is key, as well—but the messaging that goes with it can make or break how you are perceived. I have built strategic partnerships/alliances with some amazing, professional, and truly creative designers specifically to ensure that the messaging and look and functionality of any communication are all working in concert with each other without any of those elements disabling the impression you make.

The National Grammar Day site, http://nationalgrammarday.com/, even has games and other celebratory events…My suggestion? Have fun with it while not disregarding its importance.

I came across this short piece entitled Using Proper English Grammar Is Important for Businesses at http://tinyurl.com/ya55w9f that warrants a look. It emphasizes one key point, which is that while many business owners think that they don’t need to be overly concerned about the grammar, punctuation, and style used in their business communications as if “close” were good enough—poor written communications can actually disable the impression you are working so hard to accomplish.

Of course, as helping clients with refining their messaging on the Web, in advertising and printed collateral, press releases, and in e-newsletters is one of the most-important services I offer, it’s wonderful to see others opine (and evangelize) on the importance of using the language properly.

Though I’ve mentioned Mignon Fogarty—Grammar Girl—in other posts, I still heartily recommend buying her CD set Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Better Business Writing that is featured on the Resources page of my site at  http://www.thegordongroupllc.com/resources/ as one of the easiest (and actually fun!) ways to brush up on some of the quirks of the English language that can stymie even the best of us. She also has a free e-newsletter that features a language challenge (such as the difference between “flesh out” and “flush out,” which was addressed a couple of weeks ago) and current thinking on the subject, often with amusing examples. She has lots of smarts and humor, and her podcasts are among the most popular in history!

MarketingProfs has created their new Marketing Addictionary, in which users can enter their own terms and/or definitions—some serious, some silly—and visitors also have the opportunity to rate contributions with their own thumbs-up or thumbs-down assessment. Here are two of the recent, popular terms:

Nglsh, noun, The rapid disappearance of vowels in the English language due to texting and Twitter.

Social Greedia, noun, 1. The act of abusing social media tools for the sole reason of making a profit and not giving back to the community or conversation. 2. Being overly concerned with one’s prominence within a social network whereby more time is spent “making friends” and “gaining followers” than actually engaging the community.

See more at http://words.marketingprofs.com/