Posts from July 17, 2009
Why is it that some people insist on writing in all capital letters? I love to peruse the Saturday real estate section in the local paper, and enjoy reading the descriptions of my “dream homes,” except for the ones written in all caps! It’s not that I’m trying to make a point, it’s that I seriously can’t read the darn things. Reading in all caps is difficult. You have to really sit down and concentrate on the letters, and then on how they go together. Not to mention, writing in all caps is one of the no-no’s of professional writing specifically because it “feels” to the reader like someone is shouting!
I came across another example yesterday. I was going through a social networking site and came upon the page of a writer that was written in, you got it, all caps! It surprised me that a writer did not know better about presenting herself in her own medium.
On point: please don’t write in all caps, and here’s why:
- Hard to read
- Shouting at readers
- Looks unprofessional
Posts from July 14, 2009
My most favorite daily email is a little feed called Dumb Little Man. I get a lot of email news feeds every day, as well as a lot of just plain emails, and this is the one I rush to open every day.
The impetus for my comment on it, actually I could comment on it most every day because of its never-ending cascade of jewels, but this one was titled “20 Things I’m Glad Life Taught Me.”
Do take a moment to read the article — it is priceless.
Posts from July 11, 2009
Yesterday I finished up work for the day and went out to get the mail. Strange, there was an airmail letter from Montreal. I opened the letter and out dropped a check for $2990. Pay dirt, I finally hit it, my luck was changing — the thoughts that flashed through my mind. The check was accompanied by a 2-page letter instructing me what I was to do with this money only a small amount of which was supposedly to become mine. The key words I saw after skimming it were “Mystery Shopper.”
Shower time, and after my initial bliss, reality dawned along with the water washing over my body. Water has always afforded me clarity. Okay, shower done, time for a close read. Here’s what it said. In sum, “my assignment” was to take this check for $2990 and either cash it or deposit it into my account. Then I was to take $2570 of this money, go to Western Union, and send it to a designated receiver. My alleged purpose was to evaluate the service and premises of the Western Union dealer. The next part of the assignment was to go into two well-known retail stores and buy $50 worth of merchandise. I was then to complete a form on each store answering a series of “consumer-ish” questions. After all this, I was left with $200 — my fee.
After a close read, this thing screamed scam. Not only was the whole deal very fishy and suspect, even though return address on the letter was a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning company in Manvel, Texas, the return address on the envelope was some random address in Montreal.
I Googled Mystery Shopper scam, and sure enough, I found that other people were receiving something very similar. I then called the HVAC company, number on the letter. There was indeed such a company, and they were indeed aware they were being used as a front for this scam.
Now if I’d gone ahead and cashed this check, in two weeks I would be contacted by my bank, or the police, and informed that I was out $2990 because the check turned out to be bogus.
Most of us are aware of such scams these days, but those meaty checks can still be awfully tempting. From a professional communication standpoint, the letter was written well, but it lacked the polish of a truly legitimate professional communication. Also, who would ever send a legitimate check for $2990 through the mail without requiring receipt signature?
So, friends, don’t let greed tempt you. It never fails: if it’s too good to be true: IT IS!!!!
Posts from July 2, 2009
In just the past two days I have come across two articles, both of which “how-to’s” about good writing, both of which were rife with writing errors. What errors? Passive voice, pseudo-academic style (in other words, difficult to understand), agreement of pronouns and antecedent (That person caught their coat in the door), crazy sentence construction, and frankly — text that sounds like it was written by an ESOL (English as a second language) writer. Take a look for yourself (be sure to come back, I’ve got lots more to say.)
English maven that I am, I left a comment on the site basically saying what I am saying to you. But I want to say MORE to you, because the great highway in the virtual-sky is becoming clogged with crap that multiplies explosively moment by moment. Let me tell you why.
The marketplace is turning inside out, upside down as brick and mortar gives way to the virtual shingle (website, blog, SNS, etc.) I’ll spare you the technical mumbo-jumbo, but to make an Internet presence means to generate content, content content. Translated: articles, essays, blog entries, reviews, how-to’s,m features, interviews. When businesses take the approach of wanting to throw up a bunch of content to get ratings, traffic, etc., they don’t care about quality. They do care about keywords, key phrases, and Search Engine crawlers. What you get on these sites is often times, crap. And, you get crap written by offshore workers whose main language is NOT English, but they are cheap, cheap, cheap.
My purpose here is threefold:
As Internet readers, be discriminating about what you read. Look for quality in both writing and content.
As Internet writers, don’t ever compromise your standard of quality no matter how desperate for work you are. Trust me, it will come back to bite you
As website owners, don’t go the cheap route. Don’t hire people who can’t speak, let alone write, English to prepare written products for you. Think good quality writing and content.