Like grains of sand through the hourglass...
…such are the days of this girl’s life. I learn in segments. The big picture is never fully seen or comprehended until it’s really, really big – right in front of me, and no mistaking it.
It’s true, grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling have always been big interests of mine. It’s just a fact. Good thing, really. I love to write. But, I am not “The Comma Queen.” The Comma Queen can always fix your sentences. She can tell you what you’ve done wrong. She can make your writing clear. She can make you think she’s silently editing every single thing you write, and she can give you the impression that grammar, spelling, and sentence structure are the most important things on the planet. Yep. But, that’s not me.
I’m not comfortable in that role…it does not fit. Although I may be able to help you write more clearly, and I would love to do that (if you want me to), what I really know and love is the business of property management. I understand how it works, and I see a need for my knowledge and experience. I understand Fair Housing Law from a perspective not many full-time property managers do. They’re too busy to spend the time to negotiate the terrain. I have a gift for communicating how Fair Housing Law, Landlord/Tenant, and Licensing Law affect the day-to-day business. And, I have enough hands-on experience in the day-to-day to know that there are many who are overwhelmed and needing help. Helping other property managers is what I do best.
So…The Comma Queen is taking a break. In fact, she’s probably going to sleep like a beauty for a good, long while. All hail the Queen. She brought me here. Here is where I begin to see how I can really be of service. In the meantime, best place to “see” me is http://cookclasses.com.
Namaste
Judy
Pic via: http://www.servitokss.com/
Who doesn’t love the exclamation point? It demonstrates such enthusiasm! Consider the following:
I got a new hairstyle today.
I got a new hairstyle today!
Which sentence best conveys the excitement of the writer? The second one, of course! The first sentence, absent the exclamation point, seems to indicate a salon fail, doesn’t it? Used properly, the exclamation point can be quite effective:
Is it possible to overuse something so wonderful as an exclamation point?
“Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.” –F. Scott Fitzgerald
With the advent of short messaging (Twitter, Facebook, texting, email), I’ve noticed a trend toward the use of multiple exclamation points to convey great excitement. I’ll admit, this bugs me. In fact, I’ve tweeted my dismay on more than one occasion:
L8est on Twitter
How can something so wonderful be overused? I like to think of it in these terms; just because a glass of wine can be quite pleasant, doesn’t mean four glasses of wine enhance that pleasure. In fact, too much wine can be darned unpleasant, especially the next day when you review your “enlightened” Facebook posts and Twitter feed.
ALX came up with a great idea for a keyboard designed with a time lapse, once an exclamation point is typed:
“During this time lapse, no further exclamation marks may be inserted. Though this is intended primarily to get rid of the dreaded ‘!!!’, it may also be used to prevent too many !s being used in too small a space.”
This might work for the average writer, but for those steadfastly determined to multiply their use of the exclamation point, such a feature would likely present only a small annoyance.
Let’s look at this another way…
Consider the fact that, when you use exclamation points sparingly, they stand out in your writing. The reader spots those points, and reads the sentences punctuated by them as having greater emotion and emphasis than the sentences lacking them. It stands to reason; if the majority of your sentences are punctuated by an exclamation point, the value of the punctuation is diminished. It becomes meaningless, because everything reads the same way.
Think of the exclamation point like Tabasco sauce… a little goes a long way.
Photo via: http://earlybeatles.com/help.html
It’s time for me to ask for help, here. Since launching The Comma Queen, I’ve struggled with my own brand identity; specifically, a tag line for the business.
When I first started out, I used “Everybody needs an editor.” I love that one! It’s so true, isn’t it? Even those of us who edit the work of others often find it difficult to spot our own typos. At least, I do. I can see yours just fine. When I read my own work, I read what I intended to write, sailing past some of the most obvious errors. It happens more often than I think it should. That’s why, on the really “big” stuff, my mom reads it first.
After using “Everybody needs an editor” for a few months, I realized how limiting it was. That phrase doesn’t reflect what I actually do. Editing is only a part of my work. Still, I hung on to that first tag line, because I couldn’t think of a better phrase. I hung onto it until a friend told me she thought it was insulting. What? I meant no disrespect to anyone with those words. To me, “everybody” means “everybody.” Yet, to my friend, it felt personal and belittling. Needless to say, that tag line wasn’t working the way I intended.
Then came the revelation, or so it seemed. In my early-waking hours one morning, I came up with the brilliantly-generic phrase of “Helping you communicate your message.” Aha! Pay dirt! It’s golden, right? Offends no one, covers a broad spectrum of services, and zzzzzz…. Ugh. Do you see my dilemma here? I’ve been sitting on Tag Line #2 for a couple of months, and I’m not liking it.
Photo via: http://www.prokeepers.com/concierge_personal.html
This morning, just as I began to wake, the words “Content Concierge” popped in. I’ve been rolling that one around in my brain and on my lips for a few hours. I think I like it. It’s pretty descriptive of what I’m doing, and I like the sound of the hard C in both the business name and tag line. (I know. I’m a bit of a geek for such things.)
In light of two prior bombs, I don’t quite trust my intuition with the tag-line effort anymore. It seems time to ask for some help from my friends. My brand is in your hands, and I’d really appreciate your feedback. Does “Content Concierge” work, or should I sleep on it some more?
Old Spice Man on Twitter @oldspice
What a day, yesterday was! All day long, the Old Spice Man (@oldspice on Twitter) posted dozens of short video responses to tweets and messages from his followers. At last glance, his Twitter followers number over 32,000! The buzz all day was incredible. Followers posted questions and comments on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other social media platforms, and the Old Spice Man responded. Personally. To a bunch of them. Here’s an example:
Using a subtle teaser, he started the day with this tweet: Continue reading »
Some of the slang being used today gives me chills. It’s so…so…wrong! I mean, really! Why say “gurl” when the word “girl” works perfectly well? Or, “true dat” – what are you people thinking? It seems I’m often compelled to refer to the Urban Dictionary, just to carry on a conversation!
In complete reactionary mode, I intended to rant about today’s slang, and how difficult it makes conversation. As I began this piece, thoughts of my past started to surface. I was reminded of a quote I read long ago, “Slang is the poetry of everyday life.” – S.I. Hayakawa
American English has always embraced slang, hasn’t it? If not solely for the purpose of establishing generational identity, slang is often developed within subgroups of generations. It’s kind of like “secret code,” identifying true members of a group, and weeding out the “posers.” Continue reading »
You know that one. It’s that word that gets way too much use; that one word that we know is superfluous and unnecessary, much of the time. It’s not that we particularly like that snappy sound that word makes. It’s not even that we wish that we could substitute that other word for that word. It’s simply that, when we write that way, the way that we sometimes speak, we find that our writing isn’t that readable – it doesn’t convey the essence of that idea that we’re trying to communicate.
That word is known as a “conjunction” in the English language. In American English today, that word frequently appears as an “empty complementizer” – a word that is used to tie two ideas together, yet one that is entirely superfluous. Used sparingly, that word can tie that one idea with that other idea, very effectively. If overused, that word just gives you the feeling that the writer didn’t know that he could have trimmed his text by at least 5%, simply by eliminating that one word that didn’t really need to be there. Not only that, but consider that all-important fact that it would make that writer’s piece a whole lot easier to read, if he’d eliminated that redundancy.
I don’t think that we can entirely abolish that word from either our speech, or the writing that we hope someone will want to read. It’s just that, when you say that word so often, I begin to get that feeling that I’m not really understanding that which you are trying to communicate.
It is my hope that you can embrace my meaning, and are not offended by the fact that I might seem to be casting off a very important word that helps one’s writing flow. I only mean that, in the course of reviewing your own writing, you might want to do exactly that.
You clicked on this blog because of its title, right? The word “sex” got your attention. Sorry, but this blog is not about sex. Not, exactly.
Sex sells. It’s a Universal Truth. The “Marketeers” know this. They pay big bucks to do the research. We’ll read about something, and might even spend money on it, if it’ll get us sex, make us sexier, or teach us something we didn’t know about sex.
Even if a story or blog has nothing whatsoever to do with sex, if the writer can come up with a title that’s
“sexy” in some way, we’ll probably click the link.
What makes a title sexy? Continue reading »
It was Tuesday, June 8, 2010 – Primary Election night in Nevada. While most of my friends sat around their televisions, waiting for election returns, I sat at my computer. I had three tabs open on the browser – the Secretary of State’s website, the local newspaper’s blog site, and Twitter.
Can you guess which of the three platforms provided the fastest results? If you guessed Twitter, you’re correct. Thanks to the constant updates tweeted by our own Ross Miller, Nevada’s Secretary of State, I had election results quicker than any of my friends – even quicker than many of the candidates themselves. Members of the Press were said to have been asking Twitter followers for the latest, that night.
I woke up this morning realizing I need a break. Of course, before I could take that much-needed break, I had to check email, Twitter updates, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Two hours later, I read an article that had a profound impact on me. The timing could not have been better.
Is it true? Does heavy use of the internet weaken our ability to think clearly? I believe it may. Long gone are the days I could get through an entire blog post without jumping over to the latest tweet by one of my friends, compelled to retweet or comment – just a quick break, before I resume what I was doing. What was I doing, again? Oh yeah, that blog. Why did I click on it in the first place? Oh yeah, I want to refer to it in my next piece. Oh! An email! Better quickly answer it, before I get back to the blog.
What used to take me 5 minutes to read and absorb, now takes an hour. Continue reading »
I recently discovered this nifty tool for generating artsy-looking word clouds from any kind of text. As with a tag cloud, the Woordle tool emphasizes the words in your text according to how often they appear. Once you create your word cloud, you can view it in a number of designs and layouts, until you find one that suits you. Print it, or save it as a PDF or image file for later use. You can also share your work with other Wordle users on the site. Continue reading »
