Last week, a client questioned my use of a comma, which I explained was as a visual pause and an indicator of a change of thought, not a serial comma (as in “red, white, and blue,” where the comma after “white” is not necessary). It seems these visual clues are fading in popularity, or maybe it’s a generational difference.

Freelancer Kathy Kehrli at Screw You! points to a Newsweek Business article by Robert Samuelson about the sad fate of the comma, which suggests why. The gist of his article is that we all have too much to do, and not enough time to do it, so if we can save a few seconds a day by curtailing commas, why not?

“But the comma’s sad fate is, I think, a metaphor for something larger: how we deal with the frantic, can’t-wait-a-minute nature of modern life. The comma is, after all, a small sign that flashes PAUSE. It tells the reader to slow down, think a bit, and then move on. We don’t have time for that. No pauses allowed. In this sense, the comma’s fading popularity is also social commentary.”

Sad but true.

What a coincidence! The latest issue of Daphne Gray-Grant’s weekly Power Writing Tips newsletter (for people “who want to write better, faster”) also talks about the pompous way people sometimes want to be quoted, similar to my last post:

“But the real difficulty is that the people who write this way are usually proud of their status as ‘experts’ and think the vocabulary makes them sound smarter. They are also wrongly inclined to believe certain obscure words and convoluted constructions are needed to be precise. The result? Confusion for the reader.”

She then goes on to recommend a tool called Bullfighter that looks through Word and PowerPoint files for words like “utilizing” and phrases like “proactive strategies.” Its Bull Index also grades your document for level of bull. Sadly, it doesn’t work on a Mac so I can’t vouch for it personally.

The Bullfighter site also promotes a book called Why Business People Speak Like Idiots. “If you think you smell something at work, there’s probably good reason – Bull has become the official language of business. Every day, we get bombarded by an endless stream of filtered, jargon-filled corporate speak, all of which makes it harder to get heard, harder to be authentic, and definitely harder to have fun.” Amen!

A colleague shared this great term for an affliction common in the corporate world: source remorse editing. That’s when you get a terrific, meaningful, human quote from someone for a corporate use, say a newsletter. During the approval process, your contact sees this wonderful quote, thinks it doesn’t make him/her sound clever and capable, and turns it into something very pompous and formal. Given a chance, I always argue for humanizing it, but that doesn’t always work. At the very least, though, I turn “utilize” into “use” and will fight particularly hard to dispose of “win-win” or it’s evil near-twin, “win-win-win.” Who’s ready to join me?

The latest Alertbox from Jakob Nielsen refers to Amazon.com’s e-commerce design (more detailed analysis here), saying:

“Amazon.com continues with outstanding use of confirmation email to sustain customer relationships and long-term loyalty. A week ago, I got an email from them confirming that they were going to ship the new Harry Potter book to me with arrival on the publication date. Considering that many fans pre-ordered the book many months ago, it was good to remind them…Otherwise they might go out and buy it (again) elsewhere, which would lead to expensive returns and reduced customer satisfaction.”

I did order Harry Potter months ago (February!), but on Amazon.ca, which is maybe a little less diligent. I didn’t get my confirmation until Saturday, Harry Potter Release Day, telling me they were “preparing it for shipment” and directing me to the web site, when I found I could expect delivery, oh, maybe July 24. Although it was being prepared, not shipped, I had no option to cancel the order. Son #1 went out and bought the book so he could get started reading and hope to avoid all the spoilers that are flying through the air like Harry playing Quidditch. The book arrived July 23, despite a notice inside that said “We are using a larger box to ensure you get your Harry Potter on release day – at no additional cost to you!”

Glad to find more company in confusion.
Thanks to Judy Gombita for pointing me to a copywriter in tech PR, the blogger behind The Friendly Ghost, who asks, “What is Twitter for, exactly?” He speculates it’s a form of micro-blogging, which I can see – you’re sharing thoughts but in brief chunks throughout the day, possibly more manageable than blogging. He also suggest Twitter is more about building communities than sharing content. In the comments to the post, someone mentions using it to “micropitch” editors and seeing Twitter used to announce products, build word of mouth campaigns and help a CEO communicate. (Here, I’m a little skeptical.)

Twitter’s own FAQ says it’s “for staying in touch and keeping up with friends.” The home page calls it “a global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: ‘What are you doing?’”

I’m writing a post while waiting for several people to call me back so I can get some writing done. I’m not sure finding that out instantaneously is of advantage to anyone.

Glad to find out I’m not the only one somewhat confused about how to use/make the most of social media – you know, LinkedIn, MyRagan, Facebook, MySpace, [oops forgot Melcrum’s Communicators’ Network] etc.

Pamela Slim at the entertaining Escape from Cubicle Nation (love that title!) mentions her own confusion and asks for advice. One commenter notes that these sites are a way to increase your visibility and build relationships, but the key is that it all happens over time. Read the comments for thoughts on “friending” (don’t love those nouns as verbs), meaning accepting a connection or invitation to be a friend. Sometimes it does seem like a contest where the person with the most friends/contacts wins, but I’m not looking to add a million contacts. I’d prefer to show a connection to someone with whom I already have some kind of link, maybe through an existing off-line network or association. When I invite someone, I try not to send a form invite but add a personal line about what prompted me to do so.

Dave Traynor at the Daily Upload also posted some thoughts on social media and wonders what he’s supposed to be doing with “all this stuff.” Dave links to a story that explains more about Twitter, in which writer Clive Thompson points out that it gives you a sixth sense about your friends, but you have to use it to understand it. Good, because I had the impression it was just sharing the “stupefyingly trivial” (Thompson’s words) and wondered how it could possibly be anything more than mildly amusing.

Through a link to Dan York’s Disruptive Conversations, I came across Chris Brogan (”A conversation with a community about digital relationships”), who had some thoughts about Twitter and also links to a post on etiquette for LinkedIn by Penelope Trunk (”Brazen Careerist”). Among her suggestions, I particularly liked “remind me how I know you” when inviting someone to connect.

I’m interested to read about the new forms of etiquette, but like Dave, I’d also like to know how others are using these tools. How useful is Twitter and in what ways? What are you getting out of LinkedIn and other communities?

Like many households, ours is on Harry Potter alert. The (perhaps) final book in the series is due out this Saturday, and we’ve had it pre-ordered for months. The reading plan has been discussed and settled. Because mornings find Son #1 at work and Son #2 asleep, that’s when I can have a half-hour or so to read it before starting work. When Son #2 gets up, the book is his. When Son #1 gets home from work, it’s his turn. We’ll have to use Post-Its to make sure our places stay marked, but if it’s anything like the last book, we’ll burn through it in no time.

And we’ll have to, because apparently already the book has been leaked and the entire thing is online, uploaded by some heartless and thoughtless idiot. I’m doing the equivalent of putting my fingers in my ears and singing loudly. I don’t want to have a good read spoiled. Wish me luck. I may have to take next week as vacation just to read!

What happens when a phrase references old technology? It becomes a prime candidate for being misspelled. I thought of this when spotting “put us through the ringer” in my local newspaper. The word should be spelled “wringer,” as in the old wringer washing machines that pressed laundry through rollers to squeeze out the water.

Maytag shows an evolution of wringer washers that goes back to 1907. They were apparently sold until the early 1950s, although another online source says “the last wringer washer manufactured in the United States was made in June of 1990.”

I’m old enough to dimly remember that we had one of these relics. In fact, my brother pestered my mother to let him put some clothes through the wringer, and although she reminded him several times that he had to let go of the clothes, of course he didn’t. Putting his arm through the wringer bruised it, giving us all a good understanding that the phrase “put through the wringer” means to give someone a difficult time.

Talk about a never-ending job! Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) recently added some new words, chosen among submissions from readers for their favourite word not in the dictionary. Sadly, one of the top choices was “ginormous” (officially defined as “extremely large: humongous”) and not one of my faves. I was interested to see among the new listings “gray literature” (written material that is not published commercially) and “nocebo” (a harmless substance that is associated with harmful effects – kind of the evil twin of placebo).
One thing I liked about the M-W listing was that each word linked to the official definition, unlike the recent release of new words for the Oxford English Dictionary. One of my faves among the Oxford newbies is propeller-head, for which I had to use Google to confirm that it essentially means a geek, but usually in a respectful way.

It’s certainly interesting to watch the English language evolve. I wonder what people will vote for as their favourite words not in the dictionary in 2007?

While catching up on my reading after being away, I ran across an interesting article in Saturday’s Toronto Star. In “The tyranny of residual media,” freelance writer Ryan Bigge talks about the iPhone and how consumers chase the new and improved. As Bigge says,

“It might seem cruel to mention the technological best-before date for a device that’s barely a week old (and still unavailable in Canada), but it’s time to start thinking more carefully about how we conclude our relationships with particular technologies, rather than obsessing over how we come to first acquire them…

“…Durable goods used to be marketed with slogans like ‘The only (insert one: vacuum cleaner/garden hose/Ginsu knife) you’ll ever need.’ Today such claims sound ridiculous, especially in relation to digital media.”

If it breaks, it should be fixed, not tossed aside, and it’s troubling that our society is wired the other way. These days, it’s either cheaper to buy a replacement than to have something fixed, or you can’t even find the craftspeople to do the fixing. A few years ago, when Son #2 needed a costume for a school play, don’t laugh but I decided to sew one. My trusty old Singer sewing machine worked, but had not been tuned for some time. Fortunately, I found a local repairman who used to run a Singer retail store. He gave it up when he couldn’t compete against Wal-Mart, which sold newer, cheaper machines with more plastic parts. He obviously loved the art of fixing the older machines, which had durable metal components that for the most part only needed cleaning and oiling. The machine worked like a dream afterwards and the costume turned out great, if I do say so myself. I kept his business card and told many people about him, but I worry that people like him are a dying breed.