Writer See, Writer Do

"Thanks for your patients." ~First message posted from a new LinkedIn acquaintance.

Spell-check strikes again. Is that someone you’d care to deal with in a business relationship? He may have been busy, but to my mind you can never be too busy to make sure quality control -- otherwise known as editing -- takes its rightful place.

I’ve got another beef. Why can’t otherwise intelligent human beings avoid mindless imitation when it comes to the precious gift of the English language that’s been handed down to us over the generations? I’m talking here about “that said” or “having said that,” and “going forward.”

“That said.” When someone says that, I think to myself: “Uh-huh, I know that’s been said. I’m right here listening to you. Why are you telling me you just said something that you just said?” I can see how you might use it if you’re changing direction in a speech or conversation, but the words “but” or “yet” meet that need nicely. Far more often, “that said” or “having said that” are just useless transitions between sentences. And they’ve infested our conversations for one simple but wrongheaded reason: Because we heard someone else use them.

Same with “Going forward,” as in “Going forward, we’ll vote on the budget next week.” Oh yeah? Gee, thanks for being so precise. If you hadn’t given me that crucial detail, I might have thought we were going to revisit the past and then vote on it. Or perhaps we were going to find a dimension in time and space where the present never yields to the future, where we enter a Rod Serling zone in which we take action but never have to face the consequences because there are none. After all, how can there be consequences if there’s no future?

Naturally -- and sadly -- I’m starting to see examples of such lazy, copycat thinking in emails. I tell participants in my writing seminars that playing with the established norms of language usage (i.e., grammar) risks annoying the reader. But they should still feel free to establish their own voices. In other words, respect conventions in capitalization, sentence structure and punctuation. But you can also deploy a variety of active and precise verbs, which are the muscle and sinew of our mother tongue. (Quoting Stephen King in his book on writing, “Adverbs are not your friend.”)

The Promising Potential Of Nag-Free Self-Promotion

One of the best marketing moves I ever made was this newsletter. I say that because it’s a natural form of self-promotion minus obnoxious hype. You get your name out there -- with a lot of the keywords that attract search engines -- and you give readers an inkling of what you can do for them.

Its greatest value lies in a very low, almost nonexistent, “nag quotient.” Far too often, I get insistent, “look at me!,” “have I got an introductory offer for you!” emails from search engine optimization firms, online degree factories, “experts” in attracting government contracts, weight loss specialists, you name it. Not a one of them adds one iota to my knowledge of what they offer. Hype is what it is.

Think about it: Useful information -- but not too much of it -- as a way to demonstrate the genuine value you can bring to a business relationship. Give it a try. If you want help, let me know.

Meanwhile, here’s a recent message from a federal government contracting officer to an associate of mine:

“I sorry i spelled ( Consensus) wrong this is when the tech team make their decision based on ther tecnical information that was put out via each vendor. We are getting closer to award for someone the after consensus thangs usually go pretty fast. This has been a very difficult for my also I would like to award this also. You well get a letter once the award is made one way or another.”

Enjoy your summer.

Dave