Does Your Blog Have Skeletons in its Verbal Closet?

October 6, 2016/0 Comments/in blog marketing, Business writing tips/by Rhoda Israelov

unfortunate-english-book

You’ll find skeletons in verbal closets, Bill Brohough says, and he devotes an entire book to helping us do just that in Unfortunate English: The Gloomy Truth Behind the Words You Use. Brohough alerts readers to the “improprieties, disgusting notions, licentiousness, and other foul thoughts” we speak daily without realizing it.

I love “reading around and learning around”, as I call it, and advise all blog content writers to do the same. Ideas are all over the place, all of the time, but we’ve got to see and hear those ideas, learning everywhere and from everyone, making connections between our own experience and knowledge and Other People’s Wisdom. There are several ways in which I think Brohough’s collection of verbal “skeletons” and his caution to writers about using words can be used to improve blog marketing content for different types of businesses:1. to define basic terminology or give basic information to readers: The expression “caught red-handed”, Brohough explains, originated in the 1400’s and meant caught with blood on one’s hands. Another speculation, he says, is that the term traces back to 800 B.C., when guilt or innocence was tested by putting the accused’s hand on a red-hot axehead.

A nutrition company or health practitioner might use this piece of trivia to discuss the importance of including various colors of food in the diet, so as to include different phytonutrients advising blog readers to include strawberries as a source of folic acid and cherries which are high in fiber..

2. to explain why this practitioner or business owner chooses to operate in a certain way: A printer or web designer might discuss the way red brings text and images to the foreground, and stimulates buying decisions. A fashion clothing business or professional makeup salon might offer advice on using red accessories as an accent color for basic black or brown business suits..

As bloggers, we face the challenge of churning out creative writing over extended periods of time, and word “histories”offer fresh ways to approach our subject.

It’s worth searching your blog “closet” for skeletons!

In a Blog, is Someone One or Two?

July 7, 2016/0 Comments/in blog marketing, Business writing tips/by Rhoda Israelov

“Beware of common grammatical mistakes, like subject-verb agreement,” cautions Helen Coster in Forbes. Rule to remember: The number of the subject determines the number of the verb.

Use a singular verb form after:

Nobody
Someone
Everybody
Neither
Everyone
Each
Either

“We can agree that a verb agrees with its subject in person and number,” The Lousy Writer reminds us. Examples include:

“No one except the ticket holders is admitted.”
“Every one of us is anxious to build a business.”
“The famous museum with its thousands of artifacts was destroyed.” (There is only one museum.)

What’s more, The Lousy Writer explains, the meaning rather than the form of the subject controls the number of the verb.

“The movie ’The Godfather’ was directed by Francis Ford Coppola.” (There is only one movie.)
“Fifty dollars is too much for those sneakers.” (There is one sum of fifty dollars.)
“The committee is ready to boycott.” (The committee consists of several persons, but we refer to it here as one group.)

Using plurals and singulars can get quite tricky, Learner’s Dictionary authors admit, especially when a sentence has more than one subject per verb. Here are three examples:

(two singular) The dog and the cat bother me. (bother is a plural verb)
(two plural): The dogs and the cats bother me.
(one singular, one plural) The dog and cats bother me.

In blog content writing, of course, the idea is to avoid confusing the reader and get the point across. Avoiding common grammatical mistakes and making subjects agree with verbs is one healthy habit we content writers can cultivate.

Remember: the number of the subject determines the number of the verb!

If You Could Use Proper Grammar and Spelling, That’d Be “Grate”

May 31, 2016/0 Comments/in blog marketing, Business writing tips/by Rhoda Israelov

proper grammar in blogs

Kimberly Joki, in her grammarly blog, lists some of the “worst writing mistakes you can make at work.” Even if you are someone who isn’t bothered by a misplaced comma, she says, there will inevitably be coworkers and clients who will notice and who will judge your quality of work by your mistakes, she points out, adding the advice to “Be smarter than you were in primary school.”

Joki offers a list of pairs and triplets which are often mixed up:

There/ they’re/ their (“They’re” means “they are”. “There” refers to a place. “Their” refers to something owned by more than one person.)
Your/ you’re (The difference, Joki explains, is that “Your” talks about you owning something, while “you’re” talks about you being something.)
Effect/ affect (When you’re talking about the change itself, use “effect”; When you’re talking about the act of changing, describe how that thing “affects” you.)
Between/ among (“Between” refers to two entities sharing something, “among” to three or more sharing something.)

Christina Wang of Shutterstock.com agrees. “No matter where you work or what you do, everyone needs to know how to write effectively for business these days,” she says. “And yes,” she adds, “that includes paying attention to grammar.”

Wang’s no-no list includes a couple of others:

Using “I” instead of “me”. Don’t say “Thanks for meeting Steven and I for lunch yesterday.” (It should be “Steven and me”.
Using unnecessary apostrophes. “That company’s presentation is full of great idea’s.” (Apostrophes show possession, not plural.) “You’ll love it’s strategy.” (“It’s” means “it is”’ “its” is a pronoun.)

As blog content writers, if we could use proper grammar and spelling, that’d be just g-r-e-a-t!

Tips on Business Writing for Bloggers – Part B

January 28, 2016/0 Comments/in Business writing tips/by Rhoda Israelov

All Or Nothing Keys Meaning Entire Or Zero

This week, I’m sharing Susan Adams’ “Ten Tips on Business Writing”, offered in Forbes Magazine, with my Say It For You readers (again, I’ve added my own thoughts in italics):

Start by asking yourself what you want the person to do as a result of reading this post.
Each business blog post should impart one new idea or call for a single action. Focused on one thing, your post has greater impact, since people are bombarded with many messages each day. Respecting readers’ time produces better results for your business.

Avoid using big $10 words because you want to sound intelligent.
Unfortunately, as a blog content writing trainer, I see a lot of the kind of overused buzzwords hiring expert Carina Chivulescu sees on resumes, such as “best of breed”, or “results-driven”. “Employers want to see words and phrases that clearly and succinctly define your skills, experience, and accomplishments,” Chivulescu explains. That’s precisely the type of words and phrases your business blog readers need to find when they visit your site.

(The last three of Susan Adam’s tips have to do with English grammar)

Choose pronouns wisely. “Send the memo to Bob and myself’” is incorrect. Think how you would word the sentence if you removed mention of other people. In fact, as “Grammar Girl” Mignon Fogarty points out, the pronouns a writer chooses, she explains, set the point of view and the tone of a passage.

Know when to use “that” and “which”. “Which” introduces extra information and it isn’t essential to the first clause. In a sentence such as “Computers are the only products that we sell,” the clause “that we sell” is essential to the meaning of the sentence, so the correct word is “that”.

Affect is a verb meaning “to influence.” “Effect” is a noun that means “result.”
What’s the big deal? Grammar mistakes in content writing for business call attention away from the kind of impression we intend to make on behalf of our businesses or professional practices.
Would your latest blog post pass the Ten-Tip test?

Blogging the “Real Truth” About Your Business

October 1, 2015/0 Comments/in blog marketing, idea sources for blogs/by Rhoda Israelov

Is coffee good or bad for you? Turns out the answer is quite complicated, as Jenn Wood explains in Mental Floss Magazine.

“Excessive coffee consumption can lead to anxiety, depression, and frequency of psychophysiological disorders,” stated the journal article “Advances on Alcohol & Substance in 1984. Yet, by 2015. a study reported in “Heart” showed that “moderate coffee consumption was associated with a lower prevalence of subclinical coronary athereosclerosis.”

“Individuals with a genetic variation associated with slower caffeine metabolism appear to have an increased risk of non-fatal heart attacks with higher amounts of coffee intake,” warned the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2006. Yet, by 2011, the Archives of Internal Medicine was reporting that “the risk of depression was 20 percent lower among women who drank four or more cups of coffee.”

“In the last decade alone, scientists have published hundreds of papers attributing both harms and health benefits to coffee,” observes Christie Aschwanden in slate.com. There’s one problem with all the studies, she says – they are observation, finding associations without establishing causality.

Helping readers sort truth from myth is one important use for business blogs. In the natural order of business, many of misunderstandings about a product or service present themselves, and shining the light of day on misinformation shines light on your own expertise in your field.

Even when (as is the case with the ongoing good/bad coffee debate, there is no final answer, blog content writers can summarize the different schools of thought and recap the research that is being done in the field. That in itself can go a long way towards making your blog a “go-to” place for readers seeking information relating to your industry or profession.

Is blogging good or bad for you and your readers? No complications there – the answer is a resounding yes. Even where there really is no one “real truth”, it’s helpful to discuss what we know so far and how your business or practice is using the information that is available as of today.

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