Don’t skimp on content

As an avid reader of PR Daily and a believer in the value of content marketing, I am always on the lookout for sites that do a great job with their content. These sites give visitors the information they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. Then there are the sites that don’t do it so well. I recently visited a physician’s website, and on the page titled “Insurance” was the following text: “We accept most insurance health plans. There are too many to list. Contact us at [phone number] for assistance.” No, no, no. A thousand times no! There are...

There’s a word for that?

The English language never ceases to amaze me. Considering that there are an estimated 250,000 distinct English words—and that the average, college-educated American has a vocabulary of 60,000 words—there are tens of thousands of “undiscovered” words. Let’s explore this untapped lexicon by looking at a few words that will make you say, “There’s a word for that?” (Definitions from Wordnik.com and Oxford Dictionaries Online.) Coronis—the curved line or flourish at the end of a book or chapter. Deipnosophist—a person skilled at conversation during...

19 math terms for PR professionals

People, with good reason, hate stereotypes about their professions. A recent post on PR Daily described some of the most annoying generalizations about PR professionals. One that was left off the list: PR pros (and writers and editors) are bad at math. I wouldn’t say we’re bad at math; maybe it’s that we don’t like math. After all, we went to school to learn how to write and edit, not solve differential equations. The one math course I took for my undergraduate degree in journalism was called “Math: Its Spirit and Use.” So I get it: Math is not for everyone. It...

Heading off hyphenation headaches

Hyphenation rules can be exceedingly complicated, complex, and crazy making. (For example, does “crazy making” need a hyphen?) I recently spent 30 minutes explaining to a colleague why “follow up” is hyphenated in some instances, but not others. In general, we use hyphens to avoid ambiguity. Otherwise, how would we be able to tell the difference between a “man-eating shark” and a “man eating shark”? A definitive collection of hyphenation rules does not exist; rather, different style manuals prescribe different usage guidelines. In the style guide that I use...

21 examples of portmanteaus

As a word nerd, I am fascinated with how language changes over time. In particular, I like to learn about portmanteau words, or words that are formed by combining two words and their definitions into a new word. Common examples include smog (from smoke and fog) and motel (from motor and hotel). “Portmanteau words are the sound bites of modern English, calculated to catch on the first time people hear them,” says linguist Geoffrey Nunberg, author of The Way We Talk Now. Below are a few portmanteau words you may be familiar with, along with some more obscure...

One space or two between sentences?

Other than the use of the serial comma, perhaps no other style guideline causes more contention among writers and editors as that of how many spaces to use after a period. Several weeks ago, I wrote about 10 writing pet peeves. Among them was content written with two spaces after a period. I always use the find-and-replace feature to change two spaces to one in documents that I edit. My insistence on one space after a period (or question mark or the dreaded exclamation point) touched off a barrage of comments from PR Daily readers. Many insisted that one space after a...

8 great books for writers

It’s never too early to think about that perfect holiday gift for the writer in your life. How about books that will make the arduous tasks of writing and editing a little more fun? Here are eight titles to enjoy: 1. “Wretched Writing: A Compendium of Crimes Against the English Language” A “celebration of the worst writing imaginable.” Reading this book is like driving past a car wreck—you want to look away, but you can’t.   2. “I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar” Any editor would judge you unfit for duty if you made mistakes like...

Examining ‘smart’ habits for better writ...

I recently attended a presentation called Maximizing Mental Agility by Dr. Art Markman, a cognitive scientist and author of the book “Smart Thinking.” Markman describes “smart thinking” as the content of what you know and how you use it. This differs from intelligence, which is typically measured by testing abstract reasoning skills, “independent of your specific knowledge.” Markman explains that by developing “smart habits,” you can improve your work performance, decision making, and creativity. An example of a “smart habit” is to avoid multitasking....