Beyond the Elements of Style

You Can’t Make Them Mean What You Want Them To

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more not less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is who’s to be the master, that’s all.”

(Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass)

How many times has someone misunderstood your letter, email, fax, instant message, or other piece of written communication? And how indignant were you when they did? “Well, that wasn’t what I meant!” you probably exclaimed in irritation.

It’s a fairly common scenario, made even more so by the speed at which electronic communications can be sent, and the fact – usually overlooked – that tone of voice conveys far more meaning than we think it does.

How often have we unintentionally offended, confused, hurt, or angered other people who are reading our communications? And why is it that we automatically assume it to be their fault – that they, somehow, “took it wrong?”

Well, I’m here to tell you that the fault lies in the communicator, not the one communicated with. It takes just another moment to read through your writing to make sure that it cannot be misunderstood. If there’s anything that could even remotely be misconstrued, err on the side of caution, assume that it will be, and rephrase. This is especially important when you’re sending out e-mailings to a number of people: augmenting the list of recipients merely multiplies the possibilities of being misunderstood.

You do everything else in a professional manner: make sure that your writing reflects your professionalism as well. Don’t try, with Humpty Dumpty, to make words mean what you want them to. In the end, the only thing you’ll be hurting is your own business. Understand that, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Goodnight, Sweet Prince

We’re on vacation this week, my husband, my two teenaged stepchildren, and me. The first twenty-four hours Jacob was lost to us, his nose firmly planted between the pages of J.K. Rowling’s latest; now it’s Anastasia’s turn.

Jacob is ineffably sad. It should never end, he contends; he, for one, would like to see what the elderly Harry Potter might do with magical dentures.

There’s a general sense, one gathers, of many devotees not wanting it to end. Over on Second Life, a whole role-playing group pretends to “be” Harry Potter & co., although it has to be said that that particular attempt appears to distinegrate rapidly into drama and nonsense.

But isn’t there something to be said for stories coming to an end? Despite postmodern literary meanderings, didn’t we all learn, at some point, that stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end? Those aren’t the arbutrary dictates of some nasty schoolmaster; they’re the tried-and-true conclusions of centuries of storytelling, from Gilgamesh onward.

It will be interesting to see what Rowling does next. It will be interesting to see if, in the years to come, Harry Potter is enduring enough to be granted a place next to Alice and Bilbo and Aslan in the children’s fantasy hall of fame. But in the meantime, won’t it be interesting to …

… talk about something else?...

And then we’ll all be … beyond the elements of style!

What’s Your (Subject) Line?

Is it just me, or is it becoming more and more difficult these days to find appropriate subject lines for emails?

The old spammers used to be obvious, urging us in the subject lines of their emails to get thin, to get more girth, to obtain medications, to watch porn flicks. But these days they’re becoming more subtle (not to mention, on occasion, more lyrical), and it’s not just in deleting them that this is causing a problem.

For example, I needed to contact a client the other week. “Project proposal,” I wrote in the subject line of the email. I frowned; I’d received a couple of spam missives just that week with just that subject line. “Your project proposal” was worse. “Customline Wordware Project Proposal” worked, at least for now, but I know enough to realize that it won’t be long before my company name, too, is usurped. Already I’m getting very racy invitations indeed from … myself.

Or there’s the message that my own email program threw into the trash, the note from a prospective client that had as its subject line: “your question.” Right.

Aside from wondering how many friends I’ve disgruntled and how many potential clients I’ve lost due to overactive spam filters that never delivered messages to their intended recipients, I’m getting close to a point where my creativity just isn’t up to the task. What subject line is descriptive yet clearly not spam?

And if you can find one, how much longer will it be so?

We all complain about spam, but in some ways it’s part of the reality of life on the Net; and the advantages of being there, to me, far outweigh the inconveniences of spam. I can live with it if it’s the price I pay to read journals, submit essays or short stories, transact business, communicate with friends and family, and keep up-to-date with news.

I just wish I could find a subject line I can use! At that point I’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

When Shouldn’t You Sign The Contract?

It’s an unconventional thought, but there are times when a writer or editor should not make a sale. When ethics becomes an issue for you, then you are forced to turn down certain clients or publications.

We’ve talked a lot about honesty, and here are some situations when honesty may be an issue with a sale:

• You don’t have the best solution for that client.
• The new business could harm the business of existing clients.
• The client asks you to engage in an unethical or dishonest practice.
• The client’s practices do not meet your standards for ethical behavior.

How about the issue of quality – of standing behind your service or product?

• The client makes unreasonable workload or pricing demands and it might not be worth what you could charge to work with them (this is an issue of the client’s quality).

• You won’t have enough time to do the job up to your normal standards.
• The client’s product is not up to your standards of acceptable quality.

While it may be counter-intuitive to turn down a sale, there are times when it is the right thing to do.

And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

What Makes a Good Presentation?

As writers, we’re often also called upon to be public speakers. There’s the rub – since writers, almost by definition, like to sit alone in a room and write. But promoting one’s work involves interacting with the public … and the public can be unforgiving.

Surveys show that people decide in the first seven seconds whether they are interested in what you are saying – seven seconds! The bottom line is that you have a small window to captivate your audience. Are they going to listen – or work on their grocery lists?

Grabbing listeners’ attention in any kind of presentation depends on answering the following questions:

• So what? I want to make a presentation on X; the immediate question has to be: so what? what meaning does this presentation have for its listeners?
• Who cares? Why this particular audience for this particular presentation? I’ve chosen to give it to you for a reason, and I’d better be able to articulate that reason.
• What’s in it for me? If people don’t know what they’re getting – how it will improve their lives or work, what advantage they’ll have from having heard it – then they’ll tune out fast. The farm report? Yawn.

Once you have people’s attention, however, your work is far from done.

Here’s the issue: humans have a short attention span, and are able to retain three – yes: only three – points from any presentation. Try to fit any more in and you’re going to lose your audience; and, worse, they won’t retain anything that you said.

Make this handicap work to your advantage! Craft your presentation around three main points, and keep coming back to them – if they have catchy taglines, so much the better. Twenty minutes after your presentation is over, attendees should be able to easily and quickly articulate your three main points to a colleague, and that will only happen if you make sure that they’re well embedded in your audience’s minds.

This doesn’t mean that you have to be simplistic – far from it. Make your (well-written) notes available to your audience, so that later they can go back and remember other points, ancillary details, lists, illustrations. Be as detailed and sophisticated as you can in these notes and make sure that they’re widely available; include them in your website or newsletter; remind people of them throughout conversations you have in the industry.

If you can catch your audience’s attention immediately by telling them why they should listen; if you keep the presentation itself to three main points that you reinforce throughout the talk; and if you provide follow-up materials, then you’ll be making stellar, memorable, and useful presentations!

And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!