So I started to post about a collection agency that has terrorized us for years. As my few words turned to one run on full page of writing, I was inspired to finally just blog where one blogs and attempt to keep my Facebook status to one or two sentences. (Husband just approached my desk and asked "what book are you writing now" lol. He is just so grateful for the Internet and not to have to be the only one to listen as I empty out my very busy head and very broken heart and soul.)
Now that I am here, I find myself being unable still, to leave the link to this blog on my Facebook. That is a moment in this crazy head. To date the blog has been "private" to the best of my knowledge. I have two intelligent male friends (one new that I met playing farmville, he wrote a blog for it, and the other a lifetime friend--the brother of my very best friend since 2nd grade and one time love of my life) who blog here too. I am afraid to ask if they can "see" the blog and that is the extent of my ability to "go live with it". (Insert moment of realization, irony and smile at consistency in my otherwise inconsistent persona. One writes for a living, sort of speak, and is very eloquent in his writing and always has something "smart" to say and says it with seemingly such ease. The other occasionally writes in regard to his work (stopping to check on terminology for his job) "Internet marketing professional with organic search engine optimization experience since 2000." Is how it is listed on his blog. Neither would find my blog even mildly engaging I am sure. Point here being, on Facebook my rants are just that. 300 close friends who have known me since grade school or are of kindred souls that I have had the blessing of befriending along the way. They "get" me and/or get what I am going through and can offer advice or get that I just need someone to vent to so the cobwebs can clear and I can make some progress. Writing a blog originally started for so many reasons. Some think I could write somehow for a living. Some have mentioned that "I had something to say that they needed to hear". I wanted to get back to being "just irresponsible enough to still be fun" and find a way to turn life's little nightmares into something funny. A skill learned by being around my BFF and her family for most of years between age 8 and 28.
As I write, I become aware of so many things that one action leads to, which trails off to a thousand other thoughts and ideas. These will all be wrapped up in an emotional outpouring as I wrap up. Some epiphany resulting in part of my past leaving my heart and mind, benefiting me only with some realization of what I went through and what might have been learned, closed with a brief moment of peace. Then my kids will wake up, I will log into work and a new day of battles and mistakes will surely begin and most of it is forgotten. Not lost I suppose, but these moments used to inspire a great day, blessed attitude and semi productive day. Will have to work on what happened to that.
I just realized that, while I may never be famous or save the world, I think I must be the one who will create some sort of "hashtag" or mark to define the amount of time spent trying to put thoughts into words or feelings into words other intelligent human beings could relate to. (which once again, left me laughing at myself (which is important), realizing proper English and utilization of correct sentence structure would clear up many things. It has always escaped me, I suppose, as it the ability was buried under so much emotion that I wasn't able to use the skill.
An hour and a half, 3 draft posts, 53 fleeting thoughts and 100 emotions (yes, I had to stop and make sure the the thoughts to emotions ratio made logical and mathematical sense, but forced myself to throw caution to the wind and just randomly place a number) later, I must force myself to regroup and get ready for work. I have no post on Facebook. A confusing tangent here. The feeling of "half assing" things is a little less prevalent today than usual when leaving such chaos. I surely jumped the gun on going "on the map" today. Guess I have inadvertently experienced creating the "bait and switch" tactic Hoping if this is ever read by anyone, they will have found something they needed anyway, or at least can appreciate one woman's struggle to make a difference. At least to feel comfortable in her own mind and skin and make life livable.
Looking at the "book" below, beginning to get irritated that when I write on FB if I have more than one paragraph (or subject) I am unable to properly format as the return button will post instead of starting a new paragraph. That alone will inspire 25 more thoughts and ideas. Lord how the hell do I go from "Tami's Tangent" to something worthy of "publishing", grammatically correct, easily understood by many and with a direction? Went looking for the spelling of grammatically as it looks odd with 2 m's and found a blog from a guy who seems to get me. Fear of attracting a thousand strangers to my page, in it's currently unusable form, left me thinking a link to it would do just that and now wondering if plagiarism is ever even a thought and hoping that copying it is "legal".
This guy gets me. Especially the last P.S. I was almost inclined to see if we were the same age or if we just had similar parents. Fortunately for both of us probably, there was no easy way to leave a comment. The 400 grammar Nazi's that commented left me with tail between my legs anyway.
Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look DumbI am wondering if anyone has started to notice that I don't proofread, and why?
2.1kPinOne thing blogging and good copywriting share is a conversational style, and that means it’s fine to fracture the occasional rule of proper grammar in order to communicate effectively. Both bloggers and copywriters routinely end sentences with prepositions, dangle a modifier in a purely technical sense, or make liberal use of the ellipsis when an EM dash is the correct choice—all in order to write in the way people actually speak.
But there are other mistakes that can detract from your credibility. While we all hope what we have to say is more important than some silly grammatical error, the truth is some people will not subscribe or link to your blog if you make dumb mistakes when you write, and buying from you will be out of the question.
Here are five mistakes to avoid when blogging and writing web copy.
1. Your vs. You’re
This one drives me insane, and it’s become extremely common among bloggers. All it takes to avoid this error is to take a second and think about what you’re trying to say.
“Your” is a possessive pronoun, as in “your car” or “your blog.” “You’re” is a contraction for “you are,” as in “you’re screwing up your writing by using your when you really meanyou are.”
2. It’s vs. Its
This is another common mistake. It’s also easily avoided by thinking through what you’re trying to say.
“It’s” is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” “Its” is a possessive pronoun, as in “this blog has lost its mojo.” Here’s an easy rule of thumb—repeat your sentence out loud using “it is” instead. If that sounds goofy, “its” is likely the correct choice.
3. There vs. Their
This one seems to trip up everyone occasionally, often as a pure typo. Make sure to watch for it when you proofread.
“There” is used many ways, including as a reference to a place (“let’s go there”) or as a pronoun (“there is no hope”). “Their” is a plural possessive pronoun, as in “their bags” or “their opinions.” Always do the “that’s ours!” test—are you talking about more than one person and something that they possess? If so, “their” will get you there.
4. Affect vs. Effect
To this day I have to pause and mentally sort this one out in order to get it right. As with any of the other common mistakes people make when writing, it’s taking that moment to get it right that makes the difference.
“Affect” is a verb, as in “Your ability to communicate clearly will affect your income immensely.” “Effect” is a noun, as in “The effect of a parent’s low income on a child’s future is well documented.” By thinking in terms of “the effect,” you can usually sort out which is which, because you can’t stick a “the” in front of a verb. While some people do use “effect” as a verb (“a strategy to effect a settlement”), they are usually lawyers, and you should therefore ignore them if you want to write like a human.
5. The Dangling Participle
The dangling participle may be the most egregious of the most common writing mistakes. Not only will this error damage the flow of your writing, it can also make it impossible for someone to understand what you’re trying to say.
Check out these two examples from Tom Sant’s book Persuasive Business Proposals:
After rotting in the cellar for weeks, my brother brought up some oranges.Uhh… keep your decomposing brother away from me!
Featuring plug-in circuit boards, we can strongly endorse this server’s flexibility and growth potential.Hmmm… robotic copy written by people embedded with circuit boards. Makes sense.
The problem with both of the above is that the participial phrase that begins the sentence is not intended to modify what follows next in the sentence. However, readers mentally expect it to work that way, so your opening phrase should always modify what immediately follows. If it doesn’t, you’ve left the participle dangling, as well as your readers.
P.S. You may find it amusing to know that I, like David Ogilvy, have never learned the formal rules of grammar. I learned to write by reading obsessively at an early age, but when it came time to learn the “rules,” I tuned out. If you show me an incorrect sentence, I can fix it, but if I need to know the technical reason why it was wrong in the first place, I go ask my wife.
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