We're all writers so read this before sharing on Facebook (or anywhere else)

This is something of a public service announcement. If you use Facebook, please invest a little bit of time into understanding the basic functionality of its privacy settings. Also set aside a few minutes every couple of weeks to review them, as they change frequently and frankly, you may not fully understand that by clicking on something, you can change your own settings quite unintentionally.

For example, I have changed my own posting/privacy settings multiple times and for various reasons (some I understand, others not so much) they have changed back, or changed again.

Here's an example: it's extremely easy to set your status-posting setting to "private" - which means, of course, it's not private at all, but shared with all your friends.  It's also very easy to change your status setting to "public," which means it's really public, out there for anyone to see, like, forever, or until you delete it.

Ok. Those of you who are Facebook gurus know exactly how these things work. And you can still make mistakes.

What's worse, a disturbing lot of you are thinking, well, I don't use Facebook enough to worry about all that or I don't have time to mess around with all those settings and to you I say, yes you do.

If you use Facebook at all then you should learn how to use the privacy settings to your advantage, and be vigilant about understanding the changes. And there are always changes!

It doesn't take that long to learn the ropes, and Facebook has helpful "help" pages that explain things well. Use them. Don't take the advice of post-of-a-repost on one of your friend's friends' walls. Go directly to the current Facebook help page and learn how to do it.

I manage Facebook pages for nearly a dozen businesses and organizations (and my own book!! < that's a plug) and I assure you that if I can screw up a "simple" privacy setting, you can too. Shame on all of us who don't take the time to learn how to use them properly.

Lecture over! Class dismissed! Thanks for reading!

Proffreading? Who needs it?

Sometimes the headline just says it all, but when has that ever stopped me?

I recently pointed out a few typos and grammatical errors in a chiropractor's website. A half dozen or so, just on one page. The doctor said, oh, thanks. I'll add that to the list. Seems the professional firm that created and maintains the site had yet to fix a phone number the doctor had pointed out (months earlier) that was also wrong. Phone numbers, you know, are kind of a big deal, even when they're wrong "just" because a couple of digits are transposed.

Look, it's easy to make mistakes. Everybody does it. Good news: it's pretty easy to fix 'em too.

Here's the bad news: while just about everyone makes typing errors and grammar mistakes, most people don't correct them.

That's why proofreading is not going out of style, folks. If you don't catch or correct your own mistakes, you can still fix 'em by inviting a proofreader or copy editor to make you look good.

Look, I proofread and edit stuff for other people all the time. I even get paid to do it :D but guess what? I make mistakes, too. Catching and correcting them is what sets me apart.


The last word -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I can fix you up! Don't send embarrassing errors along with your employee newsletters, contract renewal notices, or other business correspondence. I bet I work faster (and cheaper) than you think. Try me.

Especially in Headlines and Subject Lines, Characters Matter

Consider the work involved in sending an e-mail newsletter to hundreds of thousands of newsletter subscribers. Or even to a few hundred subscribers or a handful of prospects.

Besides maintaining your list, compiling the basic information, editing html tags, crafting a captivating headline, honing the copy and proofreading every word - please, tell me you proofread - do you really have to count characters? Well, no. But you DO have to consider where the line breaks might occur, especially in headlines and subject lines.

Want an example? Here's the subject line from a message that just landed in my in-box:
                  Help protect yourself and your assets

It's clear and relatively concise. So far so good. Unfortunately my mail program cut off the last three letters in the headline. 

Guess which word (that the author never intended) I'll remember from the newsletter?

  __ ___ ___ ___ __ __ ____ _ __  __ 

Do you need a proofreader?

Would you like some help crafting your employee newsletter, or anything you send to clients or prospects? 

Let's write it, right, together. 

((Contact me soon - special prices in effect for newsletters ordered through Q1 2012))

Online Editing Tips from ACES: Readers Notice Sloppy Writing

I'm not convinced that the web spells the death of decent writing. Sue Burzynski Bullard of the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) recently offered 8 tips to improve online editing, especially for news sites. My favorites:

4. Be transparent. “Tell us what you know and how you know it...and tell us what you don’t know.”  (One of my aha! moments in J-school came when a professor told us: what you leave out of the story can bias it as much as what you put in.~ Diane)

and

8. Quality counts. . ."..readers notice sloppiness whether online or in print."

All 8 tips -- all worth reading -- here:
http://www.copydesk.org/resources/2011/tips-for-editing-online
# #

Structural check on my glass house

I'm planning to upgrade my website, so I've been reading some other writers' sites pretty closely - close enough to catch some embarrassing typos.

I hope they are typos. I've seen sloppy punctuation (missing periods, double periods) "it's" where "its" was needed, and other errors a 5th grade teacher would circle with her red pen. Yes, you understood correctly - all these amateur errors appear on the sites of professional freelance writers.

I was dumbfounded, dismayed, and working on righteous indignation (doesn't ANYONE proofread their own work these days?!) when I realized... errors on their sites probably meant I should stop picking up rocks and check for cracks in my own glass house.

If you see anything off, let me know, OK? (Please knock gently before throwing stones.)

I'd also like to remind those writers (and everyone else) that I'm available to proofread your website. I just might ask that you return the favor - editing your own stuff is especially difficult!

Put a Bow on It (Grammar is Part of the Packaging)

Packaging fascinates me, from the myriad marketing issues (eye-catching strange shape or practical box for easy shelving?) to the technical considerations of shrink wrap. Let me be clear: on the style v. substance question, I pick substance every time. BUT.

Packaging problems can kill products.

And grammar, my friends, is part of the package. Consider this, from a help-wanted post:

"[name omitted] is one of the largest book publishers in the world. It's subsidiary [name omitted] publishes [blah-blah-blah]..."

Did you catch it? When it jumped off the screen at me, I promptly prepared to send in my offer to help this world-famous publisher PROOFREAD ITS OWN AD COPY.

Maybe I'm a little extra-sensitive these days, what with the holiday parties and all. Every seasonal gathering seems to require one of those "so what do you do?" conversations, and when I say, "I'm a writer" nine times out of ten, I hear "Oh really? Sometimes I think about being a writer..." and honest, I try to smile kindly. Because [dripping sarcasm] yeah, it's true, everybody can be a writer.

Now, before you give it a go, do me (and other poor unsuspecting readers out there) a favor: do a good job. Use the right word. Clean up the punctuation. Proofread for errors. And before you offer your gift of writing to the world, put a bow on it.

By that I mean, don't print, publish, or mail anything until it's your best stuff. The words you choose to describe your business, services, and products are your packaging, as much as cellophane or cardboard.

What kind of presentation are you making?

The Case for Having an Editor - or Friend

I've been reading a lot of medical journal articles this week (not as bad as it sounds) and finding embarrassing errors, like this:

"Mortal Combat, for instead, is embedded in violence."

(Once you shake off the icky grammar, you can see the author probably meant "instance")

Another, in a questionnaire:

"The think you're most likely to do in your leisure time."

(Pretty sure the author meant "thing")

In both cases, the authors are highly-educated, world-renown scientists. Apparently, they're also prone to the same stupid mistakes the rest of us make when we spend long hours in coffee-fueled typing sessions.

When the errors are few, or found on page 57 of an otherwise solid research paper, they're excusable, yes? Usually, yes.

When the error is on your website where you're selling swimming pools, pink tiaras, or vitamin supplements... you run the risk of losing the sale.

Get an editor, or a friend that reads v e r y c a r e f u l l y.