Fun with Language

From the Readers Digest @Work section:

“The insurance industry loves its acronyms. The first time I saw the term proof of ownership was in a client’s file that read ‘Insured has POO on damaged items’ ”– Amanda Schaefer, Pleasant Hill Missouri

Quote of the Week

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw

And You Thought Print Was Dead!

With all our tablets, Kindles and Nooks, and with magazines and newspapers crying poverty (and reporters being let go) you would think that the question, “Is Print Dead”, a moot one. However, the September 2014 issue of Vogue Magazine (print version that is!) had a very eye opening article about how people are rallying back to good old-fashioned print. In “The Fine Print” Robert Sullivan writes that “Despite the long-trumpeted rise of digital media, a handful of New York women are championing conventional print – be it in the form of magazines, stationery, or good old-fashioned books.” Especially for invites, which are so personal, people are seeking a way to catch the reader’s attention and nothing can do it better than a snail mail one.

The article discusses how Paperless Post, originally started as a means to send beautiful invitations through e-mail, has, gasp, gone to offering non-paperless (ah, a new word!) posts! Alexa Hirschfeld, says “You don’t have to use paper now, so when you do, the medium has more gravity than it used to.”

In 2012 Newsweek folded. Newsweek! A magazine that was around for decades. Indeed, that must have heralded the death of print media. (read my article “Is Print Dead? Newsweek Thinks So!”  written in 2012) However, two years later we are seeing the magazine industry coming alive with the printing of glossy, limited editions, niche magazines. The Vogue article profiles two: Modern Farmer, and Cherry Bombe.

How can a print magazine like Modern Farmer be successful? Ann Marie Gardner, the editor says, “People want something beautiful, and people are tactile.” She also feels that print locks in conversations from social media platforms that would otherwise float away into the ether. And it does help that it targets a niche that is hungry for information in a great visual package.

The other magazine, Cherry Bombe, targets women and food. It is a biannual print magazine that presents mouthwatering photos of food printed on expensive paper stock. Add to that excellent writing and you have a print item that crosses into the artistic.

Small bookstores are also thriving and expanding into other areas of the printed realm. Sarah McNally owns the bookstore McNally Jackson in Manhattan’s Nolita area. She has big plans for an expansion into the print world of lithographs, Risographs, and letterpress posters.

So it turns out that in this second decade of the 21^st century print is alive and well. It’s become one of the number of choices we now have when deciding on how to communicate our messages. Many businesses choose to cover all bases, just as Vogue magazine does by publishing both a printed and a digital version each month. Unlike the tagline “Paper or Plastic”, with print you can select one or have both!

Read my original articles on this topic: Is Print Dead (2/2011)
and
Is print dead – part 2 (2012)

Quote of the Week

“They say marriages are made in heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.” – Clint Eastwood

Fun With Language

“I asked my eight graders, ‘Why are you loooking forward to becoming a teenagers?’ A student answered, ‘You’re treated more like an adult because you are getting closer to adultery.’ ” – Readers Digest

Quote of the Week

“To keep a lamp burning,we have to keep putting oil in it” – Mother Teresa

Fun With Language

“When a teacher asked my six-year-old nephew why his handwriting wasn’t as neat as usual, he responded, ‘I’m trying a new font’.” – Judith Fisher

Quote of the Week

 “The noun of self becomes a verb. This flashpoint of creation in the present moment is where work and play merge.” – Stephen Nachmanovitch

 

10 Tips to Help You Write About Emotionally Charged Topics

Business writing normally is not an emotionally charged task for a writer. It’s all about aligning facts and creating a story that generates emotions in the reader with the goal to inform or lead to action. However, we write for many different purposes and sometimes, with non-business writing, you as the writer must deal with an emotionally charged topic. This can be the most difficult writing to undertake. 

Writing about emotionally charged topics has two sides to it. First you have to deal with your emotions in having to write the piece, and second, you must find the proper words and voice to craft the piece.

The types of projects that can be difficult to write range from having to create copy for something you don’t like or is opposite your point of view, contacting companies that you’re not satisfied with their services, recommendations for terminated employees, a blog post to get your point of view across for something you feel passionate about but might offend someone, or crafting a letter to a friend in difficulty. As a poet I also have to craft poems for specific occasions and to express intimate sentiments to individuals. Hardly as easy as writing one about the delights of summer!

Here are 10 tips on how to make the task easier: 

1. Write out what you want the piece to accomplish. This will help you stay on topic and not digress.

2. Know your audience. Is it one person? Then your job is easier. Try to get some information on that person and his/her’s orientation to the subject matter. If not an individual, than think as to who would be your readership, what are their points of view, likes, dislikes.

3. Make a list of “hot” words. Ones that you want to use to trip off emotions and ones you must avoid. 

4. Come from an objective, not a subject point of view. Even if you are writing to a friend, starting from the topic’s “big picture” will help you most.

5. Revise, revise, revise. This is the type of writing that takes many passes and revisions. So start with a “brain dump” before you even consider writing the “draft”.

6. If the going is really difficult, you could be dealing with a blocked emotion. Separately write out what you are feeling, either about the topic or the piece.

7. As you reread a version, ask yourself if this is the emotional tone you want to get across.

8. Read it out loud, than read it to someone else to for feedback. What you think it is saying, when someone else is reading it might pick up an entirely different emotion.

9. All of the above are especially important if this is going to be an e-mail or internet posting. Be doubly sure you have crafted it the best way possible before you hit the send button. Remember, cyberspace is unforgiving! 

10. If you are stuck, talk to someone about it. Or read other similar pieces that you’ve written in the past. I sometimes reread a lot of my old poems to get inspired.

I  have written poems about 9/11 and Ground Zero (view my writings in my World Trade Center Journal)  and I can tell you they were some of the most difficult pieces to do. Each year I also have to write a poem to read at my town’s 9/11 ceremony. How, after 13 years do you keep that emotionally fresh? And how do you make it specific to the 2001 event and yet not “beat a dead horse”? But my most difficult one was to write about an artist friend of mine who passed away. This poem was to be posted on a gallery’s website AND given to his grieving family. All emotionally heavy duty stuff that you will probably never have to deal with. But the method of attacking the topic, getting through the writing, and producing an excellent piece of writing that’s spot on is still the same. I hope these 10 tips will help you the next time you are faced with this type of writing.