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Tash
also comes after
Reading and editing a document recently, I came across the following text as the first paragraph in a new section of the document:
We will also deal with your request for access…
‘Also bring an apple’ comes after ‘bring pen and paper’ or else ‘also’ makes no sense.
So today’s Monday Meaning is for one word instead of a pair of words.
Also [adverb]: as well as, too, in addition, besides
Please bring pen and paper. Also bring a snack.
Getting back to the example above, it is wrong because ‘we’ can’t ‘also’ deal with a request if ‘we’ aren’t already dealing with something for you.
Words like also and too must follow, or come after, something rather than being the first item in a list.
Facebook ads – short but important
Proof reading is important – even for short and (relatively) simple things like a Facebook ad.
A Facebook ad that needs proof reading
Unfortunately my screenshot didn’t work (and the ad hasn’t shown again since!) but I saw an ad this morning that seriously needed some help…
Even short pieces of text need to be proof read – or risk embarrassment
The heading of the ad was “New year. New hom.”
For a major company involved in real estate sales, you’d think home is an important word to get right.
I’d also have expected a company of that size to have a process of checking and approving ads before they go live – a one-person business is often at bigger risk of such errors because it is harder to correct your own writing.
The body of the ad included “but hurry – offer ends 28 February!”
Perhaps they meant hurry into your time machine?
That isn’t necessarily a proof reading error (unless they actually got the date wrong!) as it may be an incorrect setting on when the ad is to be run. Either way, attention to detail can have a big impact!
Proof reading matters…
We all do it – we write something and assume it is written exactly as we meant it to be.
But between typing mistakes (typos), thinking faster than we can type and actual spelling/grammatical errors, it is easy to have text that is not exactly what we wanted.
So we need to check our writing for errors. ALL our writing, whether short or long, whether technical, legally required or marketing, whether online or offline. It’s that simple!
And the key proof reading rules are to get someone else to check it and leave some time between the writing and proof reading.
Oh, and don’t rely on spell check to find all your errors, either. For example, in this post I typed ‘won’ instead of ‘own’ and a spell check would have accepted that as fine.
Keep it simple…
Simple but clear – this image tells a story without trying to impress or be more than it is. This makes for good communication.
The purpose of the written word is to communicate.
Sometimes that does include some complexity but I strongly believe it should be kept as simple as possible. Why make people work hard at understanding and increase the risk of misunderstanding?
I recently came across the following:
Email us to inform us about updates regarding your personal information.
And it struck me how some people try to impress and seem ‘professional’ by using complexity when it really isn’t needed. In the example above, why not just write:
Email us with any changes to your contact details.
Only make useful references
I’ve been reading a number of privacy policies and notices lately – not very exciting but necessary with new privacy laws coming into effect on 12 March.
One policy included the following (slight edits made to protect that business):
Disclosure to overseas recipients
We may disclose your personal information to overseas parties. If we disclose your personal information to overseas recipients, we will do so in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
Circular links don’t really help people follow the information flow
Under new laws, you must specify if any data will be stored outside of Australia so this section is necessary. But I don’t find it particularly helpful to be told to read their policy to find out if my data goes overseas – especially as I am already reading their policy…
make references useful
- never refer back to the same document (a different section of the document is fine, of course) as it is circular and meaningless
- give enough information to make the reference easy to follow up on. For example, ‘refer to the product section of our website’ or ‘see page 6 of the member handbook’ give clarity
- if online, add a hyperlink to the appropriate page, not just the home page.
- give some idea of what can be found at the reference so people can judge if it is relevant to them. It doesn’t have to be a long list, but some guidance helps – ‘details on widget sizes’ or ‘widget care instructions’ or even ‘background research about widgets’ is more useful than ‘for more information’.
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