bit off track

Refer to older posts…

Merry Christmas!

Published 24 December, 2007 | By TashWord

I wish you the best of times over the festive season – lots of laughter, friendship, contentment, peace and gratitude.

Have a wonderful day tomorrow and take time to enjoy the people you love.

Merry Christmas!

* photo courtesy of Love Santa

Misuse of English

Published 20 December, 2007 | By TashWord

I found the following sign (posted in Germany’s Black Forest) to be a funny translation – at least I hope the translating is what caused the bad expression!

It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose.

I wonder what other sexes there are as men and women are only examples of the possibilities!

Want it written better?

Unmarried males and females must not share a tent in the Black Forest Camping Site.

Makes more sense and is simpler, but nowhere near as funny 🙂

Posted in bad writing examples, bit off track | Tagged amusing, bad expression, translations | 7 Comments

Be careful with satire

Published 16 December, 2007 | By TashWord

Writing satire can be difficult but can produce some very funny work. However, you need to match the satire to an appropriate audience.

Some time ago, I wrote a satirical piece about being a year 12 student – I referred to the wonderful social life (visiting a newsagent, a library, seeing movies of books under study, etc) and the joy of always having something to do (hmm, now I think of it, it is pretty similar to running your own business!)

I know it worked as various friends and teachers at my writing course read it and laughed. Yet I gave it to another person once and she took it very seriously. Her comment was along the lines of “That’s an interesting piece, but I’m not sure how many other year 12 students would agree with you about the highlight of the year”

Personally, I found her response funnier than the original story! However, it does prove a point – if you are writing in a style that is not mainstream or is perhaps different to the norm in a particular context, then take care that your piece will not be misinterpreted in a way that it becomes meaningless.

Learn about your target audience and preferably test your work on a couple of them. You don’t want to waste your best writing on an unappreciative audience!

Posted in bit off track, writing | Tagged appropriate, satire, target audience | 4 Comments

Spam writing

Published 8 December, 2007 | By TashWord

Writing spam? Don’t you just want to delete it rather than create more of it???

Occasionally, I read a piece of spam that gets into my inbox – mostly by accident and sometimes as research 🙂

I can see various spam emails being useful as examples of bad writing so I can show you how to improve your writing – or give you a giggle at bad writing anyway!

For instance, I got one yesterday that started with “Kind time of day of ladies and gentlemen” – why limit yourself to good morning or good afternoon when you can cover both at once! Obviously, a simple “Greetings”, “Hello” or “Dear friend” would be my suggestion.

Then, there was “Get $999 you download our casino.” Hmmm, a casino that will give me money to download them? I am very curious as to how I could possible download a casino – but not so curious I clicked on the link 🙂 A better way to say it would have been “Get $999 when you download our casino software” or “Join our casino and get $999”.

And “same problems. somewhere in the world.” could probably have been better written as “The same problems occur throughout the world” or “Someone in the world has the same problem as you.”

I could go on and on, but thought I’d finish with mentioning a blog entry that shows you how to write better spam – enjoy!

Posted in bit off track, grammar & details, writing | Tagged bad wording, emails, spam | Leave a comment

Keeping to the course

Published 6 December, 2007 | By TashWord

I did a bit more driving than usual over November and I noticed a few idiots on the road. You know the type – overtake every car they can, speeding well above the limits, but somehow staying in sight and stopping at the same red lights as you.

Honestly, it is costing them in stress and petrol use, and greatly increases their risks (of accidents and fines).

Yet travelling safely & steadily gets you where you’re going with less risk, less cost and you arrive ready for whatever awaits.

Thinking about these drivers, it occurred to me that driving is like running a business. Some people start a business and run at it, trying to make a fortune in the first six months, changing direction as each new opportunity or distraction arises. These people are often stressed and overworked.

Others take their time – do some research, study up on various topics, gather advice and opinions, set up systems, and so on – and develop strong foundations for their business. These people may sometimes be frustrated at things not going fast, but they stay the course and develop a good business.

Consistency, steady progress, solid foundations, patience, planning deliberate moves – all of these traits will make business growth a little slower but a lot stronger.

So how do you run your business? And how do you approach a major writing project?

Posted in bit off track, business info & tools | Tagged analogy, business, consistency, driving, patience, stress | 1 Comment

Challenge completed!

Published 17 November, 2007 | By TashWord

Along with some other Business Mums, I accepted a challenge of doing one post every day this week – and I did it 🙂 I wrote some of them in a group and just predated them to publish one day at a time, but it wasn’t always easy to think of topics to write about on demand.

However, I met the challenge, so maybe this is a challenge you could set for your blog, too.

Some of the other blogs in the challenge were:

http://preciouswater.com.au/blog/
www.mydayoff.com.au
www.melissakhalinsky.com/blog
http://marakye.blogspot.com/
http://smallbusinessdiva.wordpress.com
http://buffmineralcosmetics.blogspot.com/
http://home.exetel.com.au/huysing/wordpress/
http://kidsmusiccompany.wordpress.com

Posted in bit off track, blogging | Tagged blog, Blogging, challenge | 2 Comments

I’m sure they start earlier…

Published 14 November, 2007 | By TashWord

Yesterday, we had the chance to look at the grade 1 classrooms our child may be in next year. We had time to wonder around and look at the children’s work and the provided posters on the walls.

It was interesting to see that they have learnt about adjectives, different writing styles (narrative, reporting, discussion, etc) and proofreading – I’m sure I didn’t know all that in grade 1!

I occasionally help a trainer with a communications module he teaches as part of a course, and I can tell you there are a lot of adults who don’t know what these grade 1 students are learning. Of course, I see many other examples as I read things in general, too.

Maybe we’ll have a very literate community in 30 years or so, or maybe it’s just our school setting a high standard. Either way, I’ll keep sharing writing and grammar tips here and in my newsletter in the hope of helping people use correct grammar – and parents stay up with their kids!

Posted in bit off track, grammar & details | Tagged children, grade 1, grammar, learning, literate | Leave a comment

A change is as good…

Published 13 November, 2007 | By TashWord

As a professional writer, most of my work is commercial – I write business profiles, articles, web copy, brochures, letters and so on. But every so often, I write something completely different, and I love the variety.

Recently, I have had a few ‘different’ projects.

First, I wrote some letters to help out Santa as he likes sending Australian letters to Aussie boys & girls (instead of talking about snow and ice) – personalised letters from Love Santa are definitely professionally written, lol!

QuickCrafts Online is producing a set of books for children about Australian animals and I have been editing the stories to suit the under 5 age group – although I always write in simple terms, I had to use even simpler vocabulary and ideas for that age group!

Real Mums is about reality parenting so they wanted some Santa letters for Mums. These were fun as they need to be humourous and aimed at Mums while maintaining a Santa feel in case the kids read mum’s mail!

It is fun to be involved in projects with such different types of writing!

Posted in About Word Constructions, bit off track, writing | Tagged articles, brochures, business, change, commercial, letters, profiles, webcopy | 1 Comment

Choosing a name

Published 11 November, 2007 | By TashWord

When starting (or restructuring) a business, one of the hardest decisions is often the name.

You need to consider all possible meanings of the name, whether it is too similar to another business (especially a competitor), whether a domain name is available, does it suit the branding style your business needs, is it easy to remember, and so on.

I have a client going through this process now and it is difficult. Many good names we think of are already registered, although for very different businesses to hers.

A couple of years ago I wrote an article about naming your business – I must remember to send a copy to my client!

I enjoy the challenge of choosing names – it lets me be creative and think in a different way, which is fun!

Some business names I like are:

Word Constructions (well, you’d want me to like my own business name wouldn’t you!)
Precious Water (I agree with sentiment before even checking out their tanks!)
Web Graphics By Email (longer than I usually like, but it sums up the business beautifully)
Real Mums (sounds genuine, somewhere mums can truly be themselves)
The Marketing Coach (much more approachable than something like “The Marketing Experts”)
Love Santa (personalised letters signed Love Santa – says it all really!)
BYO Kids (because it’s hard to leave the kids behind all the time!)

I’m sure there are others, but I just can’t think of them right now. What are some of your favourite business names?

Posted in bit off track | Tagged business, decide, meanings, name, remember | Leave a comment

Quotation marks

Published 8 November, 2007 | By TashWord

Have you ever noticed how many unnecessary quotation marks are used?

I once wrote the following as a guest blogger:

Quotation marks seem to be fashionable at the moment, which is a shame as they are being used so badly! “Recommended by doctors and mothers” makes me feel like they are telling me a lie – if it is a genuine statement, why does it need to be in quotation marks?

Quotation marks are correctly used to:

– indicate you are quoting someone

– indicate speech (e.g. He said “How are you?”)

– present a title of something

– show the text lacks credibility or truth, or at least is not verifiable (e.g. The media release stated the product was “superior”)

If you are tempted to use quotation marks for emphasis, try bold, italics, underline, colour, indenting or size of font instead – it will stand out more and not send any incorrect messages!

So I was rather amused when I came across a blog dedicated to silly use of quotation marks. I hope you enjoy seeing these grammatical blunders, as well as getting tips for your own writing!

Posted in bit off track, grammar & details, writing | Tagged credibility, emphasis, grammar, marks, quotation marks, quoting, speech, title | 3 Comments

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