Resources

Blue Grammar

Periodically I research for myself on the subject of “writing”; that is a bit of a shocker as it is my chosen means of earning a crust.

I came across a site which you can find here – www.grammarbook.com – an American site again but informative and helpful if you just watch for those Americanized spellings.

One recommendation I found useful is avoiding the overuse of “there is”, “there are” and “it was”; something I am perennially guilty of.

Remember one of the Supaproofread writing tips – if you can dispose of a word in your piece then remove it as long as your message is not affected. This is simply good practice to impart your ideas with economy so the message is not lost in an overgrown bramble of words.
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Copywriting: Emotional or Intellectual Approach?

I worked as a salesman for many years and I was good at it – good enough to build my own company and flog it for enough beer tokens to keep me happy for the rest of my days. I know what I’m talking about when it comes to selling.

Writing good copy is something I have never mastered and I have a constant battle within myself when it comes to expressing the emotional nature of intellectual facts and features. I am by nature an analytical individual, I like facts and figures when it comes to making a buying decision and rarely does the emotional aspect of a purchase strike my consciousness. That flies against the general doctrine of advertisers and copywriters who believe that facts and figures only help to justify a purchase and the real decision is based upon emotions and feelings.

You can see this dichotomy all over the place – how many times have you come across web copy such as this for Sean Nalewanyj and his bodybuilding course. Very emotionally based, playing to the desire to be ripped and muscled, referring to “getting the girl” and a reader’s feelings of self-esteem and perception.
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Difficulty with Words and Spellings – All for Fun

Have you ever had to reach for the dictionary with word block and felt like kicking yourself when you found the result?

I had this with “could” last week; for the life of me I “cud” not remember how to spell it and looked it up and booked an appointment for an Alzheimer’s test.

It happens to all of us but the following are the ones I frequently come across:

DIARRHEA

Dash In A Real Rush, Hurry or Else Accident

CONSCIENCE

Remember it as Science with a Con

DESERT or DESSERT

The Sahara only has one S in it – Desserts have SugarS

ECZEMA

Even Clean ZEalots MAy get spots

There is no X in this word – Simon Cowell has no Zits!

HAEMORRHAGE

Just Get Started Already

Writing is so tough for some people. But, I’m going to rant for a minute. It cracks me up what I have to deal with sometimes.

Just Get Started Already

A guy is pacing his floor, throwing his football up and down, looking out the window, banging his head against the wall…

“The night was dark and salty…”

Salty, I don’t think that word works all that well. Not salty. The air can be salty I guess, but the night wasn’t salty.

“The night was dark and lonely…”

Well, I guess the character could have been lonely. But, night doesn’t get lonely.

Our guy paces the floor a bit more with his football. He puts it down and pours himself a short glass of his flavor. He takes a drink and paces the floor a bit more as he grapples over what word is going to follow, “The night was dark and…”
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The Difference Between Editing and Proofreading

The writing process is technically made up of five different steps. Prewriting, writing, revising, editing and publishing is one version of those five different steps.

Prewriting, Writing, Proofreading, Editing and Submitting

That’s another variation. Of course, if you look through books and websites you’ll find quite a few other variations. But the bottom line is there is some confusion, the difference between Proofreading and Editing.

Why are there two different steps in the writing process that mean the same thing?

Well, they don’t really. A Supaproofreader will cover both steps. All you have to do is submit what you have written and we’ll take it the rest of the way to the Publish or Submit part.

But, proofreading and editing are different. They are actually two different sides of the same coin, but they have two different purposes. Let’s take a closer look.

Proofreading

Proofreading is actually the tougher of the two in my book. When you look your paper over after writing it, you should look for better ways of writing. You have awkward sentences that need some touching. You have words that don’t quite fit and you could make decisions about replacing them with more effective words.

You’re not just looking for errors in awkward sentences and weak words. You should look for places where you could be clearer. You should try to find places where you could make a stronger argument. Add sentences where explanations need to be. Proofreading is about tightening up your work and making your writing that much better.

Editing

Editing is where you look your work over for the actual grammar and spelling errors. That’s when you look through your document for all the “Red” squiggly lines – I can’t imagine anyone doing it with a typewriter anymore, but I do believe some old schoolers still exist. Just don’t consider every red squiggly line an error. “Supaproofreader” from a few paragraphs up and “schooler” in the last sentence technically are errors. But, I’m not changing them. I meant them just the way they are.

Don’t forget to look at grammar errors too. Subject and Verb agreement, Punctuation, Capitalization…those are the errors you catch when you are editing.

Yes, proofreading and editing can overlap. Let me put it this way, if I find a spelling error while I’m proofreading I’m not going to let it go. But, that’s the difference and now you know. Like the Justice League used to say all the time… “Knowing is half the battle.”

A History of Words

I will not attempt to give an entire history of words. But, what I find fascinating is how set people get in things. A very brief and slightly lackadaisical look at the history of words might compel readers to start inventing words of their own.

It’s a fact that at one time there were no words. At the writing of the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, there were almost 200,000 active words, nearly 50,000 no longer in use and about 10,000 derivatives. The interesting fact is how many words we no longer even remember and how many words we will eventually invent, embrace and discard just like the others.

So, the “oohs” and “ahs” of the cave people needed to go. We only let our children use those words today because what else would they say if we didn’t at least give them those? But when sophistication steps into human record is when we start to build a lexicon of words that apply to what we need and want at every era throughout our history.
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