The Style Files
My thoughts on design, writing and entrepreneurship.
Photo credit (background): www.pexels.com
Photo credit (background): www.pexels.com
"For the GENERAL PUBLIC, text should be written at the 8th grade level or lower." You want your audience on the edge of their seats! Photo credit: www.pexels.com Have you ever heard the phrase, 'Location, location, location?' In writing, the equivalent would have to be, 'Audience, audience, audience.' Knowing WHO you're writing for is essential information. Don't be fooled, though! It's not the whole picture. Writing well comes in a close second (or is arguably tied for first). Just because writing should be straightforward or simple according to the quote above doesn't mean all bets are off when it comes to quality. Au contraire! Part of what makes writing easy to understand is accuracy. In this blog, we'll take a closer look at what proofreading looks like and why minding your p's and q's is a big deal. It's back to the basics. Photo credit: www.pexels.com The example Please note that this is a real text from a real website I found today. In order to protect the author's identity, sensitive information has been changed. Let's get started! "Brian Smith started working as a reporter with NBC in January of 2019. Brian interned for CBS News and reported for the website from Washington D.C. He reported for the CBS affiliate in Madison Wisconsin for two years before making his way to the brew city. Brian is a big sports fan and is excited to cheer on Milwaukee sports teams. Unfortunately, being from St. Louis, he has to cheer on the Cardinals as well. You can probably catch him playing pick-up hoops at parks throughout the city when he’s not working. Brian is always looking for stories and encourages anyone with a story to tell to reach out on social media." Live from Milwaukee! Photo credit: www.pexels.com The edit "Brian Smith started working as a reporter with NBC in January of 2019. Brian interned for CBS News and reported for the website from Washington, D.C. He reported for the CBS affiliate in Madison, Wisconsin for two years before making his way to the Brew City. Brian is a big sports fan and is excited to cheer on Milwaukee sports teams. Unfortunately, being from St. Louis,* he has to cheer on the Cardinals, as well. You can probably catch him playing pick-up hoops at parks throughout the city when he’s not working. Brian is always looking for stories and encourages anyone with a story to tell to reach out on social media." You'll need some proofreading tools (or Track Changes). Photo credit: www.pexels.com The breakdown Truth be told, this writing wasn't bad. The unedited version got the point across fairly well but just looked a little rough around the edges. The thing that's important to note here is that all of these mistakes could have been easily corrected by proofreading or by paying attention in middle school English classes. They're not hard! Fixing them isn't, either. Photo credit: www.pexels.com Some highlights: commas always belong between respective cities and states as well as in the official title of 'Washington, D.C.' Chances are you learned that around the time you learned about the fifty states or maybe a few years later. It still holds true today! Words like 'too' or 'as well' are normally separated by commas according to English grammar rules. People don't always heed that advice because they don't hear a vocal pause when saying things like, "Me, too." The reality is you can't rely on vocal pauses to write because writing and speaking are two different birds. As for 'Brew City,' it's an unofficial title for Milwaukee. Even though it's informal, it's still a title and used to represent a place name which would make it a proper noun (and therefore capitalized). Lastly and stylistically, 'being from _____' is fairly informal. I would categorize that as something you might get away with in spoken English but a little iffy for the written word. Because it's a matter of taste, however, and the rest of the bio was aimed at general audiences and casually written, I'll let it slide this time! Photo credit: www.pexels.com The moral of the story General audiences dictate that writing should be simple but NOT incorrect. Think of writing as a package deal: the ideas have to make sense but so do the mechanics. Just as in the case we considered, writers have to be mindful that they're using correct grammar and that missing or inaccurate technicalities don't hold them back on the page. Do a final check of your writing to give us your best possible version! Photo credit: www.pexels.com Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Recipe ideas? Send me a message or let me know what you think in the comments below. Take care and as always, thanks for coming! Hope to see you again soon.
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AuthorHi, my name is Martha Oschwald and I'm a content writer focused on design. This page is meant to give you a taste of my writing style and latest musings. Archives
April 2022
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