Attention: “in tact” does not mean “whole” or “in one piece”

Posted on August 1, 2011 by

I’ve recently seen a spattering of the misuse of the phrase in tact to mean “whole,” “unbroken,” or “in one piece.” Here’s the most recent: “While most of the 1909 interior has remained in tact …” Really? The interior has remained in “a keen sense of what to say or do to avoid giving offense?”

It seems to be a widespread misusage, judging from the results of this search, which gave me the following results:

The correct word here is intact.

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Where do you hyphenate “architecture?”

Posted on July 28, 2011 by

Someone came to Writing, Clear and Simple using the phrase “where do you hyphenate architecture” as the search term.

I have written about hyphenation and line breaks before (“From the mailbag: How do you hyphenate that?“), but since it’s been a while, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to revisit the topic.

The general rule is to break words between syllables. The Chicago Manual of Style adds this guidance: “Most words should be divided according to pronunciation[...].”

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary shows “ar-chi-tec-ture” as the syllable breaks, so any of the following would be acceptable:

  • ar-chitecture
  • archi-tecture
  • architec-ture

If at all possible, I would go with “archi-tecture.”

Posted in Punctuation | Tagged | Leave a comment

Are short sentences better than long sentences?

Posted on July 27, 2011 by

Writer Cynthia Robertson is railing against “The Cult of the Short Sentence.“

[Update 5:29 central time, 27 July 2011: I removed the Robertson quote at her request.]

In my experience, long sentences frequently turn up when the writer doesn’t notice that they’ve come to the end of one idea and the beginning of the next. The result is a confusing sentence. According to William Zinsser (in On Writing Well), “If you find yourself hopelessly mired in a long sentence, it’s probably because you’re trying to make the sentence do more than it can reasonably do–perhaps express two dissimilar thoughts.”

I think the current bias towards short sentences stems from people seeking shortcuts to clarity, easy ways to make their writing better. Yes, sometimes the way to clarify a long, confusing sentence is to break it up.

But sometimes the way to clarify a long, confusing sentence is to walk through it one step at a time and reword, rearrange, and revise.

And sometimes a long sentence isn’t confusing. It’s just long. And that’s OK.

A sentence should be as long as needed to clearly express an idea.

Posted in Style, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Cringe-worthy words

Posted on July 22, 2011 by

There are some things that seem to naturally make us cringe. Fingernails across a chalkboard. The whining whirl of a dentist’s drill. The unmistakable chunky splat of a child upchucking on the bedroom carpet at 1 a.m.

And then there are some words that, at first, aren’t that bad. But when we hear and read them being used and misused time after time after time, they start to trigger the same sort of response.

David Meadvin of Inkwell Strategies offers us a pair of posts on such words: “Five Words that Make us Cringe,” and “Words that Make us Cringe: The Sequel.”

Your turn: What words or phrases do you think have passed their “Best if used by” date?

Posted in Elsewhere on the Web, Word Choice | Tagged , | Leave a comment

How can you tell which words are needless?

Posted on June 22, 2011 by

“Omit needless words” is one of the best known dictums of good writing, dating back at least to William Strunk, Jr.’s 1918 edition of The Elements of Style.

OK, fine. Omit needless words. But how can you tell which ones are needless?

Bradley Alger, Ph.D., suggests a simple test in “Simple Writing, Simple Papers, and Simple Thinking:”

It is needless if its omission does not change the meaning of the sentence.

Make it a game. Cut some suspect words. Did you change the meaning of the sentence? The leave them out. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Remember, good writing is rewriting. Part of rewriting is removing.

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Tell a story

Posted on June 22, 2011 by

People love a good story. Take advantage of that, and tell a story.

Here’s a nice graphic that illustrates a bit of the why along with the how-to:

Posted in Storytelling | Tagged | Leave a comment

Does “resume” need accent marks?

Posted on June 20, 2011 by

Via Grammar Girl’s Twitter feed, Baltimore Sun editor John McIntyre addresses the question of including accent marks in words like resume:

As for resume, it is awkward that there is a completely different word with the same spelling, but the sense is almost always clear in context; I do think that adding the accent marks looks a little fussy. There are, however, less common words from French and Spanish that turn up and probably ought to have accent marks.

So here’s the ruling. Go to whatever dictionary is the basis for your house style. If it shows words adopted from foreign languages with accent marks, use them.

Unless you decide not to.

In my view, the only reason to include accent marks in words that English has appropriated from another language (as opposed to proper names) is to cut down the potential for confusion. It should be clear from the context which meaning of resume is meant, continue or a brief written account of personal, educational, and professional qualifications and experience.

Posted in Punctuation | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Persistence and the writer

Posted on June 20, 2011 by

What does it take to be a successful writer? A few different things, but there’s one thing that we often overlook: persistence.

I’m guilty of wishing for shortcuts, or hoping for a lucky break. (I’ve given up on “overnight success; the only writers I can think of who succeeded relatively quickly were Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert Heinlein.)

J.K. Rowling wrote stories since early childhood. She started writing about Harry Potter in 1990, but didn’t finish the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone until 1995. It was rejected by the first twelve publishers she submitted it to. (And don’t you think those twelve publishers have kicked themselves black and blue since then?)

But that pales compared to Louis L’Amour, author of more than 100 books, who received 350 rejections before his first piece was published.

Roy H. Williams, bestselling author and marketing consultant, says this about persistence:

Do you want to be a published author? Take the advice of Mark Twain, “Write without pay until someone offers to pay.” Write intelligent, clearly worded letters to the editor. Submit feature stories and op-ed pieces to magazines and websites. Write a blog on whatever subject you’d like to become known as an expert. If you have something to say worth hearing, people will tell other people and soon your readership will begin to grow. It may take a few years but if you self-select and don’t go away, you’ll someday have a book in print.

Which reminds me of Winston Churchill’s famous dictum:

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.

Posted in Good advice from here and there, Growing as a writer | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

“If you can’t write clearly…”

Posted on June 17, 2011 by

“If you can’t write clearly, you probably don’t think nearly as well as you think you do.”

—Kurt Vonnegut

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The pillars of effective writing: Ethos, Logos, Pathos

Posted on June 15, 2011 by

In architecture, a pillar holds up the building. Effective writing has pillars as well: fundamental principles that hold it all up.

Aristotle studied the art of effective communication—he and his fellow philosophers called it rhetoric—and identified three basic things that make it effective.

  • Ethos, or source credibility, is whether your audience views you as a reliable and effective communicator.
  • Logos, or logical argument, is how you use evidence, logic, and reason to advance your case.
  • Pathos, or emotional appeal, is the way you try to stimulate your audience’s emotions to sway them.

Different types of writing will rely on one or more of these pillars to differing degrees. For example, scholarly articles depend primarily on ethos, the author’s credibility, and logos, the evidence and reasoning the author uses, while advertising often relies on pathos by trying to stir up positive emotions towards a product or service.

However, the most effective messages include all three elements.

  • You have to have, or quickly establish, credibility with your audience, or they won’t listen to your logical argument or be moved by your emotional appeal.
  • You need to show your audience solid facts and logic, or their left brains will check out, complaining that you have no substance.
  • You must permeate your message with warm, colorful, flavorful language, narratives, and imagery, or you will leave them unmoved, uninspired, and uninfluenced.

Think about your writing. Which of these three pillars predominates? Which do you neglect? How can you start intentionally building all three into what you write?

Posted in Growing as a writer | Tagged , , | 2 Comments