Chapter 13
Write On!
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.”
—Robert Cromier
If you’re creating an announcement that’s more than a phrase or two, breaking the project into steps will help make the process more manageable and assure that you don’t miss important final steps, such as proofreading. We recommend using a standard writing process, such as the following “Six Steps to Good Writing.” Beyond these six steps, we recommend that you become familiar with some of the most common grammatical errors, such as “The Top Five Grammar Flubs” explained in this chapter. While they are often made, they’re still not accepted as correct, and they will affect your image.
Also, announcements—especially brief ones—may be rushed out without a careful proofreading. But this final check before an announcement goes out is extremely important. After all, your image is no small thing. The last section of this chapter discusses why it is important that your proofreading go beyond spell-check and grammar-check.
Six Steps to Good Writing
For letters, press releases, and other announcements that are more than just a few lines, it’s helpful to follow this simple six-step process:
1. Plan. Planned writing is easier writing.
2. Outline. Outlines give direction. They don’t have to be formal—just road maps.
3. Draft. Write the draft without worrying about any rules. Just get words on paper.
4. Edit. Once the draft is complete, edit using guidelines for good grammar, usage, and strong writing.
5. Rewrite. Now, review and rewrite to ensure flow and consistency.
6. Proofread. Proofread word by word to catch errors in typing, spelling, or grammar.
After the piece has been refined and proofread, STOP. Many writers keep polishing until they wear out the perfectly polished piece.
Perfect Structure
When your announcement is more than a phrase, you’ll want to craft your perfect phrases into perfect paragraphs. Limit paragraphs to five or six sentences. Reading seems to go more quickly when paragraphs are short. Begin paragraphs with topic sentences to give direction. User-friendly sentences are short, use powerful words, and eliminate unnecessary words and phrases.
The perfect structure for a perfect paragraph usually begins with your main point. Immediately state why you are writing. Don’t keep your audience in suspense.
Follow with relevant details. Include facts that support the point you want to make. Let the reader know where you are going. If you plan to discuss three energy alternatives, say so. Don’t keep them guessing.
Do what you can to simplify reading. Use subheads, proper capitalization, appropriate fonts, italics, bold, bullets, or space (not necessarily all in one piece). Use an appropriate subhead or phrase to indicate the conclusion. The perfect paragraph is clear, to the point, and easy to scan.
The Top Five Grammar Flubs
Following are five of the most common grammatical errors. Many people don’t realize they need to know these rules because they use grammar-check software. Like spell-checkers, these programs are imperfect. Another reason people tend to make these errors in permanent, public announcements is that they think they know correct usage because they know what “sounds right.” The problem is that misuse is so common that something may sound right because we’ve heard it used incorrectly so many times—even in advertising and on the news, and even from public speakers who are otherwise well spoken.
Proper usage is, however, the standard, and those who know will feel more confident about your company if you use language correctly. You can have a laid-back style, but you can be just as laid-back and still use correct grammar. Catchy announcements sometimes break the rules, but always know that you are breaking them and why. A few common errors that stand out and don’t look like stylistic choices are errors involving pronoun choice, subject-verb agreement, descriptive words, tense, and parallel structure.
1. Pronoun Usage
Pronouns are often misused, but correct pronoun usage is an important detail that contributes to your professional image. For instance, many people think the pronouns I, he, and she are more generally correct than me, him, and her, but no pronoun is more proper in a general sense. Each has its place. I, he, she, we, and they are subject pronouns and should only be used when they are the subjects of sentences. Me, him, her, us, and them are object pronouns, used when they are the objects of sentences. (You is used as both subject and object.) Here are some examples: Joan and I (subject) went to the meeting. Elvira joined Joan and me (object).
2. Subject and Verb Agreement
Perfect phrases have perfect harmony, in which subjects and verbs agree. Confusion is common in many instances, such as when there are multiple subjects, plural and singular subjects combined, or phrases set off by commas. Consider the verb changes from is to are in the following sentences:
“The entire QT team is grateful for your contribution.” (Team is a singular word that treats the people at QT as a single group, so is is correct.)
“The members of the QT team are grateful for your contribution.” (Here, the subject is the team members themselves rather than the team as a whole, requiring the plural are.)
“The QT Corporation CEO and the entire QT team are grateful for your contribution.” (Here the CEO and the team are grouped as the subject—requiring the plural are.)
“QT Corporation’s CEO, along with the entire team, is grateful for your contribution.” (The subject is “QT Corporation’s CEO,” requiring is. The team is not part of the subject in this sentence because it is set off by commas. That makes the entire team a parenthetical phrase not essential to the sentence, so it is not part of the subject.)
If you want people to agree with your message, make sure your message agrees with itself!
3. Descriptive Words
Correct use of descriptive words can also be tricky. Following are some examples of correct usage that sometimes look wrong to people as incorrect usage becomes more common. In the first set of examples, the word efficiently is correct because it describes the action expressed by the verb completes (a verb expresses action; an adverb modifies a verb; the -ly ending is a cue that identifies adverbs).
“GEO completes estimates efficiently.”
“GEO completes them more efficiently than the competition.”
“GEO completes them most efficiently.”
In the second set of examples, the word efficient is correct because it describes the noun GEO (a noun is a person, place, or thing; an adjective modifies a noun).
“GEO is efficient with completing estimates.”
“GEO is more efficient than anyone else in the department.”
“GEO is the most efficient.”
4. Tense
Strong writing often uses the present tense. For example, “LOL Corp. cares about bringing smiles to children” is stronger than “LOL Corp. has always cared about bringing smiles to children.” Strong writing is also consistent in time. Don’t jump from one tense to another unless you are specifically marking a change in time. For instance, say, “Our winter sale starts today, and we’re offering our lowest prices ever!” rather than “Our winter sale started today, and we’ll offer our lowest prices ever!” Jumping around in tense not only causes your reader tension, it weakens your message.
5. Parallel Structure
Sentences that have parallel structure are not only grammatically correct, they also sound smoother and align your points to be easily seen and processed by those who read or scan your announcement. Compare the following two phrases:
Great phrases have clarity, are concise, will be correct, and follow the lines of parallelism.
Great phrases are clear, concise, correct, and parallel.
The second is more of all the things it says great sentences should be—and that makes it more eye-catching and easier to process and remember.
Here’s another example of a sentence that’s not parallel:
Forman Co. selected Williams for the leadership role because of his clear vision, strong ethics, and he’s shown positive results.
Here’s the sentence with parallel structure:
Forman Co. selected Williams for the leadership role because of his clear vision, strong ethics, and positive results.
Be creative in your words, ideas, placement, and tone, but keep your sentences in line with parallel structure.
Consider a Grammar Refresher Course
The information in this section may help you decide whether a grammar refresher course might be helpful to your business writing. Again, these are very common errors, so most people can use a refresher at some time. You also may want to consider, whether you alter our perfect phrases or write your own, if engaging the services of a professional editor could be well worth the cost for the payoff of a polished written image.
Translation Flubs
Whether you’re writing your own announcement or slogan, using one from this book, or adapting a standard announcement from somewhere else, translate carefully when you go international! While we all make mistakes, we’d all rather learn from someone else’s.
Following are some now-famous badly translated phrases that were meant to announce a great product and instead shocked and amused readers, as well as announced that these companies were careless in creating international announcements and campaigns:
When the Coors slogan, “Turn It Loose” was translated into Spanish, the translation was read as “Suffer from Diarrhea.”
Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market that promoted the Pope’s visit. Instead of “I saw the Pope” (el Papa), the shirts read “I Saw the Potato” (la papa).
The Dairy Association expanded the “Got Milk?” advertising campaign to Mexico, where the Spanish translation read “Are You Lactating?”
General Motors had a tough time selling the Nova car in Central and South America, where “No va” (in Spanish) means “It Doesn’t Go.”
Frank Perdue’s chicken slogan, “It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken,” was translated into Spanish as “it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate.”
American Airlines advertised its new leather first-class seats in the Mexican market with its “Fly in Leather” campaign, which translated as “Fly Naked” (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.
The Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux didn’t know American idioms when using this phrase in an American campaign: “Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux.”
When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, it used the same packaging as in the United States, with the smiling baby on the label. Later it was learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what’s inside because many people can’t read.
Pepsi’s “Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation” translated into “Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave” in Chinese.
Clairol introduced the “Mist Stick,” a curling iron, in Germany only to find out that “mist” is slang for manure.
When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” The company thought that the word “embarazar” (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”
“Win a Milano Weekend!” This enticement to enter a contest for a vacation prize to Milan, Italy, was shown with an illustration of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
Where did these companies go wrong? How can you avoid costly and embarrassing errors? Mistakes will happen, and even the best translator may not be perfect, but following the three basic guidelines below will give you the best chance for smooth translations that accurately represent your intended message:
Use a translation service that employs real people with whom you can communicate. Online translators are risky. They don’t have context or nuances. Your announcement could be translated with grammatical errors at best or laughable or offensive errors at worst.
Use translators who have knowledge of the context, culture, customs, and slang of the language to which you are translating. You can easily offend or make your company the butt of a joke. You can also say something that is taboo or even the opposite of what you meant to say.
Use graphics that are accurate or culturally correct. Again, your translator needs to be familiar with the culture, not just the language.
Grammar-Check, Spell-Check, and Human-Check
Always use spell-check, but never rely solely on it. Double check. Even for the briefest announcement, proofreading is the writer’s most valuable asset. Read slowly, looking at each individual word as you read; read aloud; and get someone else to read what you’ve written as well. The best promotional piece or letter cannot do its job if it has even one grammatical error. That error can become a distraction, even a focus, for the reader, and your message can be lost.
You may be a great proofreader, but we all miss errors in our own work. When we read what we have written, we’re too familiar with what we meant to write, so our eyes tend to see what we think we wrote and miss small errors that we would have easily seen in someone else’s writing. Always have someone else read any announcement before it goes out. If you establish a process in which more than one other person proofreads each announcement, even better. That final check will help ensure that your perfect phrases are indeed perfect.