Posted on Wed, Mar 17, 2010
by Cathey Tarleton
"Over There," is a great patriotic song written by George 
M. Cohan in 1917 right after the U.S. declared war on Germany. He was riding on a train, perhaps with soldiers on their way to war over there in Europe. They're the inspiration for the song.
There, their, they're. I'm over "there." I mean I'm over trying to ignore it when there is supposed to be they're or their. From now on, I'm going over there to bust that otherwise insightful blogger or creative copywriter, and tell them they're not as smart as their fifth grader when it comes to writing right. Marketing communications are supposed to grab attention, engage readers, inspire confidence and curiosity, urge them to explore further and convert from a visitor to a lead and a customer. It's not supposed to annoy them. Or me. (Of course you can bust me too.)
Good "content," means good writing. And good writing means taking the time to re-read your posts before you "publish," whether they're 140 character Tweets, professional blogs, Facebook notes to your friends and their friends or a hundred other venues out there on the world wide web.
There, there. Am I being too critical?
There, they're, their. This is how it works:
THERE is a place. "Over There" is a song about a place, Germany. (Hint: "Here" is also a place, and it's right there.)
THEIR is a possessive pronoun. That's not a criticism; it's just how it is with possessive prounouns. None of them have apostrophes (my, mine, your, yours, his, hers, their, theirs, our, ours, whose). Why? Perhaps they were lost in the war. (Hint: An "heir" inherits somebody's possessions, and it's in their.)
THEY'RE has an apostrophe. It takes the place of a space and an "a"--no doubt over there with their comrades. They're means "they are."
Spellcheck may or may not help you with this. It's moody. You have to put your own eyeballs on the page and defend your territory against grammatical artillery. If you get confused, try to remember the song. "Over There" makes sense. "Over They Are" sounds like Yoda. "Over Their" begs the question, "over their what?"
Write right. And don't come back till it's over, over there.
Posted on Mon, Mar 15, 2010
by Cathey Tarleton
I remember years ago, when my boss would get those well-crafted direct mail pieces inviting him to join "Who's Who of the American Hotel Industry" for the low low price of only $599. It looked like nonsense, but their hook was good. Doesn't everyone want to be in the "Who's Who" of their industry? Especially a man who's known by a lot of people whose respect is important to his business.
Respect is important in marketing communications because it builds trust. Blogging, engaging leads with social media, email marketing, even writing letters, are all about building trust as an individual or a brand. When you write right, your content--and thus your brand--looks intelligent, well-designed and otherwise trustworthy.
Today's tip is about the "Who's Who" of writing right. Remember, whenever that gnarly, annoying apostrophe hooks your reader's eye, it had better be in the right place, doing what it's supposed to be doing.
WHO+Apostrophe = Who is. It can be a question or a statement, i.e. "Who's the one who is going to the tweet up with me?" or "She is the one who's bringing coffee to the tweet up."
WHOSE = Belonging to Who. Here we have another crazy-making possessive pronoun that somebody obviously made up after his older brother stuck the apostrophe on "who's" and he had no other choice. "This is the man whose older brother stole our apostrophe." Or "This is the man who's responsible for losing our apostrophe to his older brother."
Both of them are probably in the Who's Who of ancient grammar.
Regardless of whose fault it is, or whose brother did what to whom (don't get me started on that one), using "who's" and "whose" correctly makes you look like a more intelligent, respected and ultimately trustworthy marketer. So, write right.
Posted on Wed, Mar 10, 2010
by Cathey Tarleton
I met Sam Horn 12 years ago at the Maui Writers Conference, where she served as Mistress of Ceremonies, chief inspirer and BFF to the eclectic gathering of writers every session. Her spirit-boosting intros and butt-kicking presentations did a lot for all of us and likely generated millions of words across the genres.
Sam's still doing it, across the world wide web, with her Blog, today's edition of which asks me to do just what I'm doing now: "riff off" her content like a jazz musician, repurpose it into equally-dynamite marketing communications and share it from a different platform.
Here's what she has to say:
A client told me, “Sam, I am so busy. I just don’t have time to ‘think-up’ creative content every time I’m supposed to blog.”
I told him, “Want good news? You don’t have to ‘think up’ original ideas every time you blog.”
He said, “That sounds promising. What do I write about then?”
I said, “You riff off the news. You know how jazz musicians riff off standard chords to create new music? From now on, you’re going to riff off current events to create new content.”
He looked at me, a bit puzzled, and asked, “How do I do that?”
See the rest of the article here.
Posted on Mon, Feb 22, 2010
by Cathey Tarleton You're wasting your time.
No, really. If you are writing a blog post for your business, in hopes it will improve website performance, enhance inbound marketing and generate leads--and you flip flop the words "your" and "you're" the wrong way--You're wasting your time. Because if you don't write right, you don't look like the influential expert you really truly are.
It's like making the PowerPoint presentation with your fly down or your slip showing. You're not putting your best foot forward.
And, as we pointed out with "It's vs. Its," silly grammatical slip ups can catch a reader's eye and distract them from your brilliant blog, superb sales message or terrific tweet. Don't do that. Write right.
YOU'RE has the apostrophe. YOU'RE means YOU ARE. The apostrophe means something is missing, in this case the letter "A."
YOUR does not have the apostrophe. YOUR means "belonging to YOU." It's another example of confusing pronouns (like your, yours, my, mine, our, ours and their, theirs) that have driven people nuts since the inception of the English language. Don't try to understand it, just be like Nike: Just do it.
To figure out which one to use, remember this sentence: "You're wasting your time." (You are wasting time belonging to you.)
YOU'RE=YOU are. YOUR=belonging YOU.
Another tip is to reverse it. "Your wasting you're time." What does THAT mean? "Wasting belongs to you and you are time." it sounds like those bad translations for imported products.
Write right.
Posted on Mon, Feb 15, 2010
by Cathey Tarleton
It's distracting. And it is happening more and more. There you are, happily reading an interesting blog and its content is great, its style entertaining. Then, all of a sudden, ouch. It's like your eye gets stuck on that ornery little apostrophe with its hook between two letters and you have to stop for half a second. It's one of the most common errors in marketing communications, and it's not that hard to write right.
Who cares? What's the difference?
You care. And the difference is between saying what you want to say and saying something else. Between looking like an expert and--well--not.
To remember how to write right, remember this:
IT'S worth ITS weight in gold.
IT'S has the apostrophe. IT'S means "it is." The apostrophe indicates something is missing. In this case, the space and the letter "i" are both MIA. Maybe they ran off together, with the "n" and "o" from "can't." Let them go.
ITS doesn't or does not have an apostrophe. ITS means "belonging to IT." "ITS" indicates possession, which can be demonic or not.
I know, I know. "But, hey, apostrophe+s means possession. We learned that in 5th grade English." You're right, of course. That's usually true. Cathy's Clown, Hawaii's Big Island, the horse's mouth, my brother's keeper. But there are exceptions.
Some of the most confusing exceptions have to do with possessive pronouns: yours, ours, theirs, his, hers, my, mine and its. These don't or do not need the silly apostrophe. We know His & Hers from our bath towels. And we know what's mine is mine and not "mine's." Mine's" would mean "mine is." Like, for example, when the kids are fighting:
"That's not yours!"
"Yes it is! It's mine!"
"No, it's not. I can tell by its red color."
"Mine's red!"
"Hers is red!"
"No, his is red and yours is blue."
"It's mine!"
"It is mine!! Mine mine mine!"
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. For now, when you're trying to figure out whether to use IT'S or ITS, remember this sentence, "It's worth its weight in gold." IT's=IT IS. ITS=belonging to IT.
Write right.
Check out the first post in this series: Inbound marketing with a Blog. How to write right.
Posted on Mon, Feb 08, 2010
by Cathey Tarleton
Every business needs a blog now, right? It's key to integrating inbound marketing with your overall marketing strategy, the next rung up the evolution ladder for good old-fashioned Word-of-Mouth. And, whether you're Fortune 500 or fortunate enough to have 500 bucks, if your blog is well-written, remarkable content, it will help your business get found and generate leads.
A few boot-camp basics of "writing right" will help you look more like the expert you already are. And, isn't that why you are blogging in the first place?
You can be a brilliant blogger, a miracle-working e-marketer and a sales superhero, but if you don't write better than a fifth grader, grammar-wise, your content is worth the paper it's printed on. (That's a joke.)
What difference does it make? Any writer will tell you they use good grammar for ONE reason: to keep the reader reading.
We do whatever it takes to make a reader/potential customer turn the page, click through, scroll down and read on. We don't want their eye to get caught on a dumb error and screech to a halt...
You know what I'm talking about: the misspelled word, the exclamation point overload, bad comma, missing periods and wrong quotation marks.
"Wait a minute," a flashback from English Class says, "Wait a minute. Isn't that supposed to be...?"
Let us help you be just as impressive and inspiring on the page as you are in person. Hafner Creative Communications presents a series of posts about some of the most common grammatical errors - and how to avoid them.
Look smart online. Sound like you know what you're talking about. Write right.