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 01, 2010
I ran across this interesting article from Chuck Green's Ideabook the other day and I can't tell you how rewarding it was to hear that people still value design--value it highly!--in the current market. With all the hype and excitement about social media and its instantaneous impacts, it's a good reminder that solid, quality
design work is still at the heart of marketing.
"...overall I pose that consumers are becoming more sophisticated about the quality of design, not less--and that, contrary to riding into the sunset, designers are just now seeing the dawn of a new day."
He makes the following propositions:
1. Markets are multiplying.
2. More markets mean more stories and more frequent story cycles.
3. Core design skills cannot be automated.
4. The definitions of design, communications, and marketing are ever-changing.