tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38631783046781366702024-03-13T23:41:35.632-07:00 Mike Hadley Marketing Copywriter for Print, Digital,
Bid Writing and ProofreadingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-48661015963025233612013-10-25T05:00:00.002-07:002014-10-17T08:12:26.071-07:00Business jargon...<div id="badge-medium">
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<img alt="Steven Poole on words" class="image-badge" height="38" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/5/30/1369923788671/PoolOnWords_620.jpg" width="200" />
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An A-Z of modern office jargon</h1>
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From: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/oct/22/a-z-modern-office-jargon</div>
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Drill down into this guide and you could be talking like a boardroom legend by end of play. Massive yield!</div>
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<img alt="Office talk 1" data-pin-description="Have you got any idea what on earth they're on about? Photograph: Alamy/Guardian montage" height="276" itemprop="contentUrl representativeOfPage" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2013/10/22/1382460242191/Office-talk-1-010.jpg" width="460" />
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Have you got any idea what on earth they're on about? Photograph: Alamy/Guardian montage</div>
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<h2>
<b>Annual leave</b></h2>
When even the word
holiday is thought to sound too frivolous and hedonistic, so that people
on their holidays set their out-of-office autoreply to announce grandly
that they are instead on annual leave, then surely we have entered a
hellishly self-parodic downward spiral of capitalist civilisation.<br />
<h2>
Backfill</h2>
After someone has been sacked – sorry, <i>"</i>transitioned"
– they tend to leave a person-shaped hole in the landscape. What do you
do with a hole, especially a person-shaped one that reminds you a bit
of a hastily dug grave? You fill it in – in other words, you backfill
(verb), or address the backfill (noun).<br />
Originally, backfill was
an engineering term, meaning to fill a hole or trench with excavated
earth, gravel, sand or other material. Now it means "replacement" or
"replace", eg: "We are recruiting for Tom's backfill" or "We will have
to backfill Richard." Meanwhile, a job vacancy that exists to replace an
ex-employee, as opposed to a newly created role, is called a backfill
position, even if that sounds more like something an adventurous type
might adopt at an S&M club.<br />
<h2>
Close of play</h2>
The
curious strain of kiddy-talk in bureaucratese perhaps stems from a hope
that infantilised workers are more docile. A manager who tells you to do
something by end of play or by close of play – in other words, today –
is trying to hypnotise you into thinking you are having fun. This is not
a sodding game of cricket. Though, actually, it appears that the phrase
originates from the genteel confines of the British civil service, when
there might well have been cricket, or at least a very long lunch, on
the day's agenda.<br />
Synonymous with asking for something by close of
play is requesting it by the end of the day. End of whose day, exactly?
Perhaps the boss is swanning off at 3pm while everyone else will have
to stay till 8pm in order to get it done. A day can be an awfully long
time in office politics.<br />
<h2>
Drill down</h2>
Far be it from me
to suggest that managers prefer metaphors that evoke huge pieces of
phallic machinery, but why else say drill down if you just mean "look at
in detail"? Like many examples of bureaucratese, drill down has a
specific sense in information technology: to follow the hierarchical
ladder of a data-analysis menu down through to the individual datum. In
accounting software, not only can you drill down, drill up and drill in,
but you can even drill around, much as a disturbingly incompetent
dentist might, or as old-school Texas oil speculators used to do.<br />
<h2>
Expectations</h2>
Expectations
are flexible things, and people will no doubt carry on having them even
if the lingo surrounding them is logically complete nonsense. For
example, one source reports: "In a team meeting a few months ago, the
then-manager said: 'There's no reason that all of you shouldn't get a
rating of Exceeds Expectations every review if you all work hard.' She
didn't like it when I pointed out that if she expected us to exceed
expectations, it was then literally impossible for us to do so." Touché!<br />
It
would be good if employees were able to manage the expectations of
their managers, but managing expectations usually means something more
outward-facing and defeatist: preparing your clients or customers
psychologically for the inevitable fact that the <i>"</i>deliverables" will be rubbish.<br />
<h2>
<b>Flagpole, run this up the</b></h2>
Let's
run this up the flagpole! Using this exhortation to mean "give it a
try" or "test it" came to prominence in the 1950s Madison Avenue
advertising industry. It derived from a yarn that was doing the rounds
about the first US president, George Washington. When Betsy Ross
presented the new American flag to him, he was supposed to have quipped:
"Let's run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it."<br />
The
original sense was to test something (eg an ad campaign) in public, or
at least in front of the clients, rather than just around the office: a
nuance that has since been lost.<br />
Later variations on the theme
include: "Let's cross the sidewalk and see what the view looks like from
over there", or "Let's put it on the radiator and see if it melts", or
even (so I am assured) "Let's knife-and-fork it and see what comes out".
(Comes out from where? That's disgusting.) There seems no end to the
forced jollity (and despair-inducing implied exclamation mark) of such
constructions.<br />
<h2>
Going forward</h2>
<div data-inview-name="12th para">
Top
of many people's hate-list is this now-ubiquitous way of saying "from
now on" or "in future". It has the added sly rhetorical aim of wiping
clean the slate of the past; indeed, it is a kind of incantation or
threat aimed at shutting down conversation about whatever bad thing has
happened. This aspect of the phrase proves to be especially attractive
to politicians, who like to accuse their critics of being mired in the
past. The official pronouncements of Barack Obama's administration are
littered with going forward, or its sibling moving forward, which at the
time of writing have been deployed nearly 600 times in the past year in
official White House transcripts and press releases.</div>
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<img alt="Office talk 2" data-pin-description="Photograph: Getty Images/Vetta/Guardian montage" height="276" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2013/10/22/1382461288391/Office-talk-2-008.jpg" width="460" />
<span class="caption" style="width: 460px;">
Photograph: Getty Images/Vetta/Guardian montage
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<h2>
Heads-up</h2>
"I just wanted to give you a heads-up on …" is
now the correctly breath-wasting way to say "I just wanted to tell you
about …". Its origin, in American engineering and military circles of
the early 20th century, is an exhortation for all the members of your
squad or crew to pay attention because something potentially dangerous
is about to happen. They should literally straighten their necks and
raise their heads. So the call "Heads up!" means "Watch out!"<br />
The
1970s saw the invention of the military technology called a heads-up
display: crucial information from a fighter jet's instruments was
projected on to the cockpit windshield. So heads-up originated in
situations where something hairy was about to happen, or where
life-or-death information was being provided to an elite warrior.
Naturally, neither of those things is ever true when the noun phrase "a
heads-up" is used in the modern office. Time, perhaps, for a heads-down,
when everyone takes a quiet snooze at their desks.<br />
<h2>
Issues</h2>
To call something a "problem" is utterly <i>verboten</i>
in the office: it's bound to a) scare the horses and b), even worse,
focus responsibility on the bosses. So let us instead deploy
the compassionate counselling-speak of "issues". The critic (and
manager) Robert Potts translates "There are some issues around X" as:
"There is a problem so big that we are scared to even talk about it
directly."<br />
What if something is more serious than an issue – an
incipient catastrophe that might bring down the whole business? You
still can't call it a "problem". But you can express the very deep way
in which you personally care about it by referring to it as a concern.<br />
<h2>
Journey</h2>
There's
something peculiarly horrible about the modern bureaucratic habit of
turning everything into a journey, with its ersatz thrill of adventurous
tourism and its therapeutic implications of personal growth. Sometimes
the made-up journey is a group affair, like a school outing. So
businesses infantilise their employees by saying they have all been on a
fascinating voyage together, when in fact many of their colleagues have
been brutally thrown from the bus. As one infuriated correspondent
explains: "The 'journey we have been on' really refers to 'the ongoing
cuts and redundancies in the organisation that I work for.'"<br />
Software
and web designers will often talk about the user journey, which at
least correlates with the metaphor of webpage and interface
"navigation". But the British government also explains the process of
claiming disability benefit under the rubric "The Claimant Journey",
which might be thought rather insensitive to those claimants actually
unable to travel.<br />
<h2>
Key</h2>
With your key core competencies,
you can no doubt achieve the key performance indicators, take on key
challenges, and overcome key issues to meet key milestones and placate
our key stakeholders, going forward. But why the hell is everything key?
Is there some kind of subliminal phallic titillation to the image of
key things penetrating the welcoming oiled openings of locks? You can
even have key asks, which are not small free-standing shops that sell
newspapers or develop film. I'm tempted to start up a locksmithing
business that supplies key keys.<br />
Once you start calling so many things key, of course, semantic inflation dissolves its sense almost entirely.<br />
<h2>
Leverage</h2>
The
critic Robert Potts reports this parodic-sounding but deathly real
example: "We need to leverage our synergies." Other things you can
leverage, according to recent straightfaced news and business reports,
are expertise, cloud infrastructure, "the federal data", training and
"Hong Kong's advantages". To leverage, in such examples, usually means
nothing more than "to use" or "exploit". Thus, "leverage support" means
"ask Bob in IT"; and I suggest "leverage the drinkables infrastructure"
as a stylish new way to say "make the coffee".<br />
The appropriation
of this financial metaphor doesn't quite seem to have been thought
through. The verb "leverage" began to be used in the late 1960s
specifically for a technique of speculating with borrowed money. So
executives who dream of leveraging synergies seem to be unconsciously
conveying the message that they are taking a huge gamble that might
result in disaster. After all, since the crash, major financial
institutions around the world have been carefully deleveraging in order
to meet new capital requirements.<br />
It's also, frankly, a bit
foolish-sounding. Give me a place to stand and I will move the world,
said Archimedes. He didn't say he would leverage the "deliverables
matrix".<br />
<h2>
Matrix</h2>
<div data-inview-name="12th para">
The
matrix is everywhere you look in the modern office. You can have an
accountability matrix (AKA a responsibility assignment matrix), a
functional matrix, a project matrix and so on ad nauseam. Of course,
there is even a sub-species of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/management" title="More from the Guardian on Management">management</a> called – you guessed it – matrix management.</div>
Are
all these matrices separate universes of virtual reality in which
workers are drugged and asleep in a post-apocalyptic world, with a
virtual reconstruction of human civilisation beamed directly into their
brains so the evil masters of each matrix can use their bodies as
batteries? The truth is not so interesting. What is the matrix?
Basically, it's a spreadsheet.<br />
<h2>
No-brainer</h2>
The phrase
"a no-brainer" originated in sport, to describe a physical action in
football or tennis that was so well-drilled it required no conscious
thought. Its subsequent office adoption to mean "obviously a good idea",
however, is both inverted boast and threat. "This is a no-brainer!"
means not only "I did not engage my brain for a second in coming up with
this idea", but also "You should not engage your brain in any attempt
to argue with it". It is thus an announcement and a recommendation for
perfect zombie-like stupidity.<br />
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<img alt="Office talk 3" data-pin-description="Photograph: Rex Features/Guardian montage" height="276" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2013/10/22/1382461505147/Office-talk-3-008.jpg" width="460" />
<span class="caption" style="width: 460px;">
Photograph: Rex Features/Guardian montage
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<h2>
Offline, take this</h2>
"Hey, can we take this offline?" This
is a truly bizarre modern way to say: "Let's talk about it later or in
private." Oh, I'm sorry! I thought we were human beings in the same room
communicating with each other by making noises with our faces! I didn't
realise we were online. Are we all living in the matrix now? And if we
just go down the corridor to the coffee machine and talk in pairs, we'll
suddenly be offline? The machines didn't really think this through, did
they, if that's all you have to do to escape from your prison of
virtual reality? It's a wonder they managed to take over the world in
the first place.<br />
<h2>
Paradigm shift</h2>
The term paradigm
shift was made famous by Thomas Kuhn's 1962 book The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions. There, a paradigm is a whole way of
understanding the world, and a paradigm shift is a dramatic
transfiguration in that understanding. Paradigm shifts are hugely
important intellectual developments such as "the Copernican, Newtonian,
chemical and Einsteinian revolutions". Sadly, owing to the widespread
phenomenon of linguistic deflation, it has since become possible to call
a much less world-shattering change a paradigm shift. One educational
article in Forbes ambitiously begins by sketching historic paradigm
shifts – the Copernican revolution, Mendelian genetics and the guy who
discovered that peptic ulcers are caused by bacteria – and then gets
down to business. Now, the author claims, "a discontinuous paradigm
shift in management is happening. It's a shift from a firm-centric view
of the world in which the firm's purpose is to make money for its
shareholders, to a customer-centric view of the world in which the
purpose of the firm is to add value for customers." It probably would be
a paradigm shift (to an economic epic fail) if firms really were going
to abandon all hope of making money, but that is not quite the claim
here. Instead, firms are going to pretend that they are not completely
self-interested and really care about their customers. In the service,
of course, of making more money.<br />
<h2>
Quality</h2>
The
ubiquitous business use of quality has become a kind of totem. Now it
has been cut loose from having to be the quality of anything in
particular, we can all sit around happily chanting that quality is our
aim – or, in other words, that we want stuff to be … er, good? The
hopeful invocation of quality is magical speech that hopes to conjure
into being something that is indefinable but definitely better than
flat-out rubbishness.<br />
But the insertion of quality into a business
slogan or mission statement is also sometimes camouflage for less sunny
intentions. In 2011, the BBC grandly announced that its plan over the
next six years would be called "Delivering Quality First". (Rather than
delivering TV and radio programmes first? Or perhaps they meant
delivering quality first and garbage later?) But this slogan was merely a
cravenly euphemistic sticking-plaster for a programme of mass
redundancies. Delivering Quality First actually meant sacking 2,000
workers.<br />
<h2>
Revert</h2>
"Let me revert …" is a common way now
of promising to do something. Reply? Respond? Whatever was wrong with
those? (To be fair, revert could mean "to return to a person" in
medieval times, so it's not a wholly novel usage.)<br />
While revert is
less infuriatingly circuitous than "circle back", there is still
something sonically rather unlovely about it. (Perhaps it is the echo of
"pervert".) I do recommend that if anyone ever promises to revert back
to you, you should shout as loudly as you can that this means "get back
back", and then start doing a bad chimp dance with optional hooting
noises.<br />
<h2>
Sunset</h2>
This is an imagistic verbing – "We're
going to sunset that project/service/version" – that sounds more humane
and poetic than "cancel" or "kill" or "stop supporting". When faced with
the choice between calling a spade a spade or using a cloying
euphemism, you know which the bosses will choose. Happily, sunsetting
also sounds less smelly than the venerable old mothballing.<br />
<h2>
Thought shower</h2>
The
term "brainstorm" is now discouraged, since some people think
it's insensitive to people with epilepsy, on the dubious basis that an
epileptic attack is like a storm in the brain. In fact, the National
Society for Epilepsy surveyed its members in 2005 as to whether they
found the term "brainstorming" offensive, and a large majority said no.
Nevertheless, it is more common these days to be invited to a thought
shower, which no doubt sounds like a naked romp among Bergman-loving
Scandinavian intellectuals only to those with already irredeemably dirty
minds.<br />
The more serious problem with thought-showering is that it
is rarely effective. According to the author and psychologist Keith
Sawyer's account of brainstorming, "in most cases this popular technique
is a waste of time". Unless thought showers are carefully planned and
directed, they tend to encourage group conformity and repress individual
creativity. That rather puts the dampeners on things, doesn't it?<br />
<h2>
Upskill</h2>
<div data-inview-name="12th para">
Have
you been upskilled lately? It's an odd idea. To say that you will
upskill a person seems to figure the subject as a kind of upgradeable
cyborg assistant, into which new programs may, at any time, be uploaded
so as to improve its contribution to profit. We are thus invited to
imagine a glorious ascent of a virtual ladder of "competencies", the
better to forget that upskilling usually means demanding more work for
the same pay.</div>
<h2>
Vertical</h2>
Oh, right, the verticals. Yep,
we need to "leverage" the "learnings" across all the verticals. I'm
totally on board with that. Oh, we need to talk about "content strategy
in a difficult vertical"? Sure, good idea! [<i>Sotto voce</i>] What the hell are verticals again?<br />
According
to Forbes, a vertical is: "A specific area of expertise. If you make
project-management software for the manufacturing industry (as opposed
to the retail industry), you might say: 'We serve the manufacturing
vertical.' In so saying, you would make everyone around you flee the
conversation."<br />
In business, there is a distinction between
horizontal and vertical organisation. Apple, for example, is sometimes
thought of as a vertical company because it makes "the whole widget" –
both hardware and software. Vertical integration can also be a matter of
owning the factories that supply your components, and so forth. In
consulting lingo, meanwhile, a vertical can just be a new industry that
you want to move into, by setting up a separate business unit.<br />
The
upshot of all this is that vertical in ordinary office use can almost
always be replaced with "market", which has the advantage of being a
word that everyone understands, and the concomitant disadvantage (for
the machiavellian jargon-wielder) that it won't serve to browbeat and
intimidate workers.<br />
Oh, you know what else is vertical right now? My middle finger.<br />
<h2>
Workshop</h2>
"We're
going to have to workshop that issue." Really? Office types who use
workshop as a verb probably imagine doing tough things with hammers and
saws and vices in a sawdust-strewn shed, so picturing the frustrating
immateriality of most modern work as something nostalgically physical
and mechanical. But to workshop as a verb is actually a theatrical usage
that dates from the 1970s; according to the OED, it means: "To present a
workshop performance of (a dramatic work), esp. in order to explore
aspects of the production before it is staged formally." So next time a
boss suggests something needs workshopping, gird your loins for the
solemn enactment of a brutal revenge tragedy.<br />
<h2>
X, theory</h2>
In
the 1960s, the psychologist Douglas McGregor published The Human Side
of Enterprise, which outlined two approaches to management. The first
approach assumes that people hate working and crave security, and have
to be forced with threats of punishment to do what you want. The second
approach assumes that people like to make an effort, are better
motivated by rewards and are naturally creative.<br />
McGregor called
these two approaches Theory X and Theory Y. To my ears, that X makes the
nasty Theory X sound rather mysterious and magical, the arena of arcane
experts in the fields of physics or vast alien conspiracies (x-rays,
X-Files), and so it fits perfectly with the general self-glamorising
tone of modern office jargon. But it is also, of course, a boon to
compilers of lexicons who otherwise wouldn't have anything to put under
X, so you won't hear me complaining any further about it.<br />
<h2>
Yield</h2>
Don't ever say that your plan will "give" or "cause" or "result in" great things; the only verb to use here is yield.<br />
The
word probably appeals to management types for two reasons. The first
and more obvious is that yield is also a noun in finance meaning the
expected income from a bond or other holding. The second reason, I
suspect, is an obscurely martial or psychosexual one: because to yield
also means to give way or to admit defeat, the thrusting manager who
sees everything yielding before him is subconsciously picturing the
ground strewn with defeated enemies or willingly passive sex-partners.<br />
<h2>
Zero cycles</h2>
Zero
cycles is how many bicycles you have when you don't have any bicycles.
Perhaps you are a sad clown whose entire clown act is about lamenting
the lack of bicycles in your clown life. Alternatively, you can speak as
though you were a computer that has a finite number of "cycles" of its
internal clock to perform calculations within a given time. So you can
say, in response to a request that you do some extra work: "Sorry, I
have zero cycles for this." It's a splendidly polite and groovily
technical way of saying: "Bugger off and don't ask me again."<br />
<div data-inview-name="12th para">
<i>Extracted
from Who Touched Base In My Thought Shower?: A Treasury of Unbearable
Office Jargon by Steven Poole, to be published by Sceptre at £9.99 on 31
October 2013. Order a copy for £7.99 with free UK p&p from </i><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/oct/22/www.guardianbookshop.co.uk" title=""><i>guardianbookshop.co.uk</i></a></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-17514808389642891192013-10-11T05:37:00.001-07:002014-10-17T08:12:25.967-07:00Words should aid meaning, not conceal it, distract from it or dehumanise it.<div id="main-article-info">
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Move over, George Orwell – this is how to sound <i>really</i> clever</h1>
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A
new book lists 600 words to use if you want to impress. But when is it
appropriate to deviate from plain English and indulge in sesquipedalian
behaviour?</div>
<div class="stand-first-alone" data-component="Article:standfirst_cta" id="stand-first" itemprop="description">
[From <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2013/oct/11/mind-your-language-long-words" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>] </div>
</div>
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<img alt="George Orwell " data-pin-description="George Orwell: never use a sesquipedalian word where a short one will do. Photograph: Mondadori via Getty Images" height="276" itemprop="contentUrl representativeOfPage" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/10/10/1381422057374/George-Orwell--009.jpg" width="460" />
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George Orwell: never use a sesquipedalian word where a short one will do. Photograph: Mondadori via Getty Images</div>
</div>
<div id="article-body-blocks">
Aged 17, I heard a confession that I found exhilarating. Mr
Downs, my English teacher, confessed that he'd read the dictionary.
Cover to cover. Most sixth-formers at my Ofsted-scourging school scoffed
at this peculiarity. I fell hopelessly in love with him.<br />
A man with a big diction will often impress. But he doesn't impress everyone. Some – such as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/georgeorwell" title="More from guardian.co.uk on George Orwell">George Orwell</a>
- argue that it's not the length of the words that count, but how you
use them. "Never use a long word where a short one will do" and "never
use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can
think of an everyday English equivalent", he advised in his 1946 essay
Politics and the English <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/language" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Language">Language</a> – the journalist's unofficial bible.<br />
What,
then, are the merits of elaborate language and when is it appropriate
to use it? How To Sound Really Clever (Bloomsbury) lists 600 words that
give you a "delightful rush" when you discover what they really mean,
where they come from, and how to use them correctly. It's a sequel to
How To Sound Clever and features the "slightly more distinguished,
complex cousins" to the words in the first volume.<br />
When I
interview the author, Hubert Van den Bergh, he's quick to point out that
some journalists have discarded their bible; many of the words he
selected were taken from newspaper articles. The most common inspiration
was the Daily Telegraph. Many words in the book were completely new to
me and discovering them was like tasting ice-cream for the very first
time.<br />
There are certainly times I've felt acedia (unaccountable
melancholia) without knowing what to properly call it. If you feel it
constantly, it may be that you're anhedonic – unable to feel pleasure.
After studying this book, you could say that words are your bailiwick –
area of authority or skill. Use them too manipulatively, though, and you
may be accused of being casuistic – clever, but intellectually
dishonest.<br />
A cognitive dissonance means having inconsistent
beliefs, usually about one's own behaviour. Gay Catholics fall into this
category. The opposite of nocturnal? It's diurnal. Certain lyrics of
Madonna? They're doggerel (appalling poetry). An epigone of Madonna?
Lady Gaga (it means an inferior imitator).<br />
I've worked for eight
years in the voluntary sector and not once did I realise that my
profession could be called eleemosynary (relating to charity). The
immediately evocative hagridden means to be harassed by a negative
emotion.<br />
I discovered an alliterative synonym for one of my
favourite unusual words, saturnine – subfusc, meaning gloomy.
Verisimilitude (the appearance of reality) takes me back to my
university days, when I used it in as many essays as possible. I
probably thought I sounded clever. This is the first time I've used it
since.<br />
Word number 598 in the book is my favourite for concisely
encapsulating a complex figure of speech in just a few letters. Zeugma
is when a word applies to two others in different ways; or to two words
when it only semantically suits one. An example of the former quotes
Alanis Morissette: "You held your breath and the door for me." How
chivalrous and zeugmatic. An example of the latter is "with wailing
mouths and hearts" – but don't blame Morissette for this doggerel.<br />
This
book is about more than clever words. Fascinating etymologies are also
revealed. So a canard, a false rumour, comes from the French for "duck"
because of a remarkable habit they have. When a predator approaches its
young, the parent will feign a broken wing, depicting themselves as the
easier target. This distraction gives the ducklings the opportunity to
escape, and the deceptive duck will then take off at the last minute.<br />
Meanwhile, pudenda (a woman's external organs) comes from the Latin <i>pudenda (membra)</i> – (parts) to be ashamed of, from <i>pudere</i> (to be ashamed). This traces back to a long and unfavourable etymological history relating to women and their bodies.<br />
<div data-inview-name="12th para">
The
term salad days (time of youthful inexperience and indiscretion) is
from one of Britain's most prolific neologists – William Shakespeare –
who in Antony and Cleopatra compares youthfulness to a salad "green in
judgment, cold in blood".</div>
Commonly misused words are clarified.
Enormity doesn't mean vast size (that's enormousness) – it means a grave
crime. Disinterested is about money before it's about boredom (having
no financial interest in one particular outcome or another). Nonplussed
is the most interesting: it has come to mean two antithetical things.
The original definition is that you're so surprised you're unsure how to
react. More recently, it has started to be used for feeling unperturbed
– the exact opposite of shocked. The author notes that "both meanings
are fighting it out" and recommends avoiding it altogether until this
semantic battle is won.<br />
Something that does stand out is how many
apt or ironic words the book contains. So although it is compendious
(succinctly containing all the essential facts), it may encourage a
cursory (hasty and not thought through) use of the words it explains. It
could result in fustian (pompous) communication or lucubrations
(pretentious, laboured writing). Nevertheless, you could rarely be
accused of using pabulum (trite words). But avoid plain English
altogether and you could end up being periphrastic (speaking in a
roundabout way). Get too carried away and you'll certainly become
pleonastic (using superfluous words). And use words like sesquipedalian
and you'll already be displaying sesquipedalian behaviour (it means
using long words).<br />
As for Orwellian plain English, Van den Bergh
claims that many find him "just too Spartan" and can't finish his books.
Although he grants that Orwell conveys his meaning very precisely, he
highlights a flaw in his utilitarian style: "He allows no flights of
fancy. Interaction is more than just the conveying of a meaning – a bit
of entertainment and relish is usually welcome, too."<br />
Of course,
there can be consequences of using elaborate language when a plain
English alternative will suffice. It leads to such appalling euphemisms
as "collateral damage". Charles Dickens highlighted these consequences
most poignantly when he called Oliver Twist an "item of mortality" in
the first line of the novel. Words, used well, should aid meaning, not
conceal it, distract from it or dehumanise it.<br />
"Usually people
enjoy the colour an unusual word provides," Van den Burgh says. I can't
help but agree. At 17, life went from monochrome to multicoloured – even
if it sometimes led me to fustian, sesquipedalian and pleonastic
lucubations.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-50215701309119239332013-09-23T10:05:00.000-07:002014-10-17T08:12:26.077-07:00Excel art!This is just amazing ... haven't quite figured it out yet.. but amazing..<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vbb4DJ5SKgM/UkB0aiOIkqI/AAAAAAAABW0/42_XI4UGcFo/s1600/tatsuo-horiuchi-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vbb4DJ5SKgM/UkB0aiOIkqI/AAAAAAAABW0/42_XI4UGcFo/s320/tatsuo-horiuchi-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2013/05/28/tatsuo-horiuchi-excel-spreadsheet-artist/<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-55yQxDDxNJk/UkB0htB8bII/AAAAAAAABW8/B0iSpsFinBc/s1600/horiuchi-tatsuo-ph1_px420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-55yQxDDxNJk/UkB0htB8bII/AAAAAAAABW8/B0iSpsFinBc/s320/horiuchi-tatsuo-ph1_px420.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-35387887863974688822013-03-08T04:52:00.001-08:002014-10-17T08:12:26.007-07:00Tesco poetry?<br />
<div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
It is not often a full-page apology by a multinational is compared to a Shakespearean sonnet. Why does Tesco appear to have turned to verse in its latest corporate mea culpa?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!" (Richard III, Act 5, Scene 4)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
Shakespeare knew a thing or two about stirring emotions.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
Copywriters have been slyly plundering the rhythms and cadences of his verse to impart epic qualities to the products they are selling since the early days of advertising.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
But there is one kind of ad where literary flourishes, and outpourings of emotion, are normally in pretty short supply - the full-page apology.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
Taken out by corporations in crisis, when they can't get their message out any other way, they are the advertising equivalent of a cold shower.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
They tend to stick to basic information. If they resort to emotion at all, it is sorrow and remorse.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
When horsemeat was discovered in its value burgers in January, Tesco took out a full page ad in several national newspapers.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
It was a fairly standard example of the genre: "We have immediately withdrawn from sale all products from the supplier in question, from all our stores and online… We and our supplier have let you down and we apologise."</div>
<div class="caption body-width" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #505050; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; position: relative;">
<img alt="Tesco ads" height="261" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66238000/jpg/_66238986_threepapers_philcoomes.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="464" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
But the supermarket giant was not finished there.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
A promise to get to the bottom of the horsemeat issue has escalated, through a series of double page advertisements in national newspapers, into an apparently heartfelt vow to change Tesco's entire way of doing business.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
Specifically, to improve the way it treats farmers and other suppliers and simplify its supply chain.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
There is a strangely poetic quality to the ads, in the way the sentences don't reach the end of the lines and the language employed has echoes of a sonnet.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
Take this, from What Burgers Have Taught Us:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
<em style="line-height: 16px;">"We know that all this will only work if we are</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
<em style="line-height: 16px;">Open about what we do.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
<em style="line-height: 16px;">And if you're not happy, tell us.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
<em style="line-height: 16px;">Seriously.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
<em style="line-height: 16px;">This is it.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
<em style="line-height: 16px;">We are changing.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
Or this from the final ad in the series It Starts With Us:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
<em style="line-height: 16px;">"What's been happening lately has made us</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
<em style="line-height: 16px;">Look at the way we do things.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
<em style="line-height: 16px;">Made us realise that we need to do our bit</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
<em style="line-height: 16px;">To change the way our food industry works."</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
Tesco insists these ads are not deliberate attempts at poetry.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"We're using the ads to keep our customers updated with the steps we're taking, as well as highlighting some of the commitments we've made, such as sourcing all our fresh chicken from the UK from July," says a spokesman.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
Others beg to differ.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"It resembles poetry in the way that it is laid out", says poet Matt Harvey.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"It gives the words a portentous quality. They are reaching for gravitas, and probably achieving it.</div>
<div class="story-feature wide " style="background-color: white; clear: right; color: #505050; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px -160px 16px 16px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 304px;">
<a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21687776#story_continues_2" style="color: #4a7194; font-weight: bold; left: -5000px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; top: -5000px;">Continue reading the main story</a><h2 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-size: 1.231em; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 11px 0px 12px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<br /></h2>
</div>
<div id="story_continues_2" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"It is spot on iambic pentameter in parts. You could find line four in a Shakespearean sonnet."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
It Starts With Us has "an incantatory quality", in the way it repeats certain phrases, trying to "cast a spell" on the reader with words, adds Harvey, a former poet-in-residence at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"It is a love letter to their customers. It is saying 'things haven't been easy, I have had a look at myself, I have had a look at our relationship and I know I can change'.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"Perhaps the next ad will say 'maybe we should go and see somebody about this'."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
Christopher Burlinson, an English lecturer at Cambridge University, sees parallels with the work of 17th Century metaphysical poet George Herbert, who used the patterns of the text on the page to underscore the meaning of his words.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"Tesco are calling on a well-established poetic technique," says Burlinson</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"The text is shaped like an arrow. It points downwards on the page. The lines get shorter as you near the end. It is all pointing to the Tesco brand."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
Tim Johnson, chief operating officer of corporate crisis management specialists Regester Larkin, says the ads are a "highly innovative" example of a company turning a PR disaster to its advantage.</div>
<div class="caption body-width" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #505050; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; position: relative;">
<img alt="tesco ad/poem" height="261" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66238000/jpg/_66238984_tescopoem_philcoomes.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="464" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
They have seized the horsemeat scandal as an opportunity to address wider concerns about the business, against a backdrop of "disappointing" financial results.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"They have got to rebuild their business and try to re-engage customers and the City. I think they have done it really rather brilliantly," says Johnson.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
But economist Andrew Simms says that until Tesco can prove it really has changed its business model, and is making fewer demands on suppliers, the campaign is just "mood music".</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"Regardless of its size and creativity, the way they have explained themselves in paid-for adverts, I wouldn't be surprised if you don't see similar problems popping up at regular intervals in the future," says Simms, author of Tescopoly, an investigation into the retailer's business practices.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
By turning to blank verse, and block-booking adverts in the national media, Tesco are attempting to "change the conversation" about their company.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">
"The story then becomes about how they are responding rather than the issue itself. And that really is clever PR," adds Simms.</div>
<div>
(With acknowledgement to the BBC)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-29206375090243410162012-12-14T03:44:00.000-08:002014-10-17T08:12:26.000-07:00Capitals<h2>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="SECTION00081000000000000000">Capital Letters</a></h2>
<br />
Capital letters are not really an aspect of punctuation, but it is c
onvenient to deal with them here. The rules for using them are mostly very
simple.
(a) The first word of a sentence, or of a fragment, begins with a capital
letter:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>The bumbling wizard Rincewind is Pratchett's most popular character.
</dd><dd>Will anyone now alive live to see a colony on the moon? Probably not.
</dd><dd>Distressingly few pupils can locate Iraq or Japan on a map of the world.
</dd><br />
</dl>
(b) The names of the days of the week, and of the months of the year,
are written with a capital letter:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>Next Sunday France will hold a general election.
</dd><dd>Mozart was born on 27 January, 1756.
</dd><dd>Football practice takes place on Wednesdays and Fridays. </dd><br />
</dl>
However,
the names of seasons are <b>not</b> written with a capital:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>Like cricket, baseball is played in the summer. </dd></dl>
Do not write
*"<i>... in the Summer</i>".
<br />
(c) The names of languages are always written with a capital letter. Be
careful about this; it's a very common mistake.
<br />
<dl>
<dd>Juliet speaks English, French, Italian and Portuguese.
</dd><dd>I need to work on my Spanish irregular verbs.
</dd><dd>Among the major languages of India are Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil.
</dd><dd>These days, few students study Latin and Greek. </dd><br />
<br />
</dl>
Note, however,
that names of disciplines and school subjects are <b>not</b> capitalized unless
they happen to be the names of languages:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>I'm doing A-levels in history, geography and English.
</dd><dd>Newton made important contributions to physics and mathematics.
</dd><dd>She is studying French literature. </dd><br />
</dl>
(d) Words that express a
connection with a particular place must be capitalized when they have their
literal meanings. So, for example, <i>French</i> must be capitalized when it
means `having to do with France':
<br />
<dl>
<dd>The result of the French election is still in doubt.
</dd><dd>The American and Russian negotiators are close to agreement.
</dd><dd>There are no mountains in the Dutch landscape.
</dd><dd>She has a dry Mancunian sense of humour. </dd><br />
<br />
</dl>
(The word
<i>Mancunian</i> means `from Manchester'.)
<br />
However, it is not necessary to capitalize these words when they occur as
parts of fixed phrases and don't express any direct connection with the relevant
places:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>Please buy some danish pastries.
</dd><dd>In warm weather, we keep our french windows open.
</dd><dd>I prefer russian dressing on my salad. </dd><br />
</dl>
Why the difference? Well, a
danish pastry is merely a particular sort of pastry; it doesn't have to come
from Denmark. Likewise, french windows are merely a particular kind of window,
and russian dressing is just a particular variety of salad dressing. Even in
these cases, you can capitalize these words if you want to, as long as you are
consistent about it. But notice how convenient it can be to make the difference:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>In warm weather, we keep our french windows open.
</dd><dd>After nightfall, French windows are always shuttered. </dd></dl>
In the first
example, <i>french windows</i> just refers to a kind of window; in the second,
<i>French windows</i> refers specifically to windows in France.
<br />
(e) In the same vein, words that identify nationalities or ethnic groups must
be capitalized:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>The Basques and the Catalans spent decades struggling for autonomy.
</dd><dd>The Serbs and the Croats have become bitter enemies.
</dd><dd>Norway's most popular singer is a Sami from Lapland. </dd><br />
</dl>
(An aside:
some ethnic labels which were formerly widely used are now regarded by many
people as offensive and have been replaced by other labels. Thus, careful
writers use <i>Black</i>, not <i>Negro</i>; <i>native American</i>, not
<i>Indian</i> or <i>red Indian</i>; <i>native Australian</i>, not
<i>Aborigine</i>. You are advised to follow suit.)
<br />
(f) Formerly, the words <i>black</i> and <i>white</i>, when applied to human
beings, were never capitalized. Nowadays, however, many people prefer to
capitalize them because they regard these words as ethnic labels comparable to
<i>Chinese</i> or <i>Indian</i>:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>The Rodney King case infuriated many Black Americans. </dd></dl>
You may
capitalize these words or not, as you prefer, but be consistent.
<br />
(g) Proper names are always capitalized. A proper name is a name or a title
that refers to an individual person, an individual place, an individual
institution or an individual event. Here are some examples:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>The study of language was revolutionized by Noam Chomsky.
</dd><dd>The Golden Gate Bridge towers above San Francisco Bay.
</dd><dd>There will be a debate between Professor Lacey and Doctor Davis.
</dd><dd>The Queen will address the House of Commons today.
</dd><dd>Many people mistakenly believe that Mexico is in South America.
</dd><dd>My friend Julie is training for the Winter Olympics.
</dd><dd>Next week President Clinton will be meeting Chancellor Kohl.
</dd><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</dl>
Observe the difference between the next two examples:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>We have asked for a meeting with the President.
</dd><dd>I would like to be the president of a big company. </dd></dl>
In the first,
the title <i>the President</i> is capitalized because it is a title referring to
a specific person; in the second, there is no capital, because the word
<i>president</i> does not refer to anyone in particular. (Compare <i>We have
asked for a meeting with President Wilson</i> and *<i>I would like to be
President Wilson of a big company</i>.) The same difference is made with some
other words: we write <i>the Government</i> and <i>Parliament</i> when we are
referring to a particular government or a particular parliament, but we write
<i>government</i> and <i>parliament</i> when we are using the words generically.
And note also the following example:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>The patron saint of carpenters is Saint Joseph.</dd></dl>
Here <i>Saint
Joseph</i> is a name, but <i>patron saint</i> is not and gets no capital.
<br />
There is a slight problem with the names of hazily defined geographical
regions. We usually write <i>the Middle East</i> and <i>Southeast Asia</i>,
because these regions are now regarded as having a distinctive identity, but we
write <i>central Europe</i> and <i>southeast London</i>, because these regions
are not thought of as having the same kind of identity. Note, too, the
difference between <i>South Africa</i> (the name of a particular country) and
<i>southern Africa</i> (a vaguely defined region). All I can suggest here is
that you read a good newspaper and keep your eyes open.
Observe that certain surnames of foreign origin contain little words that are
often not capitalized, such as <i>de</i>, <i>du</i>, <i>da</i>, <i>von</i> and
<i>van</i>. Thus we write <i>Leonardo da Vinci</i>, <i>Ludwig van Beethoven</i>,
<i>General von Moltke</i> and <i>Simone de Beauvoir</i>. On the other hand, we
write <i>Daphne Du Maurier</i> and <i>Dick Van Dyke</i>, because those are the
forms preferred by the owners of the names. When in doubt, check the spelling in
a good reference book.
A few people eccentrically prefer to write their names with no capital
letters at all, such as the poet <i>e. e. cummings</i> and the singer <i>k. d.
lang</i>. These strange usages should be respected.
(h) The names of distinctive historical periods are capitalized:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>London was a prosperous city during the Middle Ages.
</dd><dd>Britain was the first country to profit from the Industrial Revolution.
</dd><dd>The Greeks were already in Greece during the Bronze Age. </dd><br />
</dl>
(i) The
names of festivals and holy days are capitalized:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>We have long breaks at Christmas and Easter.
</dd><dd>During Ramadan, one may not eat before sundown.
</dd><dd>The feast of Purim is an occasion for merrymaking.
</dd><dd>Our church observes the Sabbath very strictly.
</dd><dd>The children greatly enjoy Hallowe'en. </dd><br />
<br />
<br />
</dl>
(j) Many religious terms
are capitalized, including the names of religions and of their followers, the
names or titles of divine beings, the titles of certain important figures, the
names of important events and the names of sacred books:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>An atheist is a person who does not believe in God.
</dd><dd>The principal religions of Japan are Shinto and Buddhism.
</dd><dd>The Indian cricket team includes Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Parsees.
</dd><dd>The Lord is my shepherd.
</dd><dd>The Prophet was born in Mecca.
</dd><dd>The Last Supper took place on the night before the Crucifixion.
</dd><dd>The Old Testament begins with Genesis. </dd><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</dl>
Note, however, that the
word <i>god</i> is <b>not</b> capitalized when it refers to a pagan deity:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>Poseidon was the Greek god of the sea. </dd></dl>
(k) In the title or name of
a book, a play, a poem, a film, a magazine, a newspaper or a piece of music, a
capital letter is used for the first word and for every significant word (that
is, a little word like <i>the</i>, <i>of</i>, <i>and</i> or <i>in</i> is not
capitalized unless it is the first word):
<br />
<dl>
<dd>I was terrified by <i>The Silence of the Lambs</i>.
</dd><dd><i>The Round Tower</i> was written by Catherine Cookson.
</dd><dd>Bach's most famous organ piece is the <i>Toccata and Fugue in D Minor</i>.
</dd><dd>I don't usually like Cher, but I do enjoy <i>The Shoop Shoop Song</i>.
</dd><br />
<br />
</dl>
<b>Important note:</b> The policy just described is the one most
widely used in the English-speaking world. There is, however, a second policy,
preferred by many people. In this second policy, we capitalize only the first
word of a title and any words which intrinsically require capitals for
independent reasons. Using the second policy, my examples would look like this:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>I was terrified by <i>The silence of the lambs</i>.
</dd><dd><i>The round tower</i> was written by Catherine Cookson.
</dd><dd>Bach's most famous organ piece is the <i>Toccata and fugue in D minor</i>.
</dd><dd>I don't usually like Cher, but I do enjoy <i>The shoop shoop song</i>.
</dd><br />
<br />
</dl>
You may use whichever policy you prefer, so long as you are consistent
about it. You may find, however, that your tutor or your editor insists upon one
or the other. The second policy is particularly common (though not universal) in
academic circles, and is usual among librarians; elsewhere, the first policy is
almost always preferred.
<br />
(l) The first word of a <a href="http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node30.html">direct quotation</a>, repeating
someone else's exact words, is always capitalized if the quotation is a complete
sentence:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>Thomas Edison famously observed "Genius is one per cent inspiration and
ninety-nine per cent perspiration." </dd></dl>
But there is no capital letter if
the quotation is not a complete sentence:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>The Minister described the latest unemployment figures as "disappointing".
</dd></dl>
(m) The brand names of manufacturers and their products are
capitalized:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>Maxine has bought a second-hand Ford Escort.
</dd><dd>Almost everybody owns a Sony Walkman. </dd></dl>
<b>Note:</b> There is a
problem with brand names which have become so successful that they are used in
ordinary speech as generic labels for classes of products. The manufacturers of
<i>Kleenex</i> and <i>Sellotape</i> are exasperated to find people using
<i>kleenex</i> and <i>sellotape</i> as ordinary words for facial tissues or
sticky tape of any kind, and some such manufacturers may actually take legal
action against this practice. If you are writing for publication, you need to be
careful about this, and it is best to capitalize such words if you use them.
However, when brand names are converted into verbs, no capital letter is used:
we write <i>She was hoovering the carpet</i> and <i>I need to xerox this
report</i>, even though the manufacturers of <i>Hoover</i> vacuum cleaners and
<i>Xerox</i> photocopiers don 't much like this practice, either.
<br />
(n) Roman numerals are usually capitalized:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>It is no easy task to multiply LIX by XXIV using Roman numerals.
</dd><dd>King Alfonso XIII handed over power to General Primo de Rivera.
</dd></dl>
The only common exception is that small Roman numerals are used to
number the pages of the front matter in books; look at almost any book.
<br />
(o) The pronoun <i>I</i> is always capitalized:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>She thought I'd borrowed her keys, but I hadn't. </dd></dl>
It is possible to
write an entire word or phrase in capital letters in order to emphasize it:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>There is ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE to support this conjecture.</dd></dl>
On the
whole, though, it is preferable to express emphasis, not with capital letters,
but with <a href="http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node35.html">italics</a>. It is not necessary to capitalize a
word merely because there is only one thing it can possibly refer to:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>The equator runs through the middle of Brazil.
</dd><dd>Admiral Peary was the first person to fly over the north pole.
</dd><dd>The universe is thought to be about 15 billion years old. </dd><br />
</dl>
Here the
words <i>equator</i>, <i>north pole</i> and <i>universe</i> need no capitals,
because they aren't strictly proper names. Some people choose to capitalize them
anyway; this is not wrong, but it's not recommended.
<br />
Capital letters are also used in writing certain <a href="http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node28.html">abbreviations</a> and related types of words, including the
abbreviated names of organizations and companies, and in <a href="http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node52.html">letter writing</a> and in the <a href="http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node47.html">headings
of essays</a>.
There is one other rather rare use of capital letters which is worth
explaining if only to prevent you from doing it by mistake when you don't mean
to. This to poke fun at something. Here is an example:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>The French Revolution was a Good Thing at first, but Napoleon's rise to
power was a Bad Thing. </dd></dl>
Here the writer is making fun of the common
tendency to see historical events in simple-minded terms as either good or bad.
Another example:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>Many people claim that rock music is Serious Art, deserving of Serious
Critical Attention. </dd></dl>
The writer is clearly being sarcastic: all those
unusual capital letters demonstrate that he considers rock music to be worthless
trash.
<br />
This stylistic device is only appropriate in writing which is intended to be
humorous, or at least light-hearted; it is quite out of place in formal writing.
The use of unnecessary capital letters when you're trying to be serious can
quickly make your prose look idiotic, rather like those content-free books that
fill the shelves of the "New Age" section in bookshops:
<br />
<dl>
<dd>Your Eidetic Soul is linked by its Crystal Cord to the Seventh Circle of the
Astral Plane, from where the Immanent Essence is transmitted to your Eidetic
Aura,... </dd></dl>
You get the idea. <b>Don't</b> use a capital letter unless
you're sure you know why it's there.
<br />
<b>Summary of Capital Letters:
</b><br />
<b>Capitalize
</b><br />
<ul><b>
<li>the first word of a sentence or fragment
</li>
<li>the name of a day or a month
</li>
<li>the name of a language
</li>
<li>a word expressing a connection with a place
</li>
<li>the name of a nationality or an ethnic group
</li>
<li>a proper name
</li>
<li>the name of a historical period
</li>
<li>the name of a holiday
</li>
<li>a significant religious term
</li>
<li>the first word, and each significant word, of a title
</li>
<li>the first word of a <a href="http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node30.html">direct quotation</a> which is a
sentence
</li>
<li>a brand name
</li>
<li>a Roman numeral
</li>
<li>the pronoun <i>I</i></li>
</b></ul>
<b>
</b><br />
<ul>
<li> </li>
</ul>
<br />
<hr />
<br />
<address>
Copyright © Larry Trask, 1997 </address>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-81956798872004087582012-09-05T09:03:00.002-07:002014-10-17T08:12:26.095-07:00Punctuation
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Thought I should put this old favourite up here:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Here she blows him out:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Dear John,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are
generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless
and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no
feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me
be?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Yours,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Jane<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana;">But here she changed the punctuation:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Dear John<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are
generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless
and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no
feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me
be yours?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Jane<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-78791169995348011132012-09-05T08:57:00.003-07:002014-10-17T08:12:26.090-07:00Punctuation<br />
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<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Thought I should put these old favourites up here:</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
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<div id="articlebody" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote class="no" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
Dear John</blockquote>
<blockquote class="no" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote class="no" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever </span></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="no" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
Jane<br />
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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</div>
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</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="no" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
or did she mean:</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote class="no" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
Dear John:</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
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</div>
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote class="no" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me be yours?</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
</div>
<blockquote class="no" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
Jane</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
And this one"</div>
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote class="no" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote class="no" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote class="no" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote style="background-color: #f0f0f0; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; color: black; display: inline !important; font: normal normal normal 13px/20px Georgia, Century, Times, serif; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
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</div>
</div>
<br />
<blockquote class="no" style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
</div>
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</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; line-height: 20px;"><blockquote style="background-color: #f0f0f0; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; color: black; font: normal normal normal 13px/20px Georgia, Century, Times, serif; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">
<div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
My dear Pat,</div>
</blockquote>
</span></blockquote>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
</div>
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote class="no" style="display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote style="background-color: #f0f0f0; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; color: black; display: inline !important; font: normal normal normal 13px/20px Georgia, Century, Times, serif; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<blockquote class="no" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote style="background-color: #f0f0f0; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; color: black; font: normal normal normal 13px/20px Georgia, Century, Times, serif; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">
<div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
My dear Pat<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"></span></div>
<div id="abw" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit; width: 984px;">
<div id="abb" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.226563) 0px 10px 15px; display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div class="clear" id="abm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div id="abc" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: -342px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; width: 954px;">
<div id="articlebody" style="display: inline !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 357px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-decoration: inherit;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="no" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: ''; text-decoration: inherit;">
<blockquote style="background-color: #f0f0f0; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; color: black; font: normal normal normal 13px/20px Georgia, Century, Times, serif; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">
<div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The dinner we shared the other night -- it was absolutely lovely! Not in my wildest dreams could I ever imagine anyone as perfect as you are. Could you -- if only for a moment -- think of our being together forever? What a cruel joke to have you come into my life only to leave again; it would be heaven denied. The possibility of seeing you again makes me giddy with joy. I face the time we are apart with great sadness.</div>
<div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
John</div>
<div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
P.S.: I would like to tell you that I love you. I can't stop thinking that you are one of the prettiest women on earth.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
And now here's the same letter, punctuated differently:</div>
<blockquote style="background-color: #f0f0f0; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; color: black; font: normal normal normal 13px/20px Georgia, Century, Times, serif; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">
<div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pat the dinner we shared the other night. It was absolutely lovely--<em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-style: italic !important; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">not!</em> In my wildest dreams, could I ever imagine anyone? As perfect as you are, could you--if only for a moment--think? Of our being together forever: what a cruel joke! To have you come into my life only to leave again: it would be heaven! Denied the possibility of seeing you again makes me giddy. With joy I face the time we are apart.</div>
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With great "sadness,"</div>
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John</div>
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P.S.: I would like to tell you that I love you. I can't. Stop thinking that you are one of the prettiest women on earth.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-86854248195545151662012-02-01T08:43:00.000-08:002014-10-17T08:12:26.099-07:00Initial caps?National Insurance? Income Tax? State Pension? <br /><br />What's the proper way to write these terms? It seems there's widespread institutional acceptance that reference to national insurance (and often income tax, also) always uses initial capitals. Surely these should not have initial caps? I have heard the argument that the practice (at least with national insurance) arises from the correct capitalisation when the acronym is used (NI or NIC for contributions), which is then reverse-engineered to retain the capitals. What about the state pension, as well? I feel general discussion about the subject should use lower case, but perhaps the 'products' should be capitalised: Basic State Pension and Second State Pension. I would be grateful for any thoughts on the subject. ThanksUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-46793771145483808842012-01-27T10:39:00.000-08:002014-10-17T08:12:26.028-07:00How many Fs?How many Fs in the following sentence?<br /><br />FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-<br /> SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF-<br /> IC STUDY COMBINED WITH<br />THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Many people say three... in fact, because we skim words, and because we pronounce 'of' 'ov', most fail to spot that there are in fact SIX Fs:<br /><br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight:bold;">F</span>INISHED <span style="font-weight:bold;">F</span>ILES ARE THE RE-<br /> SULT O<span style="font-weight:bold;">F </span>YEARS O<span style="font-weight:bold;">F</span> SCIENTI<span style="font-weight:bold;">F</span>-<br /> IC STUDY COMBINED WITH<br /> THE EXPERIENCE O<span style="font-weight:bold;">F</span> YEARS.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-66073579474090934442012-01-24T12:27:00.000-08:002014-10-17T08:12:26.083-07:00WordsI cluon'dt blievee that I culod actually udnretsnad what I was raednig. Usnig the amzanig pwoer of the hmuan biarn, aorccnidg to rsreach at Cmabidrge Uivnreisty, it deonst mttaer in what oderr the lettres in a wrod are, the olny ipmroatnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat lterets are in the rghit place.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-43805429389878872462012-01-24T12:22:00.000-08:002014-10-17T08:12:26.013-07:00 I couldt believe that I could actually understand what I was reading. Using the incredible power of the human brain, according to research at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are; the only important thing is that the first and last letter are in the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without a problem. This is because the brain does not read every letter by itself, but the word as a whole. Amazing, eh?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-17976396991500730292012-01-09T05:39:00.000-08:002014-10-17T08:12:25.986-07:00Pronunciation (Hints)Hints on Pronunciation for Indians<br /><br /><br />I take it you already know<br />Of tough and bough and cough and dough?<br />Others may stumble, but not you<br />On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through?<br />Well done! And now you wish perhaps<br />To learn of less familiar traps?<br /><br />Beware of heard, a dreadful word<br />That looks like beard and sounds like bird.<br />And dead: it's said like bed, not bead -<br />For goodness sake don't call it 'deed'<br />Watch out for meat and great and threat,<br />They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.<br /><br />A moth is not a moth in mother<br />Nor both in bother, broth in brother,<br />And here is not a match for there<br />Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,<br />And then there's dose and rose and lose -<br />Just look them up - and goose and choose.<br /><br />And cord and work and card and ward,<br />And font and front and word and sword,<br />And do and go and thwart and cart -<br />Come, come, I've hardly made a start!<br />A dreadful language? Man alive,<br />I'd mastered it when I was five.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-71063393926383486762012-01-09T05:35:00.000-08:002014-10-17T08:12:26.086-07:00SEO: keywords waste of time?"Modern SEO is all about crafting content so compelling that other people want to promote it by linking to it or sharing it. "<br /><br />Some interesting thoughts on <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?trk=eml-anet_dig-b_pd-pmr-cn&gid=2151123&view=&commentID=56948284&ut=0qqiFfKFnDOQY1&item=78277770&type=member">LinkedIn</a> about the merits of SEO. So glad to see a return to proper writing...<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />John Fountain</span> • Agree with you 100 per cent Richard. The whole SEO debate about keywords is pretty much dead in the water thanks to Google and the way it now searches. Here's something I cut and pasted - '85% of the total factors that determine how a web page is ranked in a search engine is based on things that happen off the page itself.' By that they mean the amount of links to the site, bookmarking and tweets that mention the site.<br /><br />Modern SEO is all about crafting content so compelling that other people want to promote it by linking to it or sharing it.<br /><br />This kind of content is best provided by a professional copywriter. So what is the role of the SEO specialist today becasue I'm not sure. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Richard Owsley </span>• I read an article recently where the writer had interviewed twenty top Google SEO people about keyword density. To a man they were agreed that keyword density has no effect whatsoever on today's algorithms. The searches are far, far more sophisticated than that and stuffing your pages full of keywords, apart from making the copy sound moronic and the design look cluttered, is akin to flat earth theory.<br /><br />I have had many instances in the past two years of clients showing me the advice they got from their SEO 'specialists' which in my eyes was either worthless, or which I could have given myself in two minutes. There are a lot of snake oil salesmen around.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-47968334564774454472012-01-09T05:34:00.000-08:002014-10-17T08:12:26.061-07:00Getting the design work you want: ten pointers for success.Do you get the results you expect from your designer?<br /><br />I've recently found myself involved with a couple of projects where the clients were not at all happy with the design proposals they had been given — yet didn't know what they could do about it.<br /><br />Take Company A (a firm of accountants). They had a need to re-name and re-brand their business. Knowing next to nothing about the process they put their trust in a firm of 'designers' that they had found in a local telephone directory. They called me in to help with PR, but mentioned their concerns over the design proposals, and asked for my advice, given my background in design management and identity development. <br /><br />It turned out that the designers had met the client once, at the designer's offices, so they had little or no understanding of the client's corporate personality. They hadn't put anything down in writing regarding approach or strategy, except to give a fee for the design work (and the client, naively but perhaps understandably, assumed that this would embrace all that was needed). <br /><br />Although the designers had agreed to prepare three options, they emailed design proposals, rather than presenting and explaining the designs in person. They provided three design proposals that each adopted essentially the same approach, but with slightly different executions. Two of their solutions (one a hand-shake as logo, one a too-obvious rendition of 'money') were breathtakingly childish, and reminded me of a school project. There had been no attempt to indicate a process by which a multitude of potential avenues might have been explored around the services and benefits the company offered its audience. They had more or less created logo concepts on the back of an envelope and said "take it or leave it".<br /><br />I offered to 'broker' the process for them, and when I met the designers they admitted that they had had provided two 'rubbish' concepts so that the client would choose the third. They were not prepared to provide any alternative concepts, but as it happens, the client did like one of the proposals, and so agreed to proceed. But as artwork for stationery was being prepared, they kept making basic mistakes and not following instructions. It became clear that they simply didn't appreciate the attention to detail required. With a deadline looming, and things beginning to spiral out of control, I advised the client to cut their losses and find a different designer who could provide more constructive support for the rest of the work required in this critical process. <br /><br />They agreed a fee to end the relationship and keep the design they liked; I found them a designer who had a more professional approach, who ensured everything ran smoothly to launch date.<br /><br />The tips I would pass on are these:<br /><br />1. If you're paying a fee, you're in charge. Make sure things happen the way you want them to.<br />2. Prepare a clear brief. Write down your requirements and expectations. You could use my <a href="http://tinyurl.com/7jpbzua ]">Briefing Form</a> [ if you like.<br />3. Hold a beauty parade. Research possible designers: check local directories, ask colleagues, friends for recommendations.<br />4. Visit your shortlisted designers in their offices; get them to visit you in your offices.<br />5. Ask them to make a formal proposal describing how they would work and what they would provide for the fee. <br /> Make sure you understand what's going to be involved. Ask your designer to explain the process.<br />6. I'm against expecting designers to provide design solutions as part of the pitch process. You should be able to judge their expertise from other work and their attitude; then reward them for the proposals they prepare. Reputable designers will always work with you to revise designs if necessary to achieve a result that works and, ideally, that you're happy with. It's true that sometimes personal opinions diverge, but this is where it's important to be clear about the terms for ending the relationship if necessary.<br />7. Once you appoint a designer, agree the process: be clear what happens at what stages; be clear that your approval is required at all key stages.<br />8. Agree costs for each stage of the work (initial concepts, first proposals, fine-tuning proposals, preparing final artwork, handing over all final material). Be clear what 'extras' might cost (and what might be counted as extra work). Be clear what you get for the fee you pay. That should typically include all development work and the final artwork that you can use in the future, as well as your ownership of the copyright for unlimited use (once the fee has been paid). <br />9. Make sure the designers present and explain their proposals in person<br />10. If you're developing a new name and logo, be sure that someone checks availability and that you are not in danger of infringing someone else's copyright.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863178304678136670.post-1504846719363675432012-01-09T05:32:00.000-08:002014-10-17T08:12:25.960-07:00PronunciationFrom <a href="http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2011/12/23/english-pronunciation/">Poke </a><br /><br />They say:<br /><br />If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world.<br /><br />After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.<br /><br />Dearest creature in creation,<br />Study English pronunciation.<br />I will teach you in my verse<br />Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.<br />I will keep you, Suzy, busy,<br />Make your head with heat grow dizzy.<br />Tear in eye, your dress will tear.<br />So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.<br />Just compare heart, beard, and heard,<br />Dies and diet, lord and word,<br />Sword and sward, retain and Britain.<br />(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)<br />Now I surely will not plague you<br />With such words as plaque and ague.<br />But be careful how you speak:<br />Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;<br />Cloven, oven, how and low,<br />Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.<br />Hear me say, devoid of trickery,<br />Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,<br />Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,<br />Exiles, similes, and reviles;<br />Scholar, vicar, and cigar,<br />Solar, mica, war and far;<br />One, anemone, Balmoral,<br />Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;<br />Gertrude, German, wind and mind,<br />Scene, Melpomene, mankind.<br />Billet does not rhyme with ballet,<br />Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.<br />Blood and flood are not like food,<br />Nor is mould like should and would.<br />Viscous, viscount, load and broad,<br />Toward, to forward, to reward.<br />And your pronunciation’s OK<br />When you correctly say croquet,<br />Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,<br />Friend and fiend, alive and live.<br />Ivy, privy, famous; clamour<br />And enamour rhyme with hammer.<br />River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,<br />Doll and roll and some and home.<br />Stranger does not rhyme with anger,<br />Neither does devour with clangour.<br />Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,<br />Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,<br />Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,<br />And then singer, ginger, linger,<br />Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,<br />Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.<br />Query does not rhyme with very,<br />Nor does fury sound like bury.<br />Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.<br />Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.<br />Though the differences seem little,<br />We say actual but victual.<br />Refer does not rhyme with deafer.<br />Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.<br />Mint, pint, senate and sedate;<br />Dull, bull, and George ate late.<br />Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,<br />Science, conscience, scientific.<br />Liberty, library, heave and heaven,<br />Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.<br />We say hallowed, but allowed,<br />People, leopard, towed, but vowed.<br />Mark the differences, moreover,<br />Between mover, cover, clover;<br />Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,<br />Chalice, but police and lice;<br />Camel, constable, unstable,<br />Principle, disciple, label.<br />Petal, panel, and canal,<br />Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.<br />Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,<br />Senator, spectator, mayor.<br />Tour, but our and succour, four.<br />Gas, alas, and Arkansas.<br />Sea, idea, Korea, area,<br />Psalm, Maria, but malaria.<br />Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.<br />Doctrine, turpentine, marine.<br />Compare alien with Italian,<br />Dandelion and battalion.<br />Sally with ally, yea, ye,<br />Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.<br />Say aver, but ever, fever,<br />Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.<br />Heron, granary, canary.<br />Crevice and device and aerie.<br />Face, but preface, not efface.<br />Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.<br />Large, but target, gin, give, verging,<br />Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.<br />Ear, but earn and wear and tear<br />Do not rhyme with here but ere.<br />Seven is right, but so is even,<br />Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,<br />Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,<br />Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.<br />Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)<br />Is a paling stout and spikey?<br />Won’t it make you lose your wits,<br />Writing groats and saying grits?<br />It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:<br />Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,<br />Islington and Isle of Wight,<br />Housewife, verdict and indict.<br />Finally, which rhymes with enough,<br />Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?<br />Hiccough has the sound of cup.<br />My advice is to give up!!!<br /><br />English Pronunciation by G. Nolst TrenitéUnknownnoreply@blogger.com