White Cross School

Courtesy of J.D. Rhoades’s blog, signs that you might be a writer.

. . . of good advice for writers: first, on the Zen-like aspects of writing; next, on things authors need to know when asking their local bookstore to carry their books, host their signings, etc.

Nicki Leone, our NCWN board president and webmistress extraordinaire (she loves it when I call her that), sent me the following link to a discussion by Harlan Ellison about writing for free.

Ellison is best known as a sci-fi writer, and has also written some screenplays, but did you know he also almost got into a fight with Frank Sinatra?

One of my favorite book-world resources, the daily e-mail newsletter Shelf Awareness, included the following bit of news in this morning’s issue:

‘Are those “brainstorms” or “thought showers” in your business meeting forecast? Apparently, the King’s English is now the preferred form of communication for British bureaucrats and buzz words are out. CNN

“Why do we have to have ‘coterminous, stakeholder engagement’ when we could just ‘talk to people’ instead?” asked Simon Milton, the association’s chairman.’ reported that the Local Government Association “sent out a list of 100 ‘non-words’ that it said officials should avoid if they want to be understood.” Among the offending terms are synergies, stakeholders, sustainable communities, empowerment, coterminosity and revenue stream.

That makes reason #5,673 why I love the British.  First they stood up to Hitler; now they’re standing up to mindless misuse of the English language.  The power of the English language is its flexibility: with little difficulty, it can absorb words from other languages, combine existing words to form new ones, make room for wholly original coinages.

So it’s not that I’m some language reactionary, demanding that no word be used unless Samuel Johnson used it.  Shakespeare, after all, is credited with inventing some ridiculous percentage (like 30%) of modern English; and if Shakespeare did it, it’s OK by me.

But as Uncle Ben told Peter Parker before he became Spider-Man, “With great power comes great responsibility.”  I hate seeing the language’s flexibility abused by the foisting upon us of flashy-sounding terms, dressing up simple ideas with gaudy constructions meant to dazzle, impose, or obscure.

Why do we need “signage” when we have “signs”?  Why do we have “to partner”* with someone when we could “work with” them instead?

By all means, play with the language.  Have fun.  Knock yourself out.  Better yet, knock your readers out (figuratively).

But, please, have some respect for the language of Shakespeare, Lincoln, and King.

* “Partner,” by the way, has a specific legal meaning that involves shared profits and liability (ah, there’s the rub).  You don’t want to call someone you’re doing business with your “partner” unless you don’t mind joining them in any potential lawsuits.

NCWN Board president and Webmistress Extraordinaire sent me the following link to an interesting article about the differences between effective writing for print and effective writing online:

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox for June 9 is now online.

Summary:
Linear vs. non-linear.
Author-driven vs. reader-driven.
Storytelling vs. ruthless pursuit of actionable content.
Anecdotal examples vs. comprehensive data.
Sentences vs. fragments.

I can’t argue with his theses, but they make me sad. I only recently came around to the utility of text messaging (I have a teenage son), but I refuse to use the cutesy abbreviations so popular with “the kids today.” I insist on using complete sentences and proper punctuation, even if it takes forever, makes my thumb cramp, and makes me somewhat of a dork. Call me stodgy, call me a snob, but I think most grammar rules developed for a reason and are necessary for clear communication. I think there’s something almost holy about a well-crafted sentence, whether it’s one of Hemingwayesque brevity or Faulknerian excess. I think that even the web has a place for fine, full writing.