More than/less than vs over/under

I'm all for being concise. But there is an exception that I'm rather pedantic about.

I see it all the time, particularly in advertising - "Chairs for under $100 each", "Return tickets to Melbourne for under $150", "Don't pay over $1000". It makes me cringe.

The words 'under' and 'over' should only be used to describe something that is physically 'below' or 'above'. For example, "The bear went over the mountain" and "I'd like to be under the sea".

When describing a cost, amount or figure, 'more than' and 'less than' should always be used - "Chairs for less than $100 each, "Return tickets to Melbourne for less than $150", "Don't pay more than $1000".

Try to remember this rule next time you book a newspaper or TV ad. You'll be making my leisure time so much more relaxing!

Metamorphosis

I'm wondering if it matters that this blog, which was meant to document the creation of a communications business, has morphed into somewhere for me to vent about language style. I'm hoping I may be assisting others to learn more about style and I'm providing a forum for people to express their views about style. It's also a good way to get my FB and Twitter fans to discover what Leviathan Communications is about ... or at least for them to find out about my editing passion!

Silly me

I must be a dolt. I've only just worked out where to find people's comments on my blog!

Numbers - to use digits or spell out

Another one of my pet peeves is when people spell out numbers that have double or more figures. The convention is to spell out in full numbers zero to nine and then write numbers 10 and onwards in digits. The reasoning for this is, when you get into double or more figures, the written forms of the numbers get longer and longer. It's more concise to use digits.

I had a client who just couldn't cope with me writing 'six-to-12 months'. She asked me for the reasoning and understood it, and she lived with it ... for a little while. But when we got close to print, she asked me to change the phrase to 'six-to-twelve months'. Because she was the client, I made the change, but it pained me to do so!

Yet I do understand where she is coming from. To someone who doesn't live and breathe style conventions, it must look like a mistake to have a number spelled out in full followed by a number written in digits. 'Twelve' isn't a particularly long word. Am I just pedantic? Is there room for flexibility?

Inverted pyramid news writing style

Good writing is so easy to achieve, but many people find it difficult because they don't know the basic rules. Writing stories for your newsletter or website should be simple because this type of writing conforms to a formula. You don't have to be a good writer to get your message across.

When writing news content for communications such as newsletters, bulletins, websites or fact sheets, the ‘inverted pyramid’ writing style is preferred. Imagine a pyramid standing on its point. This style enables readers to get the gist of 'what happened', if they don’t have time to read the entire story, by putting the news at the very top of the story.

Ideally, the most important information will be contained in the first paragraph and the least important information is contained in the last paragraph.

This enables an editor who needs to shorten a story, to remove sentences from the bottom of the story without cutting out any essential information. It also allows the reader to digest the information in the order of most importance.

The first sentence of a news story - called the ‘lead’ - should answer the two most important questions about the subject of your article: ‘who?’ and ‘what?’. The ‘who’ is who your article is about - be it a person, a program or a place - and the ‘what?’ is what happened to that person, program or place to make the information newsworthy. The ‘who?’ and ‘what?’ are not always obvious. They need to be carefully considered so the resulting story is about the most important subject.

Note: In news writing, a paragraph should be no longer than three sentences and sentences should be no longer than 30 words.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

Forward slashes - to space or not to space

I've been having trouble getting people interested in visiting my website from Twitter. My friend, who is an expert on all things social media, says it's because I need to be communicating about my area of expertise - I need to communicate about communication.

So I'm sharing something dear to my heart - my love of punctuation. Tragic I know.

I'm pretty good with most punctuation (don't use this blog to attest to that - this is my informal communications forum), but forward slashes have been frustrating me.

My feeling has been that they should conform to the conventions of other punctuation such as the full stop or the comma. That is, full stops and commas come directly after a word, but have a space after them. So my personal style preference has been to do this - word/ next word. Trouble is, my clients always go through my work and query why I have done this. Hence, I've decided to scrap this style in my editing.

So I wanted to find out the convention. Surprisingly, not many websites dedicated to punctuation tackle the use of the forward slash, but I did find quite a lot of online discussions on their use.

And the verdict is ...

If you are using a forward slash to separate two phrases, put a space before and after the forward slash (eg: pay by credit card / pay by money order). This rule also applies if you have a phrase on one side of the forward slash and a single word on the other side (eg: credit card / cash).

If you are using a forward slash to separate two short words, don't put a space on either side of of the forward slash (eg: credit/cash).

That leaves us with long words separated by a forward slash and for this, I am making up my own rule. I'm going to say, if both words separated by the forward slash have eight or more letters, a space is required on each side of the forward slash (eg: elephant / kangaroo). My reasoning for this is that a very long stretch of continuous text can look odd within a paragraph. I wonder if my new rule will catch on!

There are loads of other issues related to forward slashes such as long html addresses that fill more than one line of text and any use of a forward slash that requires the information after the forward slash to spill over onto the next line. I'll investigate this and get back to you.

Thanks for indulging me!

Loop hole

Yippee. There is a loop hole. Because I don't work full time, I'm allowed to do other work without getting permission from my CE. One less thing to worry about.

Recycled paper

I want to print my direct mail on recycled paper. Trouble is, it's not as good quality so it bleeds quite a bit. It can be tricky to be green and "professional looking". I've decided to include a PS in my letters stating: "Wondering why we haven't printed this letter on super-dooper glossy paper for a perfect finish? Wherever possible, we like to use recycled paper or paper sourced from sustainable forests.".

Brief for work

I need to write a brief arguing my case for working outside my regular job. I think my reasoning is pretty fair. I only work four days a week because I want to spend time with my son, but I need to suplement my income if I want to do so.

Permission from my work

Apparently I need to apply to the Chief Executive if I want to do work outside my 'real' employment. Oops. Hopefully, it's not too arduous. And hopefully he says "yes"!

Letterhead

Chris has designed me some letterhead for the business. I need to buy some recycled A4 paper and recycled paper envelopes and then I can get cracking with my direct marketing blitz.

Managing my website

This Saturday I'm going to learn how to manage my website myself. I'll be able to make all the changes and updates and not bother my web builder every 10 minutes.

I keep finding typos on the website. Very annoying because I know those typos weren't there when I wrote the text. Some bits must have been rewritten when the site was set up. A communications agency with typos on its website - not good.

My list

I've developed a list of organisations I want to direct mail to. Trouble is, I doubt many of them have any money to spend on communications. I'm drawn to charities and they like to make money, not spend it!

Direct mail

I need to get cracking with some direct mail and send out some brochures and business cards. I have to put together a list of potential clients. Charities are my preference, but of course, they have the least money to spend on communications too ...

Sea monster needs a name

I've put it out there. Via Facebook and Twitter, I have asked for suggestions for naming the Leviathan Communications sea monster. If the person whose name I choose is in SA, they get a pack of Haighs choccy frogs. I'm hoping some people might share the posting with their friends and I might get a few more followers ... That is the plan but who knows if it will work!

Unofficial followers

I've discovered that people can read this blog without being a follower. So, hello to those people who are checking it out and thank you for being my unofficial followers!

My only follower

Steph, you are my only follower just now so I hope I'm making this interesting enough for you!

Worries

What a juggle life is. I'm worried for two totally opposing reasons. Reason 1: What if I don't get any clients? Reason 2: What if I get too many clients and I can't manage only having one work day a week to attend to Leviathan jobs? I work four days a week at my 'bread and butter' job in order to have an income to pursue Leviathan. Tricky tricky.

The sick list

My 16-month-old son has been in hospital with croup and needing oxygen since Sunday. Four days later, we are finally home. Hence, no progress on Leviathan Communications during the past few days. I've been sleeping at the hospital and giving all my love and attention to my little boy. But while I've been away, I've gained fans on Leviathan's Facebook. We now have 21!

Fans and followers

I put links from my website to Facebook, Twitter and this blog yesterday. I've already got a few fans on my Leviathan Communications Facebook page and a couple of Twitter followers, but, alas, no one is reading my blog. And those who are following me are doing so for moral support rather than as potential clients!

I'm up online - www.leviathancomms.com.au. So I guess that means I am officially launched. Of course there is a typo in the website so I need to get that fixed. And a couple of clients would be handy. Just marketing via existing contacts at the moment. I'll do something more proactive in coming weeks.

First post

I am crossing fingers my website will be up and I'll be ready to launch my fledgling business, Leviathan Communications, in a couple of weeks. This blog will detail the many trials and (hopefully) many tribulations of setting up a new communications business in Adelaide, South Australia - a city with an already crowded marketing, communications, PR and advertising market. In some ways, my business will be an experiment - what works, what doesn't and do I actually get any customers at all! I'll try to be as open and honest as I can, without putting bad karma on my business before it is even up and running! Wish me luck!

Kirsty Mudge

Manager, Leviathan Communications