Hello, friend! Welcome to the 36th edition of The Write Fit, a fortnightly newsletter from Sarah Mitchell and Dan Hatch at Typeset. As 2021 carries on right where 2020 left off, Sarah is fighting the urge to throw in the towel and is finding inspiration in new places.
(Was this email forwarded to you? Get your own copy of future newsletters here.)
|
|
Finding inspiration in the age of exhaustion
|
|
Raise your hand if you were banking on 2021 for a fresh start.
I’m so sick of politics. I’m sick of the Americans. I’m sick of the Australians. As a Yankee Doodle Dandy whose permanent “home is girt by sea”, I feel qualified to express my dual-citizen exhaustion.
I’m sick of the media, especially the fearmongering, name-calling, Murdoch-style media.
I know we’re all sick of being sick, or sick of the possibility of getting sick. Far too many of us are heartsick with the inexplicable loss accompanying a global pandemic.
Regardless, I was doing pretty well until the 6 January riot at the Capitol in Washington, DC. What should have been a new chapter for America was derailed by the culmination of a five-year global campaign of disinformation.
I wasn’t one bit surprised, nor was anyone who respects the power of words. Nearly every day for more than five years has required a conscientious decision to rise above the discourse, stay focused and stay productive. It’s been a hard ask, especially for those of us working in creative professions.
A change will do you good
Sheryl Crow says a change will do you good, but even her advice is delivered with acerbic wit. Short of baking, our options for change have been limited (although I hear homemade yoghurt is the new sourdough – you heard it here first.)
What can we do, as marketers or writers, to break out of the ennui brought on by politics and pandemic?
I look to Amanda Gorman for inspiration. I was completely unaware of the 22-year-old poet laureate who performed at President Biden’s inauguration. In “The Hill We Climb”, she asks, “Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?” and nothing has felt so relevant for a long time. She advises to strive for purpose, not perfection, and to keep trying even as we tire.
Gorman was talking about preserving democracy and the human spirit, but it’s good advice for marketers, too. She’s inspired me to read more poetry and look for new authors. Reading Crow’s lyrics reminded me of long hours I used to spend poring over song lyrics and album liner notes, a thoroughly inspiring activity that’s been completely obliterated by iTunes.
In less than a week, a redirected focus on the written word has begun to lift the mental fatigue accumulated in the past year. It’s a good lesson for me and a reminder to not stray too far away from creative stimulation. Deadlines can wait, right?
Sarah Mitchell
2 February 2021
|
|
|
Improving the readability of your business’s written communications takes work and attention to detail. Here are five tips to ensure your message is as clear as possible.
|
|
A handy trick to pick between me and I
|
|
The company my husband works for profiled him for their newsletter. When they asked what new skill he’d like to pick up in an instant, he responded “Grammar. It can make a smart person look dumb in just a few sentences. My wife and sister both have editing backgrounds and function on a completely different level”.
Now Matt is a super-smart guy. He’s got a master’s degree in Organisational Management, and in our conversations he throws around words like governance, KPMs, and budgeting shortfalls as if I know what he’s talking about.
But he also knows he has grammar shortfalls.
I was still rather surprised a couple of days ago when he asked, “should I use ‘I’ or ‘me’ here?”
The sentence: Thank you for speaking to Ashley and I.
“That should be ‘me’,” I responded.
He asked me to explain. I rolled my eyes and asked if he ever reads Super Grammar (we’ve covered this before). “But this is a different sentence!” he said. And he’s right, not because it’s a different sentence but because his pronouns are objects this time.
Pronouns are either subjects or objects. Here’s what they look like in each of those forms:
Subject forms: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, who
Object forms: me, you, him, her, it, us, them, whom.
A subject is the doer of an action. An object is the receiver of an action. In Matt’s sentence, the pronoun in question is an object of the preposition “to”.
The pitfall Matt fell into is a common one. It’s the reason you’ll often see “just between you and I” written rather than the correct version “just between you and me”. That “and” can confuse your mind into thinking your pronoun is a subject.
The trick is to separate the pieces of your sentence – sort of like diagramming it. If you separate Matt’s sentence into “Thank you for speaking to Ashley” and “Thank you for speaking to I”, the error is easily recognised.
Wendy Wood
Proofreader
|
|
Missed a recent edition of The Write Fit?
|
|
Something is rotten in online advertising
Rand Fishkin wades into the “dark underbelly of the ad world” on the SparkToro blog. It’s the first in a series and they’re jam-packed with info.
The hill we climb
If you haven’t seen Gorman’s performance of “The Hill We Climb”, set aside six minutes and prepare to be wowed. You can also read the poem if you’d prefer reading to listening.
A change will do you good
Sheryl Crow channels Samantha Stephens from Bewitched in this star-studded cover of her classic song. It’s a romp.
Until next time,
Happy writing!
|
|
|
|
