This Week in Writing, 9/5-9/11

Do you ever worry that one day someone will invent a robot that puts you out of a job? If you happen to be a choose-your-own adventure novelist, that worry just might have become a little bit more real. Check out that story and a few other highlights from around the web this week. Have something you’d like to see us cover here? Let us know in the comment section!

Our Favorite Stories:

1. Georgia Tech’s AI Is a Choose-Your-Own Adventure Author (Engadget)
2. The Most Popular Books in U.S. Public Libraries, Mapped by City (Quartz)
3. How Corporate America Killed My Writing (The Washington Post)
4. Celebrate International Literacy Day (Grammarly)

 

Staff Book Picks of the Week:

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (Fiction) Salman Rushdie

“From Salman Rushdie, one of the great writers of our time, comes a spellbinding work of fiction that blends history, mythology, and a timeless love story. A lush, richly layered novel in which our world has been plunged into an age of unreason, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights is a breathtaking achievement and an enduring testament to the power of storytelling.”

Dataclysm: Love, Sex, Race, and Identity–What Our Online Lives Tell Us about Our Offline Selves (Nonfiction) Christian Rudder

“Our personal data has been used to spy on us, hire and fire us, and sell us stuff we don’t need. In Dataclysm, Christian Rudder uses it to show us who we truly are.”

 

Author & Illustrator Birthdays

Robert Persig – September 6, 1928

Eric Hill – September 7, 1927

Alexandra Day – September 7, 1941

Alison Bechdel – September 10, 1960

O. Henry – September 11, 1862

 

7 Truly Horrifying Grammar Rules

Places with strict and unforgiving rules make great settings for spooky stories. Think about all the books and movies set against the backdrop of a strict school, a rigid convent, or an oppressive family home. The unyielding rules contribute to an atmosphere that invites creepiness. The same is true for grammar—when rules are enforced arbitrarily, sometimes horror ensues. Especially when it’s Halloween and the moon is full.

1 The Initial Conjunction Oh, the repression that is being unable to start a sentence with “and,” “but,” or “so”! Of the many horrifying rules that don’t make sense, this one takes the cake. You don’t have to be afraid of starting a sentence with a conjunction as long as it makes sense and you don’t start every sentence with one. 2 The Terminal Preposition All things must come to an end. But when your sentence comes to an end, and it just so happens to end with a preposition, do you have to rearrange it? Would you craft one jack-o’-lantern after another because somehow their eyes always seem too big? Well, maybe you would, but with sentences, it’s perfectly okay to leave the terminal preposition be. In fact, sometimes you don’t have a choice, as the alternative would be much worse.

3 The Plural Apostrophe That Should Not Be There’s nothing inherently scary about acronyms and initialisms. There aren’t any in particular associated with Halloween. But let’s say that you prefer watching TV to reading a book on Halloween and that you’re using a DVR to record that scary movie marathon. If you had more than one TV and DVR, how would you write the plural? You’d just add an s, giving you TVs and DVRs. That’s the favored practice these days, but not so long ago some styles guides did advise using an apostrophe to pluralize acronyms. In fact, The New York Times still does it, but only when the abbreviation contains periods (M.D.’s.) or when pluralizing a single letter (dot the i’s and cross the t’s).

4 Who Is It? It Is I! Here’s a quick test to help you make sure the person knocking at your door is not something scary disguised as a person: when they knock and you ask who it is, if they say “it is I,” they are either a nineteenth-century monster or a relentless grammar pedant. While the use of “I” instead of “me” in this case is technically grammatically sound, using “me” is so much more common that saying “it is I” sounds awkward and unnatural.

5 The Generic “He” Scary monsters don’t have to be male. Sure, Dracula is, and werewolves often are, but there are also bad witches and all kinds of monsters you can’t refer to as “he.” It was once standard to use “he” as a generic pronoun for people and monsters of unspecified gender. We’ve moved on from those times, however, and we’ve adopted “he or she” or “they” as the generic pronouns.

6 To Whom It May Concern… Some things just refuse to accept that it’s their time to go. Like zombies, ghosts, and vampires, “whom” likes to come out from time to time and wreak havoc on unsuspecting victims who think there’s nothing wrong with saying “to who.” And there was a time when “whom” was the only correct form to use when referring to the object of a verb. However, using “who” has become so widespread that “whom” may be on its way out.

7 No Splitting When Infinitives Are Involved While splitting your group of friends might be helpful if you want to cover more Halloween parties, splitting an infinitive will do you no good. At least, that’s what some misinformed pedants would say. In practice, however, splitting an infinitive is sometimes the better-sounding choice, and it often makes more sense. So don’t be afraid to split—a rule to live by when it comes to both infinitives and scary noises in the middle of the night.

What Is the Difference Between Acknowledgement and Acknowledgment?

This post acknowledges the pesky spelling of acknowledg(e)ment. If the verb ends in -e, where does that letter go when you add the -ment?

For the most part, folks in the United States or Canada will ditch the E, while people outside North America tend to keep it. But that’s far from a hard-and-fast rule, so chances are you’ll see both spellings regardless of where you’re reading.

If you want to stick to general geographical standards, think of it this way: the British like to use extra letters. Think canceled vs. cancelled, or favorite vs. favourite, for instance—Americans prefer the former in both instances. While “judgment” is a closer parallel to our friend “acknowledgment,” more sources agree that “judgement” with a middle E is just plain incorrect. With “acknowledgment” and “acknowledgement,” on the other hand, you’ll see a lot more of both.

Now that we’ve given acknowledgment to geography, let’s take a peek at some of the most common usages of the word, with examples of both spellings.

1 The act of acknowledging; admission; avowal; owning; confession.

Owning up to making a mistake:

The coach was not comforted by the referee’s acknowledgment that he had incorrectly given the star player a red card.

Confession of something formerly secret:

May 2, 1939, “marked the beginning of Gehrig’s very public acknowledgement of ALS, the disease which would come to bear his name.” (NBC Sports)

Admitting to improper behavior:

“The kingdom awaits the U.S. Government’s acknowledgment of error.” (The National Interest)

2 The act of recognizing the existence, authority, truth, or genuineness of a fact, point, or characteristic.

Recognition of a valid point:

The financial analysts interpreted the warning about high spending “as an acknowledgment of their claim that taxes must rise.” (The Australian)

Attention to a topic:

“Public acknowledgement of and commitment to diversification strikes a new tone, and suggests recognition of a new reality.” (Foreign Policy)

3 An award or other expression or token of appreciation.

Award:

“Each honoree receives a crystal paperweight commemorating the award and $3,345 as an acknowledgment of their superior leadership abilities, scholarship and appreciation of basic American values.” (The Purdue Exponent)

Symbol of appreciation:

Young students often give their teachers an apple as an acknowledgment of their teaching.

4 An expression of gratitude or respect.

Expression of gratitude:

“He gave from his heart. . . . He did not want a lot of acknowledgement.” (Raw Story)

Recognition, appreciation:

“What . . . came to pass on Wednesday night was a sober acknowledgement of Bowie’s talent and contribution to the music industry.” (WWD)

A thanks to people who helped an author over the course of writing a book:

“Mr Khanna lists over 400 people in a nine-page acknowledgments section.” (The Economist)

5 A confirmation that something has been received.

“Goodwill, favor and payback may result from courteous acknowledgement letters.” (Write Express)

“Question: Invitation acknowledgment. Answer: RSVP.” (Crosswords Online)

Those are the most common uses of the word, but it can also show up in legal or computing contexts. See a full list of definitions and synonyms here.

If you’ve read this far, consider this the acknowledgment that you have finished the article.

Written by Alice E.M. Underwood

What Is a Common Noun?

A common noun is the generic name for a person, place, or thing in a class or group. Unlike proper nouns, a common noun is not capitalized unless it either begins a sentence or appears in a title. Common nouns can be concrete (perceptible to the senses), abstract (involving general ideas or qualities), or collective (referring to a group or collection).

All nouns can be classified as either common or proper. All nouns name something, but proper nouns name them specifically. Common nouns do not.

They say that diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

If you want to be my best friend, the Blue Moon Diamond would be a great gift idea.

Usually, it will be quite obvious if a specific person, place, or thing is being named.

While cats are social animals, some may seem like solitary creatures.

A cat may scratch you if it is teased too much.

Seriously, you should watch yourself around Fluffy.

Ray likes to hike in the mountains.

Ray has climbed Mount Everest twice.

A girl rang the doorbell this afternoon while you were out.

Gigi rang the doorbell this afternoon while you were out.

Distinguishing between common nouns and proper nouns seems easy, so why do we really need to know the difference between them? The answer to that question is this: to assign capital letters correctly.

Common Nouns Are Lowercased

A frequent spelling error people make is to capitalize common nouns unnecessarily. Some words, like president, seem to beg for a capital letter because instinctively we want to emphasize their importance. But even this lofty title is a common noun if it does not name something or someone specific (in this case, a specific president).

The United States has had four Presidents this century.

The United States has had four presidents this century.

George Washington was the first President of the United States.

George Washington was the first president of the United States.

In 1789, the tenure of president George Washington began.

In 1789, the tenure of President George Washington began.

In the penultimate example, the fact that George Washington is named at the beginning of the sentence may tempt you to capitalize president afterward, but you must resist this temptation. Here, George Washington is referred to as the first president of the United States—that is, the first in a number of presidents of the United States. Thus, in that example, president is a common noun.

In business writing, the common compound noun board of directors is often incorrectly capitalized in this way. Although you may idolize your company’s board of directors and put them on the proverbial pedestal, board of directors is not capitalized unless it is part of a proper noun.

My company’s board of directors met for six hours today and I had to take minutes.

Because I so faithfully took six hours of minutes, I was invited to the Board of Directors’ Ball this Saturday.

This principle applies to every common noun, no matter how monumental its significance. Even if your noun represents the most momentous event the universe has seen, it must be named specifically to be proper and to don its capitals.

Hubble and Einstein contributed to the theory of the Cosmological Expansion of the Universe.

Hubble and Einstein contributed to the theory of the cosmological expansion of the universe.

The Big Bang is a theory regarding the cosmological expansion of the universe.

5 Reasons You Should Read a Damn Book

Watching too much TV is bad for your health. According to some sources, being a couch potato will make you less smart. It will consume your time, influence your social relationships, affect your physical health in a very bad way, affect your emotional well-being, and skew your worldview. And the list goes on.

But this isn’t an article about the perils of TV watching. It’s an article about why books might be a better pastime (or passion, if you get to that level) for you to pick up.

1 You’ll sleep better

Sleep has two nemeses: light and stress. TV screens, your smartphone, and your tablet emit light. And the blue part of the spectrum they emit is especially problematic because it makes you more alert and affects the production of melatonin, a very important hormone in the sleep-wake cycle. Stress also causes the body to release hormones that interfere with sleep.

And how can a book help you? Well, it doesn’t emit light. And it also helps reduce stress levels.

2 Not all good books have movies or TV shows based on them

The interplay between TV shows and movies based on books can work to your benefit. Let’s say you like Fight Club. You loved the story, you loved the weirdness, you got hooked on the transgression it shows. But you can’t find many movies that give you the same sort of rush. Luckily, the movie was based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, and it’s not the only good one he wrote. So far, two of his novels have been adapted for the big screen, but to access the majority of his work, you will have to read.

3 Some of the TV shows or movies you like are based on real books

That interplay we mentioned works the other way around, too. You like Game of Thrones? You know it’s based on a book series. You like Harry Potter? Also based on a book series. And just imagine how much more content these books contain compared to their screen adaptations. You’re missing out if you’re not reading them.

4 Books are like jogging for your brain

Studies have shown that reading books with a strong narrative arc leaves an impression on your brain, boosting the connectivity in the parts of your brain responsible for language reception. That boost lasts for a couple of days, so you need to keep it up to reap the benefits. The takeaway is that reading books will make your brain work better.

5 You get what you put in

How many hours of fun can a book give you? It depends on how long the book is, sure, but it also depends on how much of yourself you invest in the book. Will you spend time thinking about it, imagining what every character looks like, how they must have felt when this or that happened to them? In that case, a book can keep you happy and entertained for weeks.

Are You Sending Emoji or Emojis?

What do you call those tiny pictures we all use in texts and chats? Do you opt for the Japanese-inspired “emoji” or the English-focused “emojis”?

The debate between these two pluralizations of emoji has been raging for almost as long as emojis have existed. To quote Bustle writer Lucia Peters, the answer to this question is both “incredibly simple and unexpectedly complicated.”

The Short Answer—Emojis

The Associated Press took a hard stand on this issue in March 2013, making it one of the first style guides to draw a line in the sand in favor of “emojis.” Since then, major publications like The Atlantic and The New York Times have mostly adopted this spelling as well, and the emoji-tracking dictionary Emojipedia has officially supported the “-s” pluralization for ease of use. Although neither spelling is technically incorrect, “emojis” follows the normal inflection pattern of English nouns, giving it a slight advantage over “emoji.”

The discussion of emoji pluralization is both simple and complex, but, simply put, English usually makes plurals using English plural rules. To quote Mark Allen, a board member of the American Copy Editors Society, “When words enter English, we usually make them play by our rules, so I think ‘emojis’ has the edge. A corollary might be the Japanese word ‘tsunami.’ We’re more likely to speak of ‘a series of tsunamis’ rather than ‘a series of tsunami.’”

Where Does “Emoji” Come From?

The word emoji comes from Japan, where the tiny, emotionally expressive pictures have existed since the 1990s. Emojis were created by Shigetaka Kurita, a Japanese pager and cellphone designer who was inspired by Japanese kanji and the preexisting kaomoji to create a new form of mobile expression.

While emojis first conquered Japan’s cellphone market, emoticons got their start in the United States. Carnegie Mellon professor Scott E. Fahlman is widely credited with creating the smiley face emoticon when he used it in a 1982 email. Years later, he took issue with emojis, declaring the tiny faces and objects “ugly.” Emojis came to the United States in 2011 when Apple released iOS 5 and truly internationalized a subset of the symbols. But although Apple debuted emojis in the United States, they had already been formally accepted by the computing industry a year earlier, when Unicode Standard version 6.0 added hundreds of emojis to the world’s standard for coding written characters.

When emojis were exported to the United States, the debate about their name began. In Japanese, the answer to this question is simple, since the plural of emoji is simply emoji. This is why some purists insist on a group of “emoji,” but they are probably the same pedants who insist on a string of “tsunami” and a series of “virtuosi.” However, as Allen pointed out, English has a long history of pluralizing words from Japanese according to its own rules.

The Long Answer—It’s Complicated

For the sake of utility, it’s probably easiest for English speakers to agree on “emojis” as the plural of “emoji.” However, the Oxford English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and others have long listed both “emoji” and “emojis” as options. Even the AP Stylebook has softened its stance on the issue: although the guide came out strongly on the side of “emojis” in 2013, this year’s update added “emoji” as an acceptable plural.

Of course, emoji isn’t the only loanword that suffers from plural confusion. Many Japanese words have difficult or inconsistent plurals in English, as do many loanwords from other languages, most notably Italian and Latin. Ever tried to figure out the correct plural of “ignoramus?” You’ll understand the loanword irregular plural struggle.

7 Tips for Writing for Work and Job Searching

by Alison Doyle, Job Search Expert, About.com

Whether you’re sending an email for work or writing a cover letter for a resumé, it’s important to remember that this is professional writing, not personal. Your writing ability reflects on you as an employee or a prospective employee.

It’s important to take the time to carefully write, edit and proofread all your correspondence before you click Send or upload a document online. It will only take a few extra minutes, but taking the time will help you make the best impression on the reader.

Review these tips to make sure that your writing will get your email opened and read, and your resumes and cover letters will be considered for interviews.

Tips for Writing for Work and Job Searching

Make it actionable. Your resume should include your accomplishments, not just a list of what you have done. Your cover letter should show the employer, at a glance, what you have to offer the company. If you’re asking for something in an email message make sure you’re clear about what you want.

Make it personal. It’s always a good idea to include a contact person in your email messages and cover letters. If you don’t have one, check the company website, LinkedIn or Google to see if you can find someone to address your letter to.

Keep it professional. You’re writing to your boss, colleagues, customers or a prospective employer. Keep your correspondence professional and skip the slang, abbreviations, acronyms and emoticons. Use paragraphs and full sentences.

Keep it concise. Most people don’t read beyond the first paragraph or so of an email message. Keep your emails short, concise and focused. Use your opening paragraph for the most important point. With cover letters, include a brief introduction, and then use your second paragraph to pitch your qualifications. Finish your letter with a closing paragraph. Two or three paragraphs are plenty.

Give it a subject line. Your email probably won’t even get opened if it doesn’t have a subject line. If the subject line is vague or sounds spammy, it won’t get opened either. Include a subject line that is relevant to what you’re asking to up your chances of getting your message read.

Add your signature. Don’t forget to include a signature with your contact information. Provide your name, phone number, email address and LinkedIn profile URL, if you have one. It will make it easier for the reader to follow up with you.

Make sure it’s perfect. Spell check, grammar check and proofread your email or letter, and then do it again. Read it out loud or, if you have trouble catching your own mistakes, print it and proof it again. Grammarly is a terrific tool for making sure all your written correspondence is perfect, and catching mistakes that you may not have realized you made.

Alison is a job search and employment expert with many years of experience in human resources, career development and job hunting with a focus on job searching, employment issues, and career options, as well as employment trends and technologies for job seekers and employers alike.

Alison has been the Job Search Expert for About.com since 1998. She is also the founder of CareerToolBelt.com and the creator of the Career Tool Belt series of free apps.