The Write Way

2 April 2004

Would You Believe It?

Greetings,

We're usually sipping our early morning cuppa when the 5.30 news comes on the radio (the days are starting to draw in here, so we give the 5 am news a miss most days). The fellow who does the sports report is one of those who likes to emphasise odd words - usually those towards the end of a sentence. It really drives me batty. One story this morning was about a game of football, where there was a dispute about the awarding of a goal after the hooter had sounded.

Aargh!

When you're speaking, your voice and body language give lots of clues about the meaning and tone of your words; but when you're writing, you have to convey this added information through a judicious use of squiggles on the page.

So, let's pause for a moment to reflect once again on the role of punctuation ...

Without those little dots and squiggles, the above passage probably doesn't make a great deal of sense, but add the punctuation and it's easy to understand:

Punctuation marks provide cues and clues to the meaning of sentences. Quotation marks cue us that we should expect conversation, so we're ready to "hear" colloquial speech patterns, instead of straight language.

The punctuation marks at the end of each sentence tell us how to read that sentence:

• A full stop (period) indicates a falling inflection, marking the end of a thought.
• An exclamation mark indicates an increase in volume - this is something that needs to be emphasised!
• A question mark indicates a rising inflection and we're led to expect a response to the query.

Capital letters are used to tell us that a new thought has started (the beginning of a sentence) or that something important is being discussed. So we use capital letters for all proper nouns (names of people, places, titles of books, films, ships, houses etc, important events and special times).

(NB In my little corner of the world, we're very economical with our use of full stops (or periods) and we figure that if a word is shortened and it ends with its last letter, there's no need for a full stop. So Mister is Mr, Doctor is Dr and so on. I know it's not like that in some places ... so when in Rome etc.)

Note that you don't use capitals for the seasons of the year, nor with points of the compass (except where abbreviations are used). So it's:

However, you DO use capitals for directions when you're referring to the name of a region:

A capital letter also occurs to mark the first word of direct speech:

If you tend to wax lyrical about life in general and are wont to exclaim, "O, the glory of toast and Vegemite. 'Tis food for the soul!" and, "I love a spring morning, but O nothing compares to an open fire in winter!" etc, then you always use a capital letter for "O."

This week's quiz:

Choose a word closest in meaning from the list below:

variety, acumen, deference, attack, vouchsafe, universal, mean, indigenous, harangue, waver

1. inveigh 

2. vacillate 

3. obeisance 

4. deign 

5. ubiquitous 

6. vicissitude 

7. truculent 

8. vernacular 

9. paroxysm 

10.perspicacity 

Gill wrote and asked if I could remember the game I posted some time ago that was ideal for anyone stuck in one of those dreadful staff meetings. "It was similar to Bingo, except it had a box of all those buzz words that drive you mad," she wrote. "My department is having an In-Service training day next week and I need something to keep me awake and sane!"

I think this is what Gill needs: 

WANK Words ... How to play: Simply tick off 5 WANK Words in one meeting and shout out BINGO!

Chuckle ... I can hear you grinding your teeth from here!

Last week's quiz:

Match each word in the list with its SYNONYM (similar meaning) below:

poignant, enigmatic, emancipation, derogatory, reticent, circumspect, insidious, vehement, harangue, harass

1. Passionate - VEHEMENT

2. Cautious - CIRCUMSPECT

3. Painful - POIGNANT

4. Treacherous - INSIDIOUS

5. Badger - HARASS

6. Liberation - EMANCIPATION

7. Diatribe - HARANGUE

8. Disparaging - DEROGATORY

9. Taciturn - RETICENT

10.Puzzling -ENIGMATIC

Thank you to everyone who's made a comment on the Map of the World: http://pub37.bravenet.com/guestmap/view.php?usernum=3170114826  We really do have people from all over the world. 

A Little Something Extra

Once upon a time, if you wanted to write a book, you had two choices; find an agent who would try to get a publisher to accept your book and pay you royalties or go the vanity press road, where you paid humungous amounts of money to have a run of your book printed. Then it was up to you to try to interest book shops in stocking it or just let it moulder in boxes in your garage.

But now there's another option and Dan Poynter shows you exactly how to "turn thoughts into books" in his book, Writing Nonfiction. He presents his New Model for book publishing that utilises the technology of electronic publishing and Print on Demand.

As Dan says, "We used to recommend a budget of $10,000 to $12,000 to produce and launch a 300-page book. Today, that book can be published and promoted for $1,000 to $3,000." 

To facilitate this process, Dan advises not just writing your book, but "building" it, and his chapter "Getting Organized: Setting Up Your Binder" gives a step-by-step guide of what to put in every section from the end papers, testimonials pages, frontspiece, title page and copyright page through to the back pages containing the afterword, glossary, bibliography and colophon, and all parts in between.

If you follow the detailed instructions in this book, by the time you've finished writing it, you'll not only have your text complete, you'll also have the entire set-up of the book ready to send to the publisher. Your finished book should be between 144 and 288 pages in length for the most economical printing. Dan says, "... books printed on a web press are assembled in signatures of 48 pages each (so 144 is three signatures of 48 pages). ...Aim for multiples of 48 or at least multiples of 24."

This is a very practical manual that shows how you can turn your thoughts into a book ... all it takes is some work and perseverance on your part and guidance from someone who's been there, done that.

Get your copy of Dan's book now. 

Word of the week: (This week's word gives good value, since it has a number of seemingly quite different meanings.) Clavus (n) an intense headache in which the pain is likened to one that would be produced by a sharp object being driven into the skull. (Now you can give a name to your pain!) This word is derived from the Latin clavus - a nail ... say no more.

OR  "a hard thickening of the skin (especially on the top or sides of the toes) caused by the pressure of ill-fitting shoes." Sounds better to say your clavus is bothering you, instead of your corn, doesn't it?

OR "(in ancient Rome) a vertical stripe or band of purple worn on the tunic by senators and equites."

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Oxymoron of the week: helpful training session

This week's Latin phrase may come in useful ... depending on the way your days pan out:

Spero meliora. (I hope for better things.)

Regards,

Jennifer

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