The Write Way.

Passive voice. Never use it, right? Passive voice schlocks up your writing and kicks off all kinds of warnings in MS Word’s grammar police function. Doesn’t it? No. Passive voice is not taboo, and many excellent writers use it effectively. You have to know the rules and know what you want to say.

I completely enjoyed an online lesson at NewsUniversity’s www.newsu.org school, operated by the Poynter Institute in Florida – a premier resource for journalists.

The class, Writer’s Workbench, is excellently compiled by Roy Peter Clark http://www.swopnet.com/misc/writing/writing_tools.html. His illustrations are crystal and his examples smash the ball home. I reevaluated. It isn’t that I totally avoid passive. I don’t. But I’m always aware of echoes in my head. Echoes of English, grammar, and writing teachers carping about passive.

Here are a few of the points Clark succinctly and luxuriously made about passivity.

“Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator, (says Clark) uses the distinction between active and passive verbs to challenge an educational system that places the power of teachers over the needs of students. An oppressive educational system, he argues, is one in which:

• the teacher teaches and the students are taught;
• the teacher thinks and the students are thought about;
• the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined.

In other words, an oppressive system is one in which the teacher is active and the students are passive.” (If they live passively, we should write about their passivity, to my mind. –mp)

Clark offers this from the Washington Post -

Cartons of food and water were stacked in an airplane hangar in the devastated Aceh region of northern Indonesia after military transports delivered tons of supplies to the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, which was mostly destroyed in the Sunday earthquake and tsunami that hit minutes later. (earthquakes and tsunamis, hurricanes, too, leave little room for us to be actively defensive.)

Claudia Suzanne, ghost writer/editor extraordinaire, tackles passive in her ghost writing course and book Secrets of a Ghost Writer. She says:

“Used correctly, passive voice can be powerful, invisible, simple declarative, or even artistic.

I was wrong. I’m sorry. (powerful)

Apparently, the human body is designed to forage for food. (invisible)

Used incorrectly, passive voice can be obscure, awkward, boring, or downright incomprehensible.

When we think about what has meaning in our lives it is our relationships. (awkward)”

Like any crafter’s tool, passive voice can be effective or can clutter your writing. It’s the old back-to-basics: Reread and edit your work until every word, every phrase moves your reader to satisfaction.

Think of other appropriate uses of passive voice and comment about them, won’t you? I’d love to see your take on all this.

More Grammar Police:

Matching verbs and nouns

If you want to sound like a knucklehead, the best thing to do is to mismatch your verbs and nouns. Here’s the rule from grammar police – plural nouns need plural verbs and singular nouns need singular verbs. There’s no option involved, and collective nouns are singular, not plural. I read junk every day – from authors or writers who claim to be experts – that have mismatched nouns and verbs.

Look

“The best ideas in the world is from writers and poets.”

What’s wrong?

The nound, ideas is plural. The person who wrote this sentence lost track of that fact when she put a descriptive phrase between the noun and the verb. So she chose to use a singular form of the verb, to be. She chose is. Had she re-read her sentences, chances are she would have found her own error and changed the verb form to are.

“The best ideas in the world are from writers and poets.”

Another example

Book titles is hard to come up with.

What’s wrong?

The subject of the sentence is not book, it’s titles. Titles is a plural noun (no, you cannot say titles are plural nouns). The verb has to be plural. Are. Book titles are…

A further complication

Some nouns may seem plural because they refer to a number of persons or things. Examples: everyone, herd, group.

Right: The herd was crossing the road. Wrong: The herd were crossing the road.

Or the noun may feel as though it refers to a number of things, but it actually requires a singular match. Examples: Each, no one, all, any, anybody, anyone, anything, neither, nobody, everybody, everyone, everything, either, no one, nothing, one, some, somebody, someone, something.

So verb/noun matches go like this: Everyone was in a circle. Wrong: Everyone were in a circle.

No one from that school were welcome here. Should be: No one from that school was welcome.

A tricky subject situation

If you say:

“His favorite food are apples,” you’re wrong even though you would say “Apples are his favorite food.”

The correct form is “His favorite food is apples.” Go figure.

Bottom line for nouns and verbs

Writers, hear this – most of your grammar and usage problems would disappear if you took time to read your work when you finish the first writing. Lots of not-so-capable writers, who profess to be polished, never read their own work. Ego gets in the way of credibility. For editors, the first reason to chuck a piece of work into the trash is grammar sloppiness.

I got a sales pitch from a young lady who saw herself as a slick blogger. She wanted to sell me on using her “guest posts” on my blog. Her goal was free publicity for her work and products. However, her sales email and her blog posts were stuffed full of mismatched verbs. I was a bit interested in her product, even her blog topics. But I couldn’t deal with the sloppy writing, so I hit delete.

If you want frequent examples of poor grammar – go read Twitter, Facebook, or the writing groups at LinkedIn. When you trudge through the amazingly bad construction, you may decide to mention to some of the writers that their work would be better after a proofing. They’ll often tell you, “OH, I proof the stuff I submit to editors, but I just don’t care here.”

Brilliant. A writer puts himself out there in a public forum – dangling lousy writing from every orifice. Hmm. He’s thinking editors don’t read forums?

You can read a thorough discussion of verb/noun agreement - or predicate/subject agreement from Hornbook.

Want more grammar police?

Top ten grammar gripes

Vocabulary lesson

Mastering MS Word

Writers and freelancers using Office 2007, specifically MS Word 2007, see obvious changes. Mastering Microsoft’s bloated programs is never easy and figuring out the arbitrary face lifts that don’t really benefit the user is puzzling. Here are three quick and essential tips for writers and freelancers too busy to read huge how-to’s about MS Word.

1. First, know this: The chaotic top menus in Word 2007 are there forever. The user can’t revert to classic menu view. Word’s cacophony can be made somewhat less annoying. Right click in the menu bars at the top of the Word interface and click on Minimize the ribbon. That makes the visible montage of menus disappear. When you want any of those functions, click the tab that contains the function needed and its commands will reappear. To reset the screen to the default, with chaos intact, right click in the toolbar area again.
2. Looking for the File menu you once loved? If you click the button at top, left, with the MS Office logo on it, you’ll find all the familiar File commands in a drop down. At the bottom of that drop down, there is an Option command – one of the choices is to show mini toolbar. Toggle that on and off to control a formatting window. When on, it opens right above your cursor when you highlight a piece of text to format it. It disappears once you’ve applied formatting. It’s pretty convenient and doesn’t require you to sift through menus to find formatting like bold, Italics, font and so forth.  You can also use ctrl“button commands to format on the fly. Highlight some text. Hold hold ctrl and hit I to italicize, B to bold, C to cut, V to paste.
3. If you’re putting a cut and paste doc together from a lot of other documents matching the font and size is easier than setting a bookmark. When you finish pasting clips from various sources into a single doc highlight a piece of text that is the font and size you wish to end up with. Now click on the paint brush you see under the formatting tools. Drag your cursor across all the wrongly formatted text on the page. You’ll see the text change – deselect and it’s formatted the way you wanted it.

These three tips are true time savers and go a long way toward minimizing the aggravation built into MS Word 2007. More time saved equals more time to sell your writing and make money.

In OnText’s ongoing series or Q&A interviews with working, professional writers, this week we’re featuring Gail Sideman, a successful professional publicist and freelance writer. Gail‘s guest posts have been popular with our readers and her expertise may help you expand your revenue streams or create a new career.

(Gail’s first answer, on how being in the right place can drive your success, is invaluable!)

Gail, tell me a little about your background and how you came to be in the public relations and publicity field as a publicist.

I morphed into PR at the University of South Florida studying toward a degree in journalism which was closely linked to public relations curriculum. A guest speaker I admired freshman year advised me to write as much as I could. She suggested I volunteer to write for the school paper, the Oracle, which, it turned out, had a paying spot for a sports writer. That summer, I was awarded my own column! I received a thank you note from a coach I wrote about and my editor objected, claiming that would make a hard-news reporter soft. I thought maybe newspaper writing wasn’t my calling — I liked nice notes!

A friend introduced me to the university sports information director who made me student assistant to learn the ropes. Soon, I was compensated for that work, too, and that began a time line that included some of the best experiences in my life.

I learned to be a sports publicist and had the opportunity to string for the Tampa Tribute and St. Petersburg Times. I wrote briefs, Associated Press-style stories, for print after USF’s non-revenue sports events. I was paid $25 per story, and my copy was read by professional editors. I was happy to oblige.

So, being in the right place, right time, and working hard created opportunity. How did you decide to go solo with your own agency?

I was actually forced to go solo, to a degree. I was fired from a PR agency when the owner and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on several issues. While I was looking for the “perfect” job, small businesses I patronized began to ask me to write news releases–help them generate media attention. That was a bunch of years ago.

To what degree does writing skill and know-how affect your success?

Writing skill plays a huge part. Before I begin to write, however, research and education is important, even if I know the topic. In today’s 24/7 information cycle, things change quickly, so it’s important to check facts before, during and after you write.

How could a freelance magazine writer, experienced blogger or web writer transition to being a publicist? Would you recommend that choice?

Most any media writer can be a great publicist. You know what the media needs to produce a quality story and how reporters and editors want information and pitches presented. Bloggers, unless versed in traditional media, may need to learn media relations. The best publicists provide who-what-when-where-why and how, and leave the hyperbole and embellished language to feature journalists.

How much freelance writing do you do on the side?

I’m doing more freelance writing now than in past years. The huge growth in blogs and reduced staffs at print publications have brought about the need for more freelance writers.

What the biggest challenge you’ve had as an entrepreneur?

As an entrepreneur, more so a solopreneur, I have to stay on top of my game by continually educating myself on the advances and trends in my own industry. I have to keep up with business practices. I read, A LOT!

It’s fun to work with celebrities and to see your words in print. What’s the biggest mistake an entrepreneurial writer can make?

As in any entrepreneurial business, regardless of how busy you are, you must continue to make contacts and market yourself (hello pot, this is kettle!). The time to ramp up your marketing effort is not when the well runs dry and you appear desperate for work. Today more than ever, a consistent and ongoing marketing and branding effort is important to a business’ success. Even if you take a break or have paying clients for a period of time, keep writing. Keep journals. Write stories on current events. Writing is like a sport. You need to keep skills sharp so you can perform like a pro when your skills are called upon.

I see you on Twitter, what’s your promotion strategy for your own business – what’s working best for you?

Twitter is 95% providing value to followers. If they like what you have to offer, they’ll come back and refer friends. My strategy includes providing information, sharing articles or blog posts readers will enjoy, and 5% self-promotion–links to my writing. Engagement is key. Relationships develop best when you authentically engage with your audience.

How do you find work or clients?

I’m fortunate. My work comes from referrals and networking. I write for industry blogs and publications that reach audiences of thousands, and have used my expertise to contribute to my social networks.

Tell us your most thrilling publicity success so far.

As a publicist, I’m thrilled this week to have landed a great feature for a client in ESPN the Magazine. But my biggest thrill hasn’t happened yet. In five years, I want to have my passion project under way and thriving. I can’t say what that is right now, but I’ll say it’s not publicity-related. It’s fun and fills a niche that’s under-served.

What else should aspiring publicists know about the business?

Be willing to expand your education when you have an opportunity. Network in your desired niche. Develop and nurture relationships. It’s about who you know and, more importantly, who knows you. You want to be one of the first names that comes to mind when someone wants to hire a publicist. Oh, and never hesitate to promote yourself when the occasion permits. Ahem!

Twenty years of public relations experience, including 10 in NCAA Division I sports information during which she received national awards for her work, have helped Gail Sideman emerge as a nationally-respected publicity professional in sports, social media and publishing. She is also a veteran support staffer of sports television crews for events that include the NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA regular and postseason and others. You may more information about Sideman’s business, Publiside, or follow her at Twitter and Facebook.

A communications professional’s pet peeves

By Gail Sideman

I’m a journalist and publicist so it should come as no surprise that I’m picky about the way words are used.

Gail Sideman

The number of media outlets has grown tenfold in the last quarter century, and as a result, so have misuses of words in almost every arena. I admittedly cringe when I hear or read the simplest of English usage errors. After all, the people that deliver them are paid professionals.

Disclaimer: The above being said, I’m far from perfect. In fact, before I began to write this post I misspoke a tense and resisted the urge to correct myself in front of people. Not that I think they’d mind more than the other times they’ve rolled their eyes when I’ve edited myself in seemingly innocuous situations.

So, without further adieu, my top 10 peeves of English language usage by media and professional communications writers:

10. Lie/Lay – “Lie” means to recline. “Lay” means to place something. Confused yet? The past tense of “lie” is “lay.” 9.   Who/Whom – “Who” is the subject of a clause it introduces. “Whom” is used as an object of a preposition. “Who is coming to dinner with Leon?” or “With whom are you going on vacation?” 8.  To/Too/Two – preposition/also/a number 7.   It’s/Its; / their/they’re – “It’s” is the contracted form of “it is” or “it has.” “They’re” is the contracted form of “they are.” Example – “It’s going to be a beautiful day in the neighborhood,” versus “The bird clipped its wings on the wire.” “Their car will go a long way on low fuel.” “They’re going to the baseball game and then a movie.” 6.   i.e./e.g. - “i.e.” means “that is” and “e.g.” means “for example.” Commas follow each. 5.   Above/More Than – “Above” is position related to location, and “more than” refers to a numerical comparison. Examples – “The total raised at the fund raiser is $5,000 more than the previous year.” “The temperature is above average.” 4.   Lower/Fewer– “Lower” is a position and “Fewer” describes a number of items that may be counted. “His bank account balance is lower than hers” and “She has fewer dollars in her wallet than he has in his pocket.” 3.   During/In – “During” refers to the duration of event. “In” is the opposite of out. “I’ve traveled frequently during my tenure with this company.” 2.   Its/Their – “Its” is a possessive form of “it.” For example: Louisiana State won its first College World Series in 1991. “There” is a possessive form of “they.” Example: The Tigers are playing in their 15th College World Series. 1.   First Annual – There cannot be a first annual anything. An event does not become annual until after it’s held more than one year, then consecutively. Alternative: inaugural

English is not an easy language to learn or master, but for professionals that depend upon its accuracy for communicating ideas and information, consumers appreciate its appropriate usage.

Read more about grammar:

OnText grammar police on vocabulary

Grammar police and future conditional tense