You couldn’t ignore this billboard. It loomed over an expressway entrance where it assaulted millions of drivers each week.
First you saw the phrase:
“Gasoline for clearly smoother acceleration”
And in small print, you saw the sentence:
“Only Amoco Ultimate ® is crystal clear.”
What have these advertisers actually promised?
If an idea isn’t in a sentence (that is, with subject and predicate), they haven’t promised you anything. But when advertisers use enticing phrases, you may believe that they have.
So I think that advertising is worth analyzing. Such analysis has been called, by my friend Frank Pope, “forensic grammar.” There is, in fact, a field called "forensic linguistics."
It starts, in my opinion, with recognizing a sentence. That's a skill we should all teach our children--for their own protection.
Flesch Reading Ease: 61.6
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.1
Monday, April 24, 2006
Monday, April 10, 2006
Business Writing and the Ego
Everyone has heard the advice, "Write about what you know." That advice is sound 98% of the time. The exception: when the topic involves you too deeply.
I know a brilliant professor who wrote a query letter to an editor. Like all query letters, it aimed to "sell" the writer's idea for an article. But this idea was "sold" so poorly that I could hardly believe my brilliant friend had written it. Fortunately, he was smart enough to ask for help. Together we polished the letter until it truly showed his brilliance.
Another superb manager built a wonderful staff department. But in describing its services, he understated them over and over. Modesty? Perhaps. Good business? No.
I should not have been surprised. People write their own resumes notoriously poorly. Why? Their own egos seem spread out on the page, and the self-exposure makes them cringe. They often find it cruelly hard to write an effective proposal for a project that will involve them prominently.
In short, sometimes we are not the best people to blow our own horns.
At these times, the writer should seek help. A writing pro can get to know the writer, assess the writer's strengths, and make them shine.
No matter how skillful I am, sometimes I need another's perspective. It's why we have attorneys, coaches, agents--and editors.
Flesch Reading Ease 69.7 Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 5.8
I know a brilliant professor who wrote a query letter to an editor. Like all query letters, it aimed to "sell" the writer's idea for an article. But this idea was "sold" so poorly that I could hardly believe my brilliant friend had written it. Fortunately, he was smart enough to ask for help. Together we polished the letter until it truly showed his brilliance.
Another superb manager built a wonderful staff department. But in describing its services, he understated them over and over. Modesty? Perhaps. Good business? No.
I should not have been surprised. People write their own resumes notoriously poorly. Why? Their own egos seem spread out on the page, and the self-exposure makes them cringe. They often find it cruelly hard to write an effective proposal for a project that will involve them prominently.
In short, sometimes we are not the best people to blow our own horns.
At these times, the writer should seek help. A writing pro can get to know the writer, assess the writer's strengths, and make them shine.
No matter how skillful I am, sometimes I need another's perspective. It's why we have attorneys, coaches, agents--and editors.
Flesch Reading Ease 69.7 Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 5.8
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