THE WORDS OF OUR MOTHERS

“Be careful.” These are the words I’ve heard every time my mother and I have separated every since I can remember. It’s good advice. Short. To the point. Broad and easy to remember. And it works for everything. Driving a car, dating, swimming, having children, taking a bath. 

Recently, I took a shopping trip with my mom, my daughter, and my daughter’s friend. My mom and I were talking about the trip I’m planning to take with my daughter’s choir in the spring to New York City. She wisely advised me to take plenty of underwear because at that time of year, you never know when a nor-easter blizzard will pop up and you will be stuck. Also, you can wear your clothes more than once but you want to change your underwear.

Don’t get me wrong, this is very, very good advice. However, since I’m knocking on the door of that last birthday before forty, I thought it was kind of funny. 

My mom has had great advice for me on many occasions. My all time favorite has to be her advice to make sure my skirt was not stuck in my underwear (or something like that) when I was on my way to accept a financial scholarship for college during the end of my senior year of high school. To others, it may seem like odd advice, but to me who had actually had my skirt stuck in my underwear after using the restroom on a homecoming date and was lucky enough to have my mother see this and rescue me, there could not have been better words for the occasion.

So now I am the mother of a fourteen and a half year old daughter who responds with a dramatic eye roll just about every time I pass on my sage, motherly words of advice. I don’t recall if I rolled my eyes at my mom when I was a teenager – I’m sure I did, though, even if I wasn’t bold enough to do it “out loud” and just in my head. Anyway, I think my daughter would be well advised to not bother with the eye roll because when she’s knocking on forty, I’m sure I’ll still be passing my words on to her.

Thanks, mom, for all of the great words of advice.

-The Wordsy Woman

COMMA SUTRA - POSITION TWO

The comma so perplexes me that I haven't felt up to tackling position two of the comma sutra since the post about using commas in lists several weeks ago. So today I tackle the intuitive comma. The one you really can only know is missing by reading your words out loud. I know, I know - reading out loud is a pain in the backside and embarrassing, especially if your kids have their friends over, but it is mandatory to find proper comma placement.

I'll use a couple of examples from my new book, Missing Emily: Croatian Life Letters, of how something might have made no sense if I had left the comma out.

Page One:

If I hadn't used a comma:

"Always full of unwelcome surprises Dad changed these plans."

Now, when you read it silently, you might not notice anything, but read it aloud and your speaking voice triggers your brain into questioning if Dad was the unwelcome surprise or if Dad delivered the unwelcome surprise? Change it to "Always full of unwelcome surprises, Dad changed these plans," and it makes sense. It says what you (or I in this case) want it to say.

One more example from Missing Emily:

Page 87:

Without the comma:

"I peeked around the corner and saw them crouched down their mouths tucked into the tops of their pajamas giggling."

How did they crouch down into their own mouths? Were their pajamas giggling? The correct way to (and the way I did) write it is "I peeked around the corner and saw them crouched down, their mouths tucked into the tops of their pajamas, giggling."

Position two of the comma sutra is difficult because there are no hard and fast rules. The only way to decide on the appropriate location is to read the words out loud, or at the least deliberately, carefully, and slowly.

Look forward to Comma Sutra - Position Three at some point when I can muster up the energy to tackle it.

Until then, happy writing!
From the Wordsy Woman

DO YOU KNOW WHETHER THERE WILL BE STORMY WEATHER?

Drawn in Doodle Buddy for Ipad

I have a problem. A finger problem. You see, my brain knows the correct words to use in certain situations but my fingers persist in insisting to type the wrong ones. One of these situations is whether to use weather or whether. Now, I know that weather is the word for all of that stuff that comes out of or happens to be in the sky. Cloudy. Sunny. Rainy. Stormy. But for some reason, every once in awhile when I am re-reading something I've written, I come across weather when I meant to write whether (and sometimes even wheather!!!). So, essentially, this blog post is an attempt to train my fingers.

Whether is appropriate when you are writing about two things; whether you want to chose one or the other. Will the weather be stormy? Or will it be not stormy? Whether there will be stormy weather. To be more precise, according to Dictionary.com, whether is "used to introduce a single alternative, the other being implied or understood, or some clause or element not involving alternatives" as in I don't know whether to take a raincoat (or not) to deal with today's weather.

Conversely, the specific definition of weather according to Dictionary.com is "the state of the atmosphere with respect to wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture, pressure, etc." or "a strong wind or storm or strong winds and storms collectively." 

Really, for me anyway, it is not that I get confused on whether to use weather or whether, it is the fact that my typing fingers refuse to cooperate! I hope yours - and from now on mine - will behave better.

-The Wordsy Woman

SHOOTING BULLETS - POWERPOINT TIP

My rule of thumb when creating a slide show or Power Point presentation is you can't go wrong with bullet points; lists of information set off by dots, dashes, check marks, or other small, simple graphics. If you are giving an oral presentation, your slide show should only enhance it. It should not be able to replace your presentation. If that is the case, just run the slide show as a movie. The slides should add interest to your presentation and draw attention to key points.

When putting together a slide show to accompany an oral presentation, I think of myself being in the audience. What would I want to see? What would bore me? What should I remember as the most important points? Then I design the slides around that. Including too many complete sentences (or even too many words, period) on a slide will distract the audience from the message. They will be so busy reading the slide, they won't hear what you are saying. A few to handful of bullet points with words or short phrases next to them key audience members into the most important points of your talk. They highlight your talk and provide a visual cue or reminder to help them remember what you say.

Words or phrases placed in bullet points work even better if you have pictures or other graphics to go along with them. Graphics make the presentation more interesting; audience members won't get bored looking at slide after slide of just words. If possible, run through the slides on the projector you will actually be using for your presentation to make sure your font is big enough and shows up (avoid light colors) and that any graphics you use will be clear.

Power Point presentations or slides can be great assets to any oral presentation; they can help keep the audience engaged, help them remember your key talking points, and provide them with an overall enjoyable experience. However, they must be used correctly to avoid the risk of boring the audience, overwhelming them, or detracting from your message.

Happy speaking and thanks for reading!
-The Wordsy Woman